New minimal install of Slackware 14.2?

SCerovec · 08-13-2016, 03:58 PM

May I ad few cents to this too?
1. Install a and n series, this will allow to boot and download any other, package management will be available too.
2. Therefrom try find a dependencies resolver for Slackware (3rd party software) or go "by foot".
this would be around 1GB or a bit more, i guess You could squeeze 14.2 to a 4-5GB with X but that just depends.
a is just not enough, less than a is just asking for trouble (=fun)

atelszewski · 08-13-2016, 06:35 PM

Hi,

I recently did a minimal installation and I enjoyed it ;-)
As for the reason why, well, people do worse things ;-)

Word of advice; consider inspecting doinst.sh before installing the package.
Sometimes it might contain commands that are not available due to missing dependency and it will fail silently.
(Pat redirects stderr to /dev/null in most [all?] of the doinst.sh scripts).

--
Best regards,
Andrzej Telszewski

lazardo · 08-16-2016, 11:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob0Tix

... I would like to know if there is a guide or tutorial to install a completely stripped version of Slackware 14.2. ...

'Minimal install' always implies context of required functionality, which is why there is no pre-configured minimal install. Instead of removing packages post-install, minimize up front by filtering what is downloaded. Using rsync '--exclude-from' option makes it easy.

Most libraries are installed which eliminates most dependency fixups. An application will complain about missing components and it is easy to add them back one by one until runtime requirements are met.

Code:

# Context: desktop/laptop environments, XFCE desktop, US_EN, no LAMP, no advanced development
# slackware64-current rsync excludes
# rsync -avP --exclude-from=rsync.excludes rsync://slackware.oregonstate.edu/slackware/slackware64-current/ 14.2/ --delete -n

## globals
#- *.txz.asc
- *noarch*.txt
- *.asc
- *i486*.txt
- *x86_64*.txt

# create the directory entries but ignore directory content for these package groups
+ slackware64/[efty]/
- slackware64/[efty]/*

#+ isolinux/
#- isolinux/*
+ kdei/
- kdei/*
+ pasture/
- pasture/*
+ testing/
#- testing/*
+ testing/source/*
+ extra/source/*
+ source/
- source/*

+ extra/aspell-word-lists/
- extra/aspell-word-lists/*
+ extra/bittornado/
- extra/bittornado/*
- extra/source/bittornado/*
+ extra/bittorrent/
- extra/bittorrent/*
- extra/source/bittorrent/*
+ extra/brltty/
- extra/brltty/*
- extra/source/brltty/*
+ extra/emacspeak*/
- extra/emacspeak*/*
- extra/source/emacspeak*/*
+ extra/google-chrome/
- extra/google-chrome/*
#+ extra/mplayerplug-in*/
#- extra/mplayerplug-in*/*
#+ extra/partitionmanager*/
#- extra/partitionmanager*/*

## new kde minimal infrastructure
+ kde/k3b-*
+ kde/kde-runtime-*
+ kde/oxygen-icons-*
+ kde/kdelibs-*
- kde/*

## technical bloatware
# mozilla apps installed directly from mozilla.org
- mozilla-firefox*
- mozilla-thunder*
- seamonkey-*
- NetworkManager-*
- QScintilla-*
- akondai-*
- anthy-*
- audacious-*
- blueman-*
- bluez-*
- clisp-*
#- clucene-*
#- cmake-*
- compiz-*
- cscope-*
#- doxygen-*
- electricsheep-*
- epic5-*
- gcc-gfortran-*
- gcc-gnat-*
- gcc-java-*
#- gcc-objc-*
- gcr-*
- glade-*
- glibc-i18n-*
- gnome-keyring-*
- gnuchess-*
#- gobject-introspection-*
- hplip-*
- irssi-*
- ksh93-*

