8mb is quite big. the current pc kernel on 9front is: 1319438t + 2154020d + 377288b = 3850746 9pcf
as your data size increased, you'r apparently including more stuff in the #/ or bootfs.paq. candidates could be /lib/firmware, but even with the iwl firmware blobs the kernel gets just arround 6MB, not 8MB. the question is, what did you add? -- cinap
