I've been using the Cooking Up Some Slack method to edit an iso of Slack 11. I have my reasons for the version, so that is not the issue.

Taking programs and utilities out of the /slackware directory, I have cut the 1.4 gigabytes of software down to just 176 megabytes. My problem is, when it installs it uses around 550 megabytes on the hard drive. I have to get it down to about 230-240 megabytes of Slack. (there is also a valid reason for the space limit, so work with me on this). Currently, the only directories used are:

a, ap, d, k, l, n, x, and xap.

Directory sizes (in the same order above) are:

39.6mb, 3.4mb, 5.0mb, 37.6mb, 30.0mb, 3.5mb, 40.0mb, and 14.6 mb.

Any idea how much would have to be taken from these all together to get to my needed size of 230-240mb? I'm assuming I would have to virtually cut it in half.

The following links show the lists of files in each directory. There aren't a lot of programs in there the xap directory for example that I don't need. Obviously, xpaint can go, but that only makes up about 500kb.

a, ap, d, k, l, n, x, and xap

Twindy is a window manager that would work ideally for what I need, but it is requesting libstdc++.so.6. I have not checked up on this a whole lot, but I hope it will not take much space to add what is needed. Please let me know if you have any ideas as to how I can get rid of some of the bloat. BTW, everything (but Twindy) works perfectly. Installs in about