[H-GEN] Reducing kernel memory footprint?

[Chris Baird]

[ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and ]
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The 386 laptop I play with today been made to run quite well, despite
only having 2.25M of core.  Smart configuration and appropriate
command substitutes (bash->ash for most scripts, ksh as user shell,
/etc/init.d severely hacked) has got me a setup than even GNU Emacs
(18.59) works comfortably in.

Since Emacs is working and I've got zgv and the bsdgames, everything
is happily ever after.  But... now I'm trying to push gcc's
performance on this thing, for when I get the urge to code...

Now, gcc's RSS is more than core, and the system, as expected always
thrashes.  (The much vaunted lcc has even worse memory usage, I've
found!)  Every byte counts (tweaking out 4% more memory improved
compile times by 30%), so I'm asking people here for tips on reducing
the kernel and friends' footprint.

With a 2.0.1 kernel, modules, tweaking some of the NR_ #defines,
-m386, malign-foo=0, etc., I've been able to reduce the operating
system's memory footprint to 960kB.  I want to stay with a 2.0.*
kernel, for the working ELF and ext2 code, and remaining compatible
with the other Debian machines here. (So linux-lite and other 1.0.*
based minilinuxen are out.)

Any more ideas?

-- 
Chris,, 

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