https://saeedvft.github.io/tags/u-boot/Recent content in U-Boot on SaeedHugoen© 2026 SaeedWed, 14 Oct 2026 09:58:08 +0330https://saeedvft.github.io/posts/14-10-2026-uimage-vs-zimage/Wed, 14 Oct 2026 09:58:08 +0330https://saeedvft.github.io/posts/14-10-2026-uimage-vs-zimage/If you’ve spent any time in embedded Linux, you’ve run into zImage and uImage. You’ve probably also seen u-boot.bin sitting right next to them in the same directory, which leads to a very common question: Are these kernel images or U-Boot images? Short answer: They’re both kernel images. The “u” in uImage is misleading — it refers to the format, not the contents. Let’s break it down properly. The Two Files at a Glance File What it actually is zImage A compressed, self-extracting Linux kernel uImage That same kernel, plus a 64-byte U-Boot header u-boot.