On Monday 24 February 2003 09:05 pm, Lonnie Cumberland wrote: > Hello, > > I am working to put together a project and want to base it on the lattest > Mandrake Linux so that as newer versions of your product come out the we > can upgrade the components easily. This will also help to promote Mandrake > as the base operating system. > > What I need to do is to have the smallest version of Mandrake that I can > put together. > > The basic features of mandrake that I need are: > > 1. Latest kernel > 2. Latest Xfree86 > 3. network/ppp support > 4. base ext3 filesystem > 5. NFS > 6. XDMCP/XDM > 7. simple csh shell. > 8. rpm facilities > > The idea is that I need the absolute smallest possible distrabution of > Mandrake that can cover these requirements. It would be optimum if we could > keep the entire thing under 40MB for less if it is possible. I have > recently heard about a 2-DiskXwin that fits on 2 floppies but am not sure > if that would be a good starting point or not. > > I will be adding a few of my own applications and want to incorporate the > DrakeX and HardDrake for the installation method. The user will then also > be allowed to add more of their own Mandrake application selections as > needed. > > Can you please help me to locate such a variation on Mandrake or how it > might be done easily. > > Sincerely > Lonnie > > __________________________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more > http://taxes.yahoo.com/ Well, if you install with NO packages selected in the group list you have about 65M and a functional system, but no X and no urpmi.
4.Unless you need really quick recovery of filesystems, ext3 should also be excluded and ext2 used instead. That might save a little space and you take a big speed hit when you use ext3 in journaling mode (and why would anyone use it in non-journaling mode?). 3.Network/ppp adds very little and can be rpm'ed in 5.NFS is again just a couple of MB, unless you are talking NIS as well. 6.XDM comes if you install a desktop besides KDE and/or GNOME, but if you want stripped, leave that one out and boot to level 3 and keep python in the mix and use Xtart. It permits a level3 (console) login and then offers a menu of installed X windows systems and ALSO permits a diagnostic start with X and no desktop and an Xterm. 7.csh? Well if your people are used to it.... but consider ash if you are simply trying to select a small shell. It is a workalike to bash but without the history feature, and a lot more folks are familiar with bash and create disasters with csh ... (tcsh is what you install for csh) 2. "Latest XFree" is OK but stick with 1024x768 x 16 bit depth and use the framebuffer driver. This makes it insensitive to hardware video changes of the modern kind, cause they all basically support framebuffer. Select the server and snarf the config file from a "heavy" install that has been defaulted to framebuffer by not installing X then rpming in the server and using XFdrake --expert later. Using the XF86 SVGA from 3.3.6 is likely a space-saver as well and should perform similarly in framebuffer. 8. rpm facilities are in the functional install. urpmi is NOT, so forget automating updates. 40M? Well no modern distro except specifically tailored minis with a lot less functionality are going to run with 40M. I suppose if you stripped out all security.... But let's not go there. Ohhh yes, the WM. This is a space-eater. IceWM-light or blackbox are OK, and if you keep Python and GTK, then ROX is available as a file manager. TWM is there as a very small one. If you just have Python, then consider PLWM "PointLess Window Manager". It is a set of Python routines to make just about any WM feature you might want, and it offers a couple of demo configurations. You will probably find it in /contribs. Just keep /etc/X11/wmsession.d files straight and Xtart will give you a console selection. I made a smallish one with framebuffer X and Emacs as my desktop--not exactly GUI but workable. I am making another to fit into 32M right now, with a real WM and Python, but it is compiled for exactly the hardware it addresses and the 32M DiskOnChip is replacing the BIOS, and I am stalled until I have a job so I can buy the board to take the DiskOnChip (K7VEM or similar). I strongly recommend a compile with no modules for the kernel if you know exactly what hardware you will be using and have a reasonable expectation of no change. Not only are you much less vulnerable to rootkitting, but you can recover a lot of space. If the hardware is likely to change, though, find another solution, and live with a larger install. Civileme
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