2 ms·
On the flip side of this, if your kernel + initramfs is being loaded slowly (either the previous boot stage and is not using the hardware at its full capacity o
by amluto 2y ago
On the flip side of this, if your kernel + initramfs is being loaded slowly (either the previous boot stage and is not using the hardware at its full capacity or the image is large enough that it would be better to do something else in parallel with loading the image), then having the smallest practical image that can load the remaining software after userspace starts can be faster.
- jakogut 2y agoAbsolutely, there's a point of size and complexity where trying to bundle everything into an initramfs image is counter-productive. One example of loading the kernel and initramfs slowly is netbooting over TFTP. You're better off with a smaller kernel that can load the rest of the rootfs over a faster protocol, i.e. NFS, NBD, iSCSI, etc. Alternatively, you can load a bootloader that supports a faster protocol, such as GRUB, which can load the kernel binary over HTTP.