Best way to strip ubuntu based distro to the core?

linuxlicious · 11-28-2011, 02:50 AM

Hello, I'm running Peppermint Linux on my main machine, and it has a ton of things on it that I don't really need, amongst additionally installed-but-abandoned programs, libs, etc, etc that just clutter everything up (dependency hell, anyone?) and now it's time to clean house. I want everything out. Well, not really everyting, I like to keep the core with xorg, nm and apt and of course keep my /home partition/folder, so how should I best approach this task, without breaking something important?

corp769 · 11-28-2011, 03:23 AM

I use Peppermint Linux OS uses apt-get, correct? You should be able to use apt-get to give you a list of all installed applications and libraries, and then do a search, and/or grab the info from the command line, to see what they all do. This would be the best way, IMO. Just remember, when you start uninstalling programs and libraries, that you look at the dependency list for other uninstalled programs/libraries along with it, just so you don't go breaking your system.

Cheers,

Josh

TobiSGD · 11-28-2011, 12:04 PM

The best thing for Ubuntu/Debian based distros would be the other way around, make a fresh minimal install and install only the packages you need. Was always the best for me on especially if the developers made extended use of meta-packages, which can really be a pain in the *** if you want to strip down a distro.

snowday · 11-28-2011, 01:37 PM

"sudo apt-get autoremove" will remove unnecessary packages that were installed as dependencies of removed packages.

If you want a minimal Ubuntu-based system, here's a good how to:

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/minimal