[oclug] vmlinux or bzImage ?

[Dan York]

Jon,

> >Standard practice is to move the bzImage file to /boot/ and rename it to
> >vmlinuz.  (note the z)
> 
> Why rename it?

It's just become one of those "conventions" over time.  You could name it
really anything... the key is whatever you put as a name in /etc/lilo.conf.
*That* is what is boots off of.  However, the *convention* is to name the
compressed image (created with "make bzImage" or "make zImage" - bzImage 
gives better compression) as "vmlinuz" or "vmlinuz-kernelversion."

The convention also is that the *uncompressed* kernel image is called 
"vmlinux" or "vmlinux-kernelrev".  For instance, in my /boot dir, I have:

  vmlinuz-2.2.14-5.0

(so I haven't bothered to update my kernel for a bit)

> What I do is move it to /boot, and name it to reflect the kernel version,
> ie: kernel 2.4.0-test9 would have it's image in /boot named
> bzImage-2.4.0-test9.  That way, I know what images are in there, and I can
> put more than one new kernel entry into lilo.conf.

Yeah, that's common practice - only calling it "vmlinuz-2.4.0-test9"
would be more consistent with regular practices.  Not a big deal if you
are the only one dealing with your machine, but if someone else came
onto your machine (to help with troubleshooting for instance), he or
she might expect to find the kernels called "vmlinuz-*"

My 2 cents,
Dan

-- 
Dan York, Director of Training        dyork at e-smith.com
Ph: +1-613-751-4401  Mobile: +1-613-263-4312 Fax: +1-613-564-7739 
e-smith, inc. 150 Metcalfe St., Suite 1500, Ottawa,ON K2P 1P1 Canada
http://www.e-smith.com/            open source, open mind