[Buildroot] [PATCH] linux: Do not force GZIP initramfs compression

Arnout Vandecappelle arnout at mind.be
Wed Oct 10 07:26:33 UTC 2012


On 10/10/12 01:34, Valentine Barshak wrote:
> Initramfs compression does not make much sense for the architectures
> that support compressed kernel images because in this case the data
> would be compressed twice. This will eventually result in a bigger
> kernel image and time overhead when uncompressing it.
> The only reason to use compressed initramfs is to reduce memory
> usage when the kernel prepares rootfs, and both the unpacked
> filesystem and initramfs.cpio are present in the memory.
>
> Buildroot attempts to force GZIP compression for initramfs,
> however it doesn't always work because initramfs compression mode
> depends on RAM disk compression supported by the kernel.
> Thus, CONFIG_INITRAMFS_COMPRESSION_GZIP depends on CONFIG_RD_GZIP.
> If CONFIG_RD_GZIP is not set, setting GZIP initramfs compression
> will have no effect.
>
> Besides, the kernel also supports other compression methods,
> like BZIP2, LZMA, XZ and LZO. Forcing the good old GZIP does not
> really make much sense any more.
>
> This removes initramfs compression settings from Buildroot,
> so that the default value preset in the kernel config is used,
> which is CONFIG_INITRAMFS_COMPRESSION_NONE.
>
> If initramfs compression is still needed, it can be set
> in the kernel config (using make linux-menuconfig)
>
> Signed-off-by: Valentine Barshak<gvaxon at gmail.com>

Acked-by: Arnout Vandecappelle (Essensium/Mind) <arnout at mind.be>

  I especially like the extensive commit message!

  Regards,
  Arnout
-- 
Arnout Vandecappelle                               arnout at mind be
Senior Embedded Software Architect                 +32-16-286540
Essensium/Mind                                     http://www.mind.be
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