# xfce uses keyring library
#- libgnome-keyring-*
- libhangul-*
#- linuxdoc-tools-*
#- llvm-*
- m17n-*
- mercurial-*
- mozilla-thunderbird-*
- mysql-*
- netatalk-*
- network-manager-applet-*
#- pango-*
- phonon-*
- php-*
- pidgin-*
- pilot-link-*
#- polkit-gnome-*
- qtscriptgenerator-*
- ruby-*
#- samba-*
- sazanami-fonts-*
- scim-*
#- seamonkey-solibs-*
- sinhala_lklug-*
#- slang-*
#- slang1-*
- soprano-*
#- subversion-*
- swig-*
- tibmachuni-font-*
- ttf-indic-*
- virtuoso-*
- wqy-zenhei-*
- x3270-*
- xaos-*
- xchat-*
- xfractint-*
- xfsprogs-*
- xine-*
- xmms-*
- xscreensaver-*
- zsh-*
- xf86-input-joystick-*
- xf86-video-apm-*
- xf86-video-ark-*
- xf86-video-ast-*
- xf86-video-ati-*
- xf86-video-chips-*
- xf86-video-cirrus-*
- xf86-video-glint-*
- xf86-video-i128-*
- xf86-video-i740-*
- xf86-video-mach64-*
- xf86-video-mga-*
- xf86-video-neomagic-*
- xf86-video-r128-*
- xf86-video-rendition-*
- xf86-video-s3-*
- xf86-video-s3virge-*
- xf86-video-savage-*
- xf86-video-siliconmotion-*
- xf86-video-sis-*
- xf86-video-sisusb-*
- xf86-video-tdfx-*
- xf86-video-tga-*
- xf86-video-trident-*
- xf86-video-tseng-*
- xf86-video-voodoo-*
- xf86-video-xgi-*
- xf86-video-xgixp-*

sanmarino-london-axis · 05-26-2017, 12:07 AM

you might want to try salixOS instead. it's more noob friendly than native slackware.

although I had some dependency problems too when installing basic. like the power manager icon didn't show up in the start menu.

but that was a minor case.

salixOS is fully backward compatible with native slackware. it's unlike zenwalk or slax or vectorlinux, salix is 100% mimicking slackware's original releases.

salix is so easy to install and use. comes with the slapt-get package manager, and sourcery GUI for slackbuilds.

although the salix repo already has almost all the binaries you might need.

solarfields · 05-26-2017, 02:46 AM

The most minimal system I have installed consisted of just a ap l n series. However, this was for upgrading to -current purpose. Otherwise, I install everything except e kde kdei y. I install all packages, only from the xap series I deselect what I do not need.

reclusivewriter · 05-30-2017, 06:15 AM

I've played around with trimming down my Slackware install, but nowadays, I just install everything except E KDE XFCE and XAP, then add back Imagemagick, MPlayer and Firefox. That's from a lot of installs and trial and error, and trying to save a few megabytes slashing and burning never worked well for me. I've never had a problem with my current installs, but I don't use DE's and only one GTK app, so your milage may vary.

Not installing most of a distro that handles all the dependencies doesn't help much if you leave too much of it out, so I'm with the others in advising to just install everything except the groups you know you don't need and won't miss.

If in doubt, leave it in is my motto.

StellarMass · 11-23-2019, 06:27 AM

I know that this thread is really old, but in case it helps someone ...
My use case is a homebrew server which uses a 2GB CF card as IDE Primary Master and a bunch of encrypted SATA drives.
Installing everything isn't a very good solution for me as it must fit into the 2GB CF card!
I just installed Slackware 14.2 using 'expert' mode to install a very cut down set of A, AP and N.
I moved var, tmp and home to a ramdisk to save wear on the CF card, but that's another story.
For the next 20 minutes or so I systematically tried all the programs that I needed.
I got plenty of '.so missing' errors so copied the name of the lib into https://packages.slackware.com/ with it set to mode=content
and then eg 'installpkg /mnt/cdrom/slackware/l/libname-1.2.3.4.txz' (having mounted the cd)
I even managed to originally exclude ifconfig but easily fixed it after consulting packages.slackware. (n/net-tools-1.60.20120726git-i486-1.txz)
The ONLY thing I had difficulty with was cryptsetup, which would hang after typing in the password.
A bit of googling revealed that I needed 'installpkg /mnt/cdrom/slackware/a/lvm2-2.02.154-i586-1.txz' and then all was sweet.

The server runs Samba, Httpd, Logitech Media Server, SSHD, has LUKS encrypted drives and when the drives spin down, takes just 20 watts of power.
I also installed GraphicsMagick and all the necessary libs to run it. (that took about half the time!)

The install in total takes just 871Mb !!!

upnort · 11-23-2019, 12:19 PM

This thread is not that old.

Any chance you could create some tag files from the project?

hazel · 11-23-2019, 12:34 PM

I did it and quite a few old slackers were sniffy about it but I have a perfectly workable system in 8.6 GB. Yes, of course it's not necessary because we all have more disk space than we know what to do with, but it's a nice feeling all the same.

