Kernel Files

/boot/vmlinux - no compression and is old

/boot/vmlinuz - compressed with zlib or with higher compression use bzImage

[synman@server Documentation]$ file /boot/vmlinuz-5.14.16-101.fc33.x86_64

/boot/vmlinuz-5.14.16-101.fc33.x86_64: 
Linux kernel x86 boot executable bzImage, version 5.14.16-101.fc33.x86_64 
([email protected]) 
#1 SMP Thu Nov 4 01:35:22 UTC 2021, RO-rootFS, swap_dev 0xA, Normal VGA