Introducing StripSlack, a minimal configuration of Slackware
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IMO stripping the setup too much makes it hard to extend.
If I'm questioning my deeper motivation in starting this little project, it's primarily to get a better understanding of what constitutes the Slackware core. Let me give you an analogy. One of my favorite musicians, saxophone player Wayne Shorter, once stated in an interview to Down Beat Magazine that when you play jazz, you "have to greet every single note as you walk down the stairs". Similarly, I seem to have found a funny way to say hello to every single package.
The primary goal for this is learning. On servers, I just install the whole bucketload of package groups without KDE, XAP and XFCE, and that suits me well.
OK, I've just written a set of tagfiles for an extremely (!) reduced minimal system.
I had slackware running on a 486 laptop, with 12 meg RAM, and I think 200 meg HD in 2004 with the latest slackware at the time. And I did use it . I started with a similar approach, on what was the minimum needed to boot, since 200 meg is a tight spot to fit. I reversed the process by adding a few useful things, such as networking. As far as the kernel, I specially prepared one and did not use the stock kernel. It was non-modular kernel, but with a few pcmcia modules like for my wireless card I bought for it. This system was working with about 40 MB left over, which is quite comfortable of a machine of that class, and the benefits of high speed remote access.
After I retired it in 2005, I would boot it once a year, updating slackware (just like most of my machines). Although, I went without access to it since about 2008. I did get it out of storage a couple weeks ago, but unfortunately it does not detect the hard disk.
I went ahead and added up the uncompressed sizes of the packages in your list. I was concerned when I saw 258 MB, that it was no longer possible to use this kind of machine with slackware. However, this size is largely due to the kernel, and it does look a system based on your list is 150 MB.
BTW, If I am disk limited like this, there is no reason not to just dump the /usr/doc directory after installation. It eats a ton of space that is rarely used, and there is no shortage of machines that have a copy of it.
I think that it's really nice to get that kind of install very easily still these days, and wrote down what to do, since I never have. I am thinking about doing embedded x86 work, and there is little reason for much having much of the software on the system. Although it is fast fading away that we are space limited, with very large SD-cards being so cheap now, and usb just as well common. I'll probably be sticking newer drives in ancient systems if it comes to it.
I had slackware running on a 486 laptop, with 12 meg RAM, and I think 200 meg HD in 2004 with the latest slackware at the time. And I did use it . I started with a similar approach, on what was the minimum needed to boot, since 200 meg is a tight spot to fit. I reversed the process by adding a few useful things, such as networking. As far as the kernel, I specially prepared one and did not use the stock kernel. It was non-modular kernel, but with a few pcmcia modules like for my wireless card I bought for it. This system was working with about 40 MB left over, which is quite comfortable of a machine of that class, and the benefits of high speed remote access.
Earlier this year, I installed a headless Slackware server on a Dell Poweredge 1300, a high-end machine compared to yours. Pentium-III 500 MHz processor, 110 MB RAM, 3 x 9 GB SCSI hard disks. The company I did some training for didn't have the new servers delivered yet, so I decided to work on this old piece of hardware in the meantime. I was glad I had Slackware's CD-Rom jewel box, since the thing didn't have a DVD drive. Installed Slackware 14.1 using software RAID 5 on it. Nobody would have thought it, but we actually did most of the course on this old dinosaur, and we successfully ran DHCPD, BIND, NTPD, VSFTPD, Samba, Squid, SquidGuard, Postfix and a complete LAMP stack on that thing. The main motivation to do this was to poke fun at the Windows Server trainer, who complained that 8 GB RAM was "a bit short" to run his configurations when the server racks were finally delivered.
@kikinovak: you can probably make an ISO for this to be used for VPS/dedi providers allowing for custom HVM installs; this would make a great base system for remote Slackware systems!
The primary goal for this is learning. On servers, I just install the whole bucketload of package groups without KDE, XAP and XFCE, and that suits me well.
Your minimal setup would be the ideal starting point for creating a hardened Slackware server installation. Or a Slackware LXC container, for that matter.
Your minimal setup would be the ideal starting point for creating a hardened Slackware server installation. Or a Slackware LXC container, for that matter.
Excellent work.
Give it some time. I have some ideas how to get this right. Now I only need to find the time, as always.
Nice job kikinovak. I will follow this thread with great interest.
I was already trying to do the same thing, just for experiment/server purpose to replace in the future my netbsd server
I made a similar exercise with slackware 13.1, but my goal was to have just enough packages for slackpkg to work, then expand as needed.
The howto is hosted on the very same system I built when I made the howto!
It tough me a lot about tagfiles, slackpkg templates and (most importantly) dependencies, so I considered it a success as well a fun exercise.
I decided to try this on a VM. Downloaded the 64 iso and ran through the instructions with no problem. Went to update and though the logs say I have a network connection it doesnt seem to work. Running slackpkg hangs. Pinging against known websites just hang as well.
Deleted the VM and did a straight install and things worked as expected.
Deleted the VM again and reinstalled and worked through the install per instructions. Still cant ping the outside world. I havent been able to determine why yet.
First things first. For a start, I just wrote a documentation about an extremely minimal installation, which does three things:
Boot to a login prompt.
Allow root to login.
Allow root to install local packages using installpkg.
And that's it. Strict minimum. No slackpkg, no SSH, no network even, no man and info pages, and most of the shell commands are missing. It boots, that's it.
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. I started with a similar approach, on what was the minimum needed to boot, since 200 meg is a tight spot to fit. I reversed the process by adding a few useful things, such as networking. As far as the kernel, I specially prepared one and did not use the stock kernel. It was non-modular kernel, but with a few pcmcia modules like for my wireless card I bought for it. This system was working with about 40 MB left over, which is quite comfortable of a machine of that class, and the benefits of high speed remote access.
