>
>
> 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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