MOD EDIT
It has always been suggested to wipe caches when you flash a kernel since I have been rooting phones. Maybe it isn't required but always suggested. I know that it definitely doesn't hurt and if it could possibly prevent an issue then it should be done just in case.
P.S.- If you don't wipe caches and your phone goes into a boot loop. Wipe caches and try again. Please don't post that it bootlooped after you flashed a kernel.
Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk
Just wanted to step in and clear some things up:
The cache partition that is use in android, or any major OS to date is for apps and system process. the kernel itself has nothing to do with that partition. Dalvik is the virtual machine that is used by Android. It is generally thought of as a java virtual machine, although this is not precisely correct. It uses an object model that is identical to java, and it's memory model is also nearly equivalent. But the dalvik VM is a register based VM, as opposed to java VMs, which are stack based.
It uses a completely different bytecode than java. However, the Android SDK includes the dx tool to translate java bytecode to dalvik bytecode, which is why you are able to write Android applications in java, "dalvik-cache", you mean the /data/dalvik-cache directory that can be found on typical Android devices. When you install an application on Android, it performs some modifications and optimizations on that application's dex file (the file that contains all the dalvik bytecode for the application). It then caches the resulting odex (optimized dex) file in the /data/dalvik-cache directory, so that it doesn't have to perform the optimization process every time it loads an application.
As for just the cache partition, lets talk a little more on this: This is the partition where Android stores frequently accessed data and app components. Wiping the cache doesn’t effect your personal data but simply gets rid of the existing data there, which gets automatically rebuilt as you continue using the device.
Although people usually would wipe cache and dalvik after a flash of a kernel, its not necessary and the usual bootloop that comes from flashing a kernel is miss match modules or the update script are normally generic script not calling out the correct block but using busybox to wipe /system /boot ect.
more info can be found here:
http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile...plained-boot-system-recovery-data-cache-misc/
http://developer.android.com/reference/dalvik/system/package-summary.html
http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/data/data-storage.html
If you would like more information, please feel free to PM me. Lets get this thread back on topic please.
thank you.