Thanks for the prompt replies, my query was answered. Some of the responses are as below:
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Andreas Maagdenberg wrote:
genvmunix is a default generic kernel, is only to be used for building a
new kernel after configuration changes.
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Pat O'Brien wrote:
genvm unix is the fat one with all device drivers, You boot from gen, and
then build a trimmed down kernel, and reboot.
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Jim Belonis wrote:
genvmunix is much bigger than the kernel built on a normal machine
because genvmunix has all possible device drivers (and etc. ?) built in
so it can handle all kinds of devices. When you build a kernel,
only the device drivers needed are included.
I doubt that performance and RAM suffers much with genvmunix since
I assume the unneeded drivers will just not page into RAM
if they are never used.
And with current big disks, the size of vmunix vs genvmunix on disk is
pretty irrelevant. You need both on the disk anyway
in case you ever add a device or if vmunix gets corrupted.
I've never heard of any bad side-effects of using genvmunix.
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Joe Fletcher wrote:
Genvmunix is a generic kernel used to build a system specific kernel.
It's not run during normal operation. It's purpose is primarily for system
installation and configuration.
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LHERCAUD wrote:
Use genvmunix for admin tasks (like new kernel generation or device add-on)
but NEVER for normal application run.
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Alan wrote:
While genvmunix has one of every device driver (drivers supported by the base system) it doesn't have one of
every pseudo-device driver, not any layered product drivers. It simply may not have all the features you
require. Independent of that, there may also be programs that expect the kernel name list (symbol
table) to be in a file called /vmunix. But that's just a naming problem.
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ORIGINAL QUESTION:
Just inquisite about the difference between loading the kernel that is rebuilt on a machine using doconfig and the "genvmunix" accompanying Tru64. What is the latter's effect on memory and machine performance? Are there any other "side-effects" of genvmunix?
Thanks a lot again.
Harihar K
(Network Manager)
Received on Sat Aug 11 2001 - 05:13:26 NZST