Messages in this thread | | | Date | Fri, 12 Feb 1999 20:19:23 +0100 (CET) | From | Jelle Foks <> | Subject | Re: [OFFTOPIC] Re: Custom Linux Distro |
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On Thu, 11 Feb 1999, Alexander Viro wrote:
> > > On Thu, 11 Feb 1999, Jelle Foks wrote: > > > On Sun, 7 Feb 1999, Jeff Knox wrote: > > > > > Hey, > > > > > > I have been contemplating making a custom linux install of my > > > machine for a long time. I find that all linux distrobutions come with > > > too much crap that waste hd space, and I like to know exactly what is on > > > my machine. So may question is What does the Linux kernel require to > > > boot? Are does a very basic base distrobution need? What should I > > > include to start with? I figure I will look at some of the floppy linux > > > distros and see what they use for a start. Any help would be > > > appreciated, thanks. > [snip] > > What I'd like to see is a bootable Linux CDROM, so that in a PC that can > > boot from CDROM, it's just a matter of popping in the CDROM, pressing the > > reset button, and waiting for the X11 greeting. For this, the startup > > scripts should be able to automagically detect a range of graphics, > > and setup X11 for that card, because we don't want to be stuck with 16 bit > > color at 640x480 or something like that. Same for mice, modems, ISDN > > cards, etc, adjusting the gpm and pppd/ipppd settings. > > <sound of dropping jaw> > Setup WHAT? IMHO X goes neatly under the 'space-taking crap' cathegory. > It's definitely *not* needed for basic install.
I need it, and there is nothing you can do about it. Period. I am not going to discuss that, because it is not an issue to discuss. End.
> What next? KDE/Gnome? > Netrape? Frankly, all I *really* use X for is testing VM under stress.
I use X to get real work done.
> That and XDvi. > > D'oh. More or less reasonable thing to start from may be looking through > the list of Debian packages, grepping for Priority: required (and > especiall for ones with Essential: yes) and then for Priority: important > stuff. The most serious deviation from bare minimum being that many > scripts use Perl (and the whole package system - dpkg, dinstall and > friends). At least dependencies are clearly stated and that can be used to > exclude unnecessary things. Then look what do those packages install. Or > do the same with Slackware. For absolute minimum you may take kernel + > shell + ld.so + needed libraries (or make the shell static) and boot with > init=/bin/sh. For minimal system you will want init/getty/login + normal > utilities (cp/mv/rm/dd/cat/sort/grep/sed/awk/uniq/join/cut/chmod/chown/ls/ > df/kill/mkdir/mknod/rmdir/mount/umount/kill/sleep/su/ed/fsck/mkfs/find/ps - > see man[18] from v7 for more or less standard list), most likely some > editor beyond ed (nvi is fine), at and cron, make, gcc and binutils if you > want to compile anything, gzip and tar for dealing with archives (actually > in standard set, except that gzip supercedes compress). man and manpages, > indeed, thus groff to format said manpages. Considering the strange GNU > attitude towards manpages you may have to install info. To compile GNU > packages you may need autoconf perversion (if you don't want to edit large > chunks of Makefiles). That's more or less enough to work comfortably on a > stand-alone box with no access to net. If you want to use net - take > ifconfig/route/bind/ping/traceroute and add ftp, telnet and lynx. For > email stuff - mailx and {sendmail|qmail|whatever MTA you fancy}. You may > need inetd at this point. > >
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