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> If you ever wondered what this name means: vmlinuz: vm for virtual memory, linux, and z indicating compression Thank you. I have always wondered that.
by mrbluecoat 10mo ago
> If you ever wondered what this name means: vmlinuz: vm for virtual memory, linux, and z indicating compression
Thank you. I have always wondered that.
- Tor3 10mo agoIn the early days when the kernel was small (I used to build kernels and copy them to floppy disks, and boot Linux from there) the kernel was called 'vmlinux', and when compression was added after the kernel started to get bigger it became 'vmlinuz'. It was still possible to boot from 'vmlinux', and it may be possible today as well, for all I know.
- 9front 10mo agoAnd 'vmlinux' was inspired by the 'vmunix' (Virtual Memory Unix) the UNIX kernel.