Re: x86 release builds are slow

["Sarton O'Brien" <bsd-xen%roguewrt.org@localhost>]

On Tue, 6 May 2008 10:19:59 am Andrew Doran wrote:
> On Mon, May 05, 2008 at 06:33:35PM -0500, M Graff wrote:
> > Fully-loaded XEN DOMU kernels also boot slower.
> 
> If you are rebooting your DOMUs all the time, presumably they are not in a
> production environment, so you have the luxury of time. In that case why not
> build your own tailored kernels, or even better, spend some time to optimize
> the boot process so that it's quicker?
> 
> > You would be hard pressed to buy an off-the-shelf x86 system that cannot
> > compile NetBSD DOMU in under 3 minutes.  We're not talking about user
> > time here, we're talking about automated build time.  Who cares how long
> > that takes, really?  I care about boot speed, and about binary size.
> 
> Sure, I got that. I understand that fewer+larger kernel images doesn't fit
> with your meticulous set of requirements, that you don't see the efforts
> being made to modularize the kernel, and that you don't see the possiblities
> that a modest level of standardization brings.

I think that last paragraph is the main point. Seeing as this was a suggestion 
I think discussion about the possibilities at this point may be more useful 
than just batting down the most obvious change.

If you don't like the suggestion, provide your own. Arguing about a 
non-existent change seems counter productive. This is just an observation of 
the direction of this thread, please don't take it personally.

I'm all for change towards a more modularised kernel. If there are stages that 
involve larger kernels before we round trip back to smaller kernels, then so 
be it. It seems that there would definitely need to be collaboration between 
the various kernel devs to map out a more explicit path.

Sarton