I had one advantage in that I had done a lot of LFS/BLFS builds, so I knew the names of many essential libraries and made sure they were present before I started installing applications. The first launch of any application was from a terminal so that if it crashed, I could see why. Typically it couldn't find a library so I installed that. If it happened more than once, I used ldd to get a list of what was missing at one stroke. The search and file-search options of slackpkg were very useful too.

In the end, there was only one missing file that stumped me. I can't remember the name that came up in the error message but I know I appeared to have that file. So I asked for help and someone told me the message came from Python, which meant that the missing file must have a .py suffix. Then I was able to track it down and install it.

So I say go for it, but don't expect it to be quick.

arl0Vv · 11-23-2019, 04:13 PM

Quote:

@bassmadrigal -- How does this apply at all to the OP?

I tried obarun and it's about as minimal as it gets, AFAIK. So, IMHO, is apropos.

nobodino · 11-24-2019, 05:59 AM

sometime ago I did a really mininal Slackware installation: 20 packages
----------------------
aaa_base-14.2-i586-2
aaa_elflibs-14.2-i586-28
aaa_terminfo-5.9-i486-1
bash-4.4.005-i586-2
coreutils-8.27-i586-1
devs-2.3.1-noarch-25
e2fsprogs-1.43.4-i586-1
etc-14.2-i586-9
eudev-3.1.5-i586-8
glibc-solibs-2.24-i586-2
grep-3.0-i586-1
kernel-huge-smp-4.4.38_smp-i686-1
kernel-modules-smp-4.4.38_smp-i686-1
kmod-24-i586-1
shadow-4.2.1-i586-2
sysvinit-2.88dsf-i486-4
sysvinit-scripts-2.0-noarch-33
tar-1.29-i586-1
util-linux-2.29.2-i586-1
xz-5.2.3-i586-1
--------------------------
could be updated with slackware-current.
I provide a little memo of different kind of mini slackware installation (2018)

colorpurple21859 · 11-24-2019, 08:15 AM

What is a minimal install? Just the items to get slackware to boot, network/no network, x/no x, one item for a full desktop approach?

nobodino · 11-24-2019, 09:07 AM

For my understanding, a minimal system is a bare system able to boot and to grow.
Up to you, after you've your minimal system to include what's missing to you to do what you need.
When you've to much packages, you don't know what there are for.
When you've the barest system you need to think, that's the way I understood Slackware: I shrinked it to have as less as possible.

rainydais · 11-24-2019, 09:09 AM

I normally install most packages from a, d and l, and few packages from n (just enough to get dhclient and httpd working). For X, I install most packages in x, except the fonts and the xf86- drivers I don't need. Then I install packages or build slackbuilds, see if there is anything missing, and install the missing dependency. The MANIFEST file in the slackware/ dir has everything that every package installs on the system.

Tagfiles sets can help you with this.

bifferos · 11-24-2019, 09:44 AM

The tagfiles for Vagaslack represent a minimal install... of sorts.

https://github.com/bifferos/vagaslack/tree/master/tags

Sorry, these files are not actually tagfiles. The reason for that is that I can't work with one-package-per-line files which say e.g.

Quote:

<name>:ADD

I want instead a list of packages that will be EXCLUDED from the install. Why is that? Because then when -current adds a new package (or renames one) it will get added by default and I don't want current to be broken by that. My requirement for 'minimal' is a loose one. 'Working' is much more important.

There are sub-files named after specific versions of Slackware which give supplemental packages which will be added to the list of excluded packages, for example all versions of Slackware should exclude these packages from the l series for minimal install:
https://github.com/bifferos/vagaslac...ter/tags/l.skp

Whereas if you are using -current, you need to supplement the list above with these packages:
https://github.com/bifferos/vagaslac...64-current.skp

Conversely, for 14.2 supplement with this list:
https://github.com/bifferos/vagaslac...kware-14.2.skp
(sorry, that list is WIP, but hopefully it illustrates the concept)

Code in the ISO generator will generate the actual tagfiles:
https://github.com/bifferos/vagaslac...ate_iso.py#L52

So I'm afraid you need to actually run the generator to get your tag files.

To give an idea of the space used in these minimal installs you can check the Vagrant box size:
https://app.vagrantup.com/bifferos/boxes/slackware-14.2

That won't equate to disk usage because Vagrant compression reduces that, but it should give a vague idea. You can always pull the image down to VirtualBox and take a look if you want to try it out.
https://www.vagrantup.com/intro/getting-started/