Reduce Install Size

Andy@DP · 06-30-2007, 04:23 AM

Hi,

I'm trying to reduce the size of my debian install, I used netinst to install and selected no extras. I've put on apache2, php5, mysql, webmin and samba which are the main things I'll be using. I've also ran localepurge and debfoster/deborphan as well. Here is the list from dpkg --get-selections:

Code:

acpid					install
adduser					install
apache2					install
apache2-mpm-prefork			install
apache2-utils				install
apache2.2-common			install
apt					install
apt-utils				install
aptitude				install
base-files				install
base-passwd				install
bash					install
bsdmainutils				install
bsdutils				install
busybox					install
console-common				install
console-data				install
console-tools				install
coreutils				install
cpio					install
cron					install
debconf					install
debconf-i18n				install
debfoster				install
debian-archive-keyring			install
debianutils				install
deborphan				install
dhcp3-client				install
dhcp3-common				install
dialog					install
diff					install
dmidecode				install
dpkg					install
dselect					install
e2fslibs				install
e2fsprogs				install
ed					install
findutils				install
gcc-4.1-base				install
gettext-base				install
gnupg					install
gpgv					install
grep					install
groff-base				install
grub					install
gzip					install
hostname				install
ifupdown				install
info					install
initramfs-tools				install
initscripts				install
installation-report			install
iptables				install
iputils-ping				install
klibc-utils				install
klogd					install
laptop-detect				install
libacl1					install
libapache2-mod-perl2			install
libapache2-mod-php5			install
libapr1					install
libaprutil1				install
libattr1				install
libauthen-pam-perl			install
libblkid1				install
libbz2-1.0				install
libc6					install
libc6-i686				install
libcap1					install
libcomerr2				install
libconsole				install
libcupsys2				install
libdb4.2				install
libdb4.3				install
libdb4.4				install
libdbd-mysql-perl			install
libdbi-perl				install
libdevel-symdump-perl			install
libdevmapper1.02			install
libexpat1				install
libgcc1					install
libgcrypt11				install
libgdbm3				install
libgnutls13				install
libgpg-error0				install
libhtml-parser-perl			install
libhtml-tagset-perl			install
libhtml-tree-perl			install
libio-pty-perl				install
libklibc				install
libkrb53				install
libldap2				install
liblocale-gettext-perl			install
liblzo1					install
libmagic1				install
libmd5-perl				install
libmysqlclient15off			install
libncurses5				install
libncursesw5				install
libnet-daemon-perl			install
libnet-ssleay-perl			install
libnewt0.52				install
libopencdk8				install
libpam-modules				install
libpam-runtime				install
libpam0g				install
libpcre3				install
libperl5.8				install
libplrpc-perl				install
libpopt0				install
libpq4					install
libreadline5				install
libsasl2-2				install
libselinux1				install
libsepol1				install
libsigc++-2.0-0c2a			install
libslang2				install
libsqlite3-0				install
libss2					install
libssl0.9.8				install
libstdc++6				install
libtasn1-3				install
libtext-charwidth-perl			install
libtext-iconv-perl			install
libtext-wrapi18n-perl			install
liburi-perl				install
libusb-0.1-4				install
libuuid1				install
libvolume-id0				install
libwrap0				install
libwww-perl				install
libxml2					install
linux-image-2.6.18-4-686		install
localepurge				install
locales					install
login					install
logrotate				install
lsb-base				install
makedev					install
man-db					install
manpages				install
mawk					install
mime-support				install
mktemp					install
module-init-tools			install
mount					install
mysql-client-5.0			install
mysql-common				install
mysql-server				install
mysql-server-5.0			install
nano					install
ncurses-base				install
ncurses-bin				install
net-tools				install
netbase					install
netcat					install
openbsd-inetd				install
openssl					install
passwd					install
perl					install
perl-base				install
perl-modules				install
php5					install
php5-common				install
php5-mysql				install
procps					install
psmisc					install
readline-common				install
samba					install
samba-common				install
sed					install
smbclient				install
sysklogd				install
sysv-rc					install
sysvinit				install
sysvinit-utils				install
tar					install
tasksel					install
tasksel-data				install
tcpd					install
traceroute				install
tzdata					install
ucf					install
udev					install
update-inetd				install
usbutils				install
util-linux				install
webmin					install
wget					install
whiptail				install
zlib1g					install

So what can I safely remove and not break my setup? And any other ideas on reducing the install space as well.

Cheers!

jschiwal · 06-30-2007, 04:34 AM

Do you need the Berkley Database package if you are using mysql? Or is it used by another package?

Andy@DP · 06-30-2007, 06:18 AM

No I was wondering about that myself, so you think I can get rid of that three packages?

EDIT: Tried to remove libdb4.4

Code:

Failed to delete package libdb4.4 :

dpkg: dependency problems prevent removal of libdb4.4:
 apt-utils depends on libdb4.4; however:
  Package libdb4.4 is to be removed.
 libapache2-mod-php5 depends on libdb4.4.
 perl depends on libdb4.4.
 apache2-utils depends on libdb4.4.
 libaprutil1 depends on libdb4.4.
 apache2-mpm-prefork depends on libdb4.4.
dpkg: error processing libdb4.4 (--remove):
 dependency problems - not removing
Errors were encountered while processing:
 libdb4.4

Guess they are staying then...

JackieBrown · 06-30-2007, 04:38 PM

laptop-detect - won't save you much though

indienick · 06-30-2007, 11:44 PM

Just out of curiosity, how small are you trying to make the install, and how big is the footprint right now?

Andy@DP · 07-01-2007, 01:48 AM

After removal of laptop-detect it's sitting at 648744K, that's without hosting any sites or files. I have added avast AV (to scan the win share folders) since the list that started this post.

As for final size, just as small as it can be with no un-needed packages running or installed. I'm thinking of removing some on the docs that come with this lot. I don't use man much, normally just --help or google. Is there an easy way to find all the documentation?

EDIT: df reports 648744K, webmin reports 1023.1Mb used... which is correct?

indienick · 07-01-2007, 11:25 PM

One thing I could suggest you take out is the ncurses packages (unless they're needed by another package that you absolutely need).

When you say df reports 648744K, did you run "df -k"? Try running "df -h" and see if that gives you an answer closer to webmin.

And not to mention, is webmin REALLY that necessary? If you're looking to cut back on size, you might want to leave webmin for just ssh and a text editor (in this case, nano). Don't get me wrong, webmin is really quite nice, it's just a bit bulky.

Another trick you could try is substituting packages. Instead of apache2 use lighttpd, and so on and so forth.

Andy@DP · 07-02-2007, 01:04 AM

I think I will remove ncurses, looking at the package I don't think I'll need it on this install. - just tried and it tried to remove the kernal and several commands as well, maybe not such a good idea! All I did was an

Code:

apt-get remove ncurses-base ncurses-bin

Is there a better way to remove without breaking everything else?

Is lighttpd as easy to configure as apache2? I'm used to apache and have been using it for years on both linux and MS platforms. Also how easy is it to get it talking with php and mysql?

indienick · 07-03-2007, 09:01 AM

Okay, perhaps trying to remove ncurses isn't that great of an idea. I didn't realize it was THAT tied into everything else (especially the kernel - eep).

Lighttpd is a breeze to do basic configuration with. The conf file is not as extensive as Apache's, but it gets you pretty much the same, desired result. It's modular, too (like Apache). So, you can load mods for PHP and MySQL.

http://www.lighttpd.net/

Code:

# apt-get -y install lighttpd

Andy@DP · 07-03-2007, 12:49 PM

Cool cheers!!

I'm off to try out lighttpd then...

EDIT: OK, I've installed - looks good like, conf file seems easy enough. Now is MySQL or SQLite the way to go, I'm not seeing anything to do with sqlite/lighttpd but haven't read much into it. Would that be easy enough to do?

If you read a bit about php5 installing apache things then please ignore. I'm being a bit dim. Meant to install php5-cgi NOT php5...

indienick · 07-03-2007, 04:13 PM

I know the Lighttpd site has a list of the supported modules, and their installation HOWTOs.

I avoid SQL DBs like the plague. I prefer writing my own DB engines, but the beauty of that is I rarely have to (I do LAN system management as a side project, no web hosting).

I remember, back when I used Mandrake/Mandriva, if I wanted a particular module for my HTTP daemon (whatever it be), I just ran URPMI (the Mandrake equiv. to APT-GET) and installed the module there. Debian just might provide the same deal. Check APTITUDE for any installable HTTPD modules.

Andy@DP · 07-03-2007, 04:16 PM

OK,

I think I found the instructions to install lighttpd, php5 & sqlite and it looks like it will take up no room at all!

Cheers.

indienick · 07-03-2007, 05:10 PM

You're very welcome!