Messages in this thread | | | Date | Thu, 22 Dec 2005 09:37:04 -0800 | From | Marc Singer <> | Subject | Re: Possible Bootloader Optimization in inflate (get rid of unnecessary 32k Window) |
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On Thu, Dec 22, 2005 at 01:52:23PM +0100, Axel Kittenberger wrote: > Hello, Whom do I talk to about acceptance of Patches in the Bootloader? > > I have seen, and coded once some time ago for priv. uses, do infalte the > gziped linux kernel at boottime in "arch/i386/boot/compressed/misc.c" and " > windowlib/inflate.c" the deflation algorthimn uses a 32k backtrack window. > Whenever it is full, it copies it .... into the memory. > > While this window makes a lot of sense in an userspace application like > gunzip, it does not make a lot sense in the bootloader. As userspace > application the window is flushed to a file when full. The bootloader > "flushes" it to memory (copies it in memory). That 1 time copy of the whole > kernel can be optimized away, since we do not keep track of a window since > the inflater can read what it has written right in the computer memory, while > it unpacks the kernel. > > What would the optimization be worth? > * A faster uncompressing of the kernel, since a total 1-time memcopy of the > whole kernel is been optimized away.
Have you timed this operation? I would predict that the time to copy the kernel is nominal as compared the the time taken to perform the decompression. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
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