Linux objtool Improvements Help Reduce RAM Usage & Build Time During Large Kernel Builds

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Linux objtool Improvements Help Reduce RAM Usage & Build Time During Large Kernel Builds

Upstream kernel developers have begun hitting RAM capacity issues when carrying out large Linux kernel builds with the likes of "allyesconfig" for enabling all possible modules/options. While 32GB of system RAM has been common for developer desktops in recent years, large Linux kernel builds and taking advantage of multiple compile jobs have begun to cross that threshold and leading to out-of-memory behavior. Fortunately, a set of patches to the kernel's objtool is taming the memory use to reign in kernel builds for such scenarios...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-objtool-allyesconfig-RAM

[spiral_23]

i installed 64gb of ram in my hp dev one. there is still ram left when i build a kernel or other software. so i recommend at least 64gb of ram for a real developer machine.

[kylew77]

Dang I felt lucky to be given a machine at my last two jobs with 16GB of RAM, 32 or 64 would be down right luxurious. All but my most recent of (personal) laptops have had only 8GB of RAM max, my recent ThinkPad has 16GB though. Heck Google still sells Chromebooks with 4GB of RAM!!! Try running a Linux VM on that! My 8GB Chromebook I wish so bad had expandable memory to 16GB but Chromebooks with 16GB of RAM are in short supply.

[spiral_23]

Dang I felt lucky to be given a machine at my last two jobs with 16GB of RAM, 32 or 64 would be down right luxurious. All but my most recent of (personal) laptops have had only 8GB of RAM max, my recent ThinkPad has 16GB though. Heck Google still sells Chromebooks with 4GB of RAM!!! Try running a Linux VM on that! My 8GB Chromebook I wish so bad had expandable memory to 16GB but Chromebooks with 16GB of RAM are in short supply.

8gb seems quite less. i had 16gb before - and thought - now with 64gb the ram pressure will be quite less. but däng - the machine is so much more powerfull than my 2570p from 2012 - that it seems - the cores eat the ram!

[caligula]

Heck Google still sells Chromebooks with 4GB of RAM!!! Try running a Linux VM on that! My 8GB Chromebook I wish so bad had expandable memory to 16GB but Chromebooks with 16GB of RAM are in short supply.

The entry level 2023 Macbook Pro has 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB (not GiB) of disk capacity (probably less than half usable for applications).

[kylew77]

The entry level 2023 Macbook Pro has 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB (not GiB) of disk capacity (probably less than half usable for applications).

Yeah and all that is soldered to the motherboard. I remember the days of netbooks before Chromebooks, they still shipped with Windows XP in 2010 when we were in the Windows 7 era and had 32bit Atom processors but the RAM and HDD were fully upgradable and the battery was removable and replaceable. You could put a SATA SSD in and double the RAM to two 1GB modules of DDR2. All this in a 99 dollar eMachines laptop I got from my grandfather! Fast forward to 2023 and nothing that is not business class has user serviceable components! Mac's, Chromebooks, entry level laptops, "ultrabooks", you name it all have soldered RAM, eMMC storage or some kind of NVMe storage soldered to the MB. NAND storage wears out people! Big companies have turned laptops with few exceptions into appliances to be used for a few years and thrown away! It isn't right! Thankfully some Lenovo, Dell, and HP Business class laptops still support an upgradeable laptop. My E15 gen 2 AMD ThinkPad has a spare m.2 for a second SSD, the primary SSD is replaceable, the wifi module is replaceable, and the RAM is upgradable, the Battery is also semi-user serviceable. It is the first laptop I've had in years with user replaceable parts! Since that eMachines in 2010!

[rclark]

I upgraded my new laptop from 16GB to 32GB. Why? Well, the marketing on the box at the time, said it had 8GB, but when it came it had 16GB, but the 32GB memory was already on the way.... So 32GB it is! Only reason I went 32GB instead of 16GB was because it was only around $110 for 32GB -- so why not... DDR4 was/is relatively cheap. BTW, before buying any laptop I make 'sure' it can be upgraded! The MSI Modern 15 (AMD 5700U processor) has 2 M.2 slots, and 2 memory slots. So I was good to go. Yes I also put a 1TB stick in there too to 'fill it out', so 1.5TB of disk space. Even doing so, my upgrades didn't quite come up to the original price before they put it on sale in December. I was happy. Snappy KUbuntu 22.04 machine (Yes, first thing I did was wipe Windows off of it).

That said, in my opinion, 16GB is minimum now for any laptop, desktop, or server I buy or assemble. Memory is cheap enough, programs are bloated enough ... Worth it. My development workstation has 64GB as I run a few VMs there besides development projects. The VMs run very well thank you. SBCs on the other hand really don't need more than 1GB for embedded purposes (if running Linux, less otherwise), and 4-8GB if trying to use as a slow desktop or simple file/media server. Opinion only of course. Usage dictates 'need'!

I'd think the guys that compile Linux kernels as a 'job' would have a minimum of 64GB and a fast multi-processor machine(s) . Just my thoughts though!

netbooks

Yep. Remember that. Ours was a dog running Windows. Finally I changed it over to Linux Lite (and I think an SSD) and it was usable again. Still runs, but no longer used. Hmmmm, Might have to think about a project for it.....

[natunobilis]

Michael, "rein in" not "reign in". Merriam-webster explains: https://www.merriam-webster.com/word...n-in-something

Sorry for being this person.

[EphemeralEft]

Dumbasses should have just downloaded more RAM...

[gssdu]

When I first read this (not closely enough clearly) I thought, "who is Allye, and why is their config so big?" Thanks Michael for the all options and modules explanation later in the article.