DSL Ideas and Suggestions :: make dsl-embedded 1700kB smaller



I think it would be great to use 7zip and UPX to make the embedded version (with qemu) smaller.
Code Sample

du -s
113220

gunzip minirt24.gz
7za a -tgzip -mx=9 minirt24.gz minirt24
rm minirt24

chmod +x qemu/qemu
upx -9 qemu/qemu qemu/qemu.exe qemu/sdl.dll

du -s
111520

As you can see, it uses 1700kB less, which is not much, but it may also speed up loading from slow media such as an usb stick, because the qemu binaries are smaller.

OT: Why isn't there a mailing list? I *hate* forums.

Cheers,
Stephan

I was toying a little with 7z a -mx=9 -tgzip and then gzip -9.

Both provide a minirt.gz smaller than the original. I was expecting that from 7z, but not for busybox gzip, since I thought it was already compressed at maximum setting.

Is there any reason for not doing so? Speed or memory constraints in old computers?

It has been considered.
Yes, the impact on older slower computers prevents from doing so.


original here.