Creating custom Slackware install iso questions
 

I am considering creating a personal custom install iso for my Slackware PC, to ease and trim the install process.
Basically I want to leave out some packages and integrate others.

I am currently using Alien Bob's mirror-slackware-current.sh script that is going to be my base.

From what I understand, I can remove packages and edit them out of the tagfiles.

Is it the same to add packages? Just edit them into the tagfiles?

Also, do I need to edit the FILELIST, PACKAGES, MANIFEST or anything else, or build it different than is done with mirror-slackware-current.sh?

Any tips are appreciated, a point to a tutorial would be nice.
Thanks in advance.

Hi Skaendo, welcome to this forum.

Here are a few links (easily found using a search engine):
link 1
link 2
link 3

No, do not edit FILELIST, PACKAGES, MANIFEST: these files are used by the Slackware packages management system and that would prevent it to work properly.

Thanks Didier Spaier.
I have read the last two, and the first one says the same as the slackbook and slackwiki.

I am looking to make a more customized disc image though, not just edit the tagfiles. I want to trim down the size of the image so that it could possibly fit onto a CD instead of a DVD, or at least a small USB stick (~1GB), that has only the packages that I want/use. For example I would completely remove the /slackware64/kdei/ folder, /slackware64/xfce/ folder, and the majority of single packages in various other folders that I don't want/use, and at the same time I want to add other packages that I do want/use.

Is it still just a matter of editing the tagfiles, while adding and removing packages, and rebuilding the iso?

Please bear with me, I am a Debian convert.

You could save you a lot of hassle in trying one of the Salix ISOs available here. Their sizes are indicated in the same page.

Me, I don't see a big advantage in trimming down the size of the image, as the media won't be significantly cheaper. Plus, bear in mind that Slackware is expected to be installed as a whole and does not provide automatic dependencies management, so you could have to learn the hard way which packages you miss and this is a time consuming process, see this about that. This document could also help you grasp the main differences between Debian and Slackware.

If you persevere in your initial idea, then yes, you could rebuild an ISO with the packages you want. Even if you don't use Salix then, shipping only part of the Slackware packages in each ISO leaded them to provide a list of Slackware packages' dependencies that could help you, see here for instance

Not knowing about Alien Bob's script, I've taken a different path, perhaps a bad move. Basically, I've used the instructions in ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackwar...nux/README.TXT for help with creating the iso. The installer doesn't seem to care if many packages are gone. I've pared the slackware-current tree down until it fits in less than 700 MB, then the command line cited in README.TXT is used to make the iso. cdrecord is used to burn that iso.

Keep in mind, this is being lazy on purpose. Should a package be missing, a USB stick with a full slackware-current is on hand. The goal here is to get the basic system and kernel onto boat anchors with no USB boot and no Internet connection, then reference the rest of slackware-current as needed.

@Didier Spaier
I did consider Salix when I started to research OSs once I got fed up with Debian. But I would rather not have a "based" distro which is why I used Debian for 14+ years. I have tried a lot of "based" distros here and there and I have found that there are less issues with the "pure" distros.

I am not worried about the cost of media as I regularly use *-RW for testing/installing OSs. I am trying to speed up the install process and at the same time install extra packages and leave out packages. I guess that it doesn't matter if I can fit it on a CD, I just meant I want to reduce the size of the installation source as much as I can. Although, I would be very happy if I can get it on a 1GB USB drive, but that is hoping for a lot.

The list of Slackware packages' dependencies is right on. I was looking for something like that as well.

@mlslk31
So what your saying is that you didn't edit the tagfiles, and the installer just skipped the missing packages?

Not sure what happens. The best way of putting it is this: A missing package probably will not stop the install process. a/ is most important to keep, ap/ just behind it. Because both X11 and non-X11 libraries are kept in l/, the most space savings will be found in l/. 99 times out of 100, the tagfiles aren't touched. There's no point in having a uniform install for my PCs: The source will guide the PCs onto their own separate paths, anyway.

What I usually do is use Alien Bob's mirror script and then copy the entire tree* (so I don't need to re-download things later).

In the copy I then delete all of the packages I don't want (do not delete any directories, just the files) and use the mirror script once more to create the ISOs from the copied tree.




* Actually my /home is on a BTRFS subvolume, so I just take a snapshot and restore things afterward (much faster than copying 5GB of data).

@saulgoode
Excellent method. I'm going to use that when I finish trimming and ready to build.

What about if there are no more packages in the directory, take /y/ for example since it only has bsd-games, could the install-packages, install.end, maketag, maketag.ez and tagfile files be deleted just leaving the empty directory?

Doing that is fine though if you don't have valid tagfiles then you are limited to using either "FULL" or "TERSE" prompt mode during setup (I've actually never tried using the other modes but it would seem logical that they'd fail). Using FULL or TERSE is the whole point of what you want to do anyway, right?

Right, I just want to be able to hit full and have it set up with what I want in and what I don't out, "out of the box".

Thanks for all the help! I have a working image down to 1.2GB and still shrinking.
That's including LibreOffice, VLC and other added programs.

Just an update.

I have gotten my install image down to 849MB.

That includes;
KDE, LibreOffice, Flashplayer-plugin, qbittorrent, VLC, WiFi, and more.

And I am still trimming packages..........