[Copied]Embedded Linux Images

zImage

• gzip-ed kernel image
• same as arch/arm/boot/compressed/vmlinux
• objcopy of arch/arm/boot/compressed/vmlinux
• used to reduce storage size of kernel
• piggy.gzip.o + misc.o + head.o + head-mach*.o = zImage
• cannot be opened using gzip ’cause it contains code at begining to decompress gzip-ed image

vmlinux

• uncompressed kernel file
• it is just an intermediate step and almost never used
• vm stands for “virtual memory”, suggesting that it supports vm
• it is objcopy-ed to get Image

arch/arm/boot/compressed/vmlinux

• it is same as zImage but renamed
• it is objcopy-ed to get zImage

vmlinuz

• it is gzip-ed version of vmlinux
• it is same as zImage but renamed

bzImage

• it is not compressed using bzip but compressed using gzip same as zImage
• bzImage stands for big zImage
• The difference is that the old zImage uncompresses the kernel into low memory (the first 640k), and bzImage uncompresses the kernel into high memory (over 1M)
• the difference lies between the maximum sizes supported by each, for zImage the kernel image size is limited to 520KB, however this restriction does not exist in the bzImage format.

uImage

• related to Uboot

bootp

• contains both kernel(zIamge) and initrd
• this way bootloader doesnt need to load kernel and initrd seperately into memory. it is taken care by the kernel itself.

Image

• it is objcopy-ed version of vmlinux

piggy.gzip

• gzipped version of Image

Source Link: http://geekwentfreak.wordpress.com/2010/02/18/embedded-linux-images/