Small Installed Size

[jimbo-62]

I have been intrigued by a small installed size of Linux. I don't mean the toys such as Puppy or DSL, but full featured distros with a GUI desktop. My usual approach is to install the minimum base system, then install only what I want/need. My initial requirements are Firefox web browser, browse shared folders on a WinXP PC on my local network, play .mpg and .wmv video files with sound and be able to use my HP network printer. Not huge requirements, but enough to satisfy my needs.

The installed size that meets these requirements for PCLinuxOS is 1,261.9 MB, for Arch is 1,223.7 MB, for Vector is 1,281.9 MB and for Zenwalk which claims "one application for each task" is 1,510.2 MB. All of these distros end up with a fairly small installed size and all meet my requirements.

BUT, my Debian Sid installation which meets all of my requirements is only 873.5 MB! My hats off to the Debian devs, WELL DONE!

Thanks devs, jimbo

[Grifter]

you can do better than that, with a clean install it shouldn't take more than 2 or 3 hundred megs (:

[thamarok]

I have been intrigued by a small installed size of Linux. I don't mean the toys such as Puppy or DSL, but full featured distros with a GUI desktop. My usual approach is to install the minimum base system, then install only what I want/need. My initial requirements are Firefox web browser, browse shared folders on a WinXP PC on my local network, play .mpg and .wmv video files with sound and be able to use my HP network printer. Not huge requirements, but enough to satisfy my needs.

The installed size that meets these requirements for PCLinuxOS is 1,261.9 MB, for Arch is 1,223.7 MB, for Vector is 1,281.9 MB and for Zenwalk which claims "one application for each task" is 1,510.2 MB. All of these distros end up with a fairly small installed size and all meet my requirements.

BUT, my Debian Sid installation which meets all of my requirements is only 873.5 MB! My hats off to the Debian devs, WELL DONE!

Thanks devs, jimbo

I made a fresh install of Debian Etch Network Install CD and installed the software I like including a Desktop Environment and all got to about 350Mb..

Cheers

[ajdlinux]

I made a fresh install of Debian Etch Network Install CD and installed the software I like including a Desktop Environment and all got to about 350Mb..

Cheers

Which DE is that with? 350mb... that's good.

[thamarok]

I made a fresh install of Debian Etch Network Install CD and installed the software I like including a Desktop Environment and all got to about 350Mb..

Cheers

Which DE is that with? 350mb... that's good.

With KDE, to be precise, with the kdebase package, I don't need the extra stuff.. And yes, according to QTParted after a fresh install, the used megs are only 350Mb.

[ajdlinux]

KDE in 350mb...

Debian, unlike other distros, actually lets you do that.

[thamarok]

KDE in 350mb...

Debian, unlike other distros, actually lets you do that.

That's why I like Debian. I don't know any other distro that offers Network Install CD's or something similar. This is good and let's you do your own customized Linux if you like.

My friend has always used SUSE and about a month ago he started to use Mandriva, he was able to make his own customized Linux just like I did with Debian, but he had to remaster the whole ISO; while I had to just burn and boot to the Network Install CD and then apt-get everything.

It is even possible to have a fully featured Linux with Gnome in 30Mb!
I have made my own custom Linux, and I think I'll give it the name FloppyLinux. It consists of 21 floppies and I have to put 10 floppies each after other to load the Kernel and the Base system. After that 7 floppies more and I am able to load Gnome and the 4 remaining floppies include software like Firefox.

FloppyLinux (which I have made and is only avalaible for me ) took only a month to be fully functional. It is based on Debian Woody, so I have to use my old computer to bring up FloppyLinux. I think I'll make a new version of FloppyLinux based on Sid and I'll try to get it into 15 or less floppies, this time using KDE

[jimbo-62]

you can do better than that, with a clean install it shouldn't take more than 2 or 3 hundred megs (:

HOW??? A netinstall, installing only the base system gives me 395,788 1K-blocks. I am not experienced enough to remove base system packages to get a smaller size.

Thanks for the replies, jimbo

[plugwash]

That's why I like Debian. I don't know any other distro that offers Network Install CD's or something similar.

do debian offer network install CD images? if so i've never been able to find them for sarge (there were some unofficial ones for woody arround)

sure they offer a CD that they call "netinst" but it would be better described as "base system plus full selection of kernels"

a true network install iso should be under 6 megs (equivilent to the four floppies they offer). debains "netinst" iso is 180 megs and "buisnesscard" is 40!

[thamarok]

That's why I like Debian. I don't know any other distro that offers Network Install CD's or something similar.

do debian offer network install CD images? if so i've never been able to find them for sarge (there were some unofficial ones for woody arround)

sure they offer a CD that they call "netinst" but it would be better described as "base system plus full selection of kernels"

a true network install iso should be under 6 megs (equivilent to the four floppies they offer). debains "netinst" iso is 180 megs and "buisnesscard" is 40!

The Network Install CD is Netinst. And there are official ones for sarge, look here http://www.debian.org/CD/netinst/ under "Official netinst images for the stable release"

I have never found that the ISO or Business Card ISO is too big.. and 6Mb for a Linux installer? I think the size grows because of the additional software (like nano, wget etc..) and drivers and modules.

[plugwash]

The Network Install CD is Netinst. And there are official ones for sarge, look here http://www.debian.org/CD/netinst/ under "Official netinst images for the stable release"

as i have already said despite the name that is not a network install CD, its a CD with the entire base system on it!

and 6Mb for a Linux installer?

i based that figure on the assumption that what a network install CD would need to contain would be roughly equivilent to the "boot" "root" "net-drivers" and "cd-drivers" floppies that are availible at http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/debian/dists/sar ... es/floppy/.

[thamarok]

The Network Install CD is Netinst. And there are official ones for sarge, look here http://www.debian.org/CD/netinst/ under "Official netinst images for the stable release"

as i have already said despite the name that is not a network install CD, its a CD with the entire base system on it!

and 6Mb for a Linux installer?

i based that figure on the assumption that what a network install CD would need to contain would be roughly equivilent to the "boot" "root" "net-drivers" and "cd-drivers" floppies that are availible at http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/debian/dists/sar ... es/floppy/.

I would take a wild guess that the floppy-installation-system won't install the base system and you will have to download it during installation, but if this is true why is the Business Card CD 40Mb? I think you have a point there... Maybe the Debian Guru's can help?

EDIT: Am I crazy or is there an installer of Etch that's only 11MB?!
http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/debian/dists/etc ... k-miniiso/

[Grifter]

do debian offer network install CD images? if so i've never been able to find them for sarge (there were some unofficial ones for woody arround)

sure they offer a CD that they call "netinst" but it would be better described as "base system plus full selection of kernels"

a true network install iso should be under 6 megs (equivilent to the four floppies they offer). debains "netinst" iso is 180 megs and "buisnesscard" is 40!

there's been netinst for all dists at least since woody, and they didn't used to be this big, I have a sarge netinst iso lying around from when sarge was testing, and it's 8 megs, but with today's hardware you need a lot more files all of a sudden

[plugwash]

there's been netinst for all dists at least since woody

iirc for woody it was marked as unofficial and was indeed small, we were told it would be official for sarge but with sarge it was replaced by the huge official "netinst" CD.

but with today's hardware you need a lot more files all of a sudden

i'm not convinced, on every machine i've tried them on the 3 floppies (boot,root and net-drivers) have been quite sufficiant to get the network up and connect to a debian mirror.

[ajdlinux]

I think there's a lot of new drivers now and other things that make it larger. As well as the base system on disc... The 10mb GTK miniiso is pretty good though as well as small.

HOW??? A netinstall, installing only the base system gives me 395,788 1K-blocks. I am not experienced enough to remove base system packages to get a smaller size.

Thanks for the replies, jimbo

After the net install you can practically remove everything down to Priority: required (except perhaps apt and some other things), then build up from there to get the smallest possible system. Also remember that you have to run apt-get clean to remove the package cache and you can delete the apt lists if you need it even smaller.

[jimbo-62]

HOW??? A netinstall, installing only the base system gives me 395,788 1K-blocks. I am not experienced enough to remove base system packages to get a smaller size.

Thanks for the replies, jimbo

After the net install you can practically remove everything down to Priority: required (except perhaps apt and some other things), then build up from there to get the smallest possible system. Also remember that you have to run apt-get clean to remove the package cache and you can delete the apt lists if you need it even smaller.

Thanks for the reply. This is the first practical advice I have found on what packages can be removed. I know how to get an installed package list from a CLI environment, and I know where to look for a package priority in Synaptic, but how can I get priority information from a CLI?

Thanks for any additional help, jimbo

[ajdlinux]

apt-cache show <pkg>

[jimbo-62]

HOW??? A netinstall, installing only the base system gives me 395,788 1K-blocks. I am not experienced enough to remove base system packages to get a smaller size.

Thanks for the replies, jimbo

After the net install you can practically remove everything down to Priority: required (except perhaps apt and some other things), then build up from there to get the smallest possible system. Also remember that you have to run apt-get clean to remove the package cache and you can delete the apt lists if you need it even smaller.

Thanks for the reply. This is the first practical advice I have found on what packages can be removed. I know how to get an installed package list from a CLI environment, and I know where to look for a package priority in Synaptic, but how can I get priority information from a CLI?

Thanks for any additional help, jimbo

Well, no progress to report. I tried to remove some of the "optional" packages and got warning messages about removing the kernel. Same thing for a couple of "important" packages. The total size reduction so far is 8 MB. Maybe the very small installed size reported by some folks was for a 2.4 kernel?

Thanks and good luck, jimbo

[Grifter]

apt-get install debian-goodies

dpigs

that'll display the size of your packages, starting with the biggest

[thamarok]

After the net install you can practically remove everything down to Priority: required (except perhaps apt and some other things), then build up from there to get the smallest possible system. Also remember that you have to run apt-get clean to remove the package cache and you can delete the apt lists if you need it even smaller.

Thanks for the reply. This is the first practical advice I have found on what packages can be removed. I know how to get an installed package list from a CLI environment, and I know where to look for a package priority in Synaptic, but how can I get priority information from a CLI?

Thanks for any additional help, jimbo

Well, no progress to report. I tried to remove some of the "optional" packages and got warning messages about removing the kernel. Same thing for a couple of "important" packages. The total size reduction so far is 8 MB. Maybe the very small installed size reported by some folks was for a 2.4 kernel?

Thanks and good luck, jimbo

Actually I used a custom kernel, that way you can determine some stuff like what is needed and what not and I made the custom kernel to be compatible with only the hardware I had plugged in, that's why it reduced a lot of MBs.