"System is too big. Try using bzImage or modules."

Thomas Pornin (pornin@bolet.ens.fr)
Wed, 6 Jan 1999 10:56:33 +0100

In article <m0zxEOR-0000WgC@libsurf> you write:
> I got this message trying "make zImage." Uncompressed vmlinux is
> 1500675 bytes. Make bzImage works fine, and the system boots fine.

So what ? If the system is too big, then it is, and bzImage is the way
to go. The message is explicit.

This is related to the old PC 640 Kbytes memory barrier: if the
compressed kernel is bigger than 512 Kbytes, the standard loading
procedure cannot work properly. "bzImage" handles greater sizes but
requires a bit more intelligence from the boot loader. Very old versions
of lilo cannot handle bzImage, neither can grub (correct me if I am
wrong); hence the possibility to use the standard "zImage" is still
supported.

Other archs (alpha, sparc...) do not have this problem.

Therefore, this is no kernel-bug, rather a longstanding PC-bug, which
cannot be cured but merely circumvented.

--Thomas Pornin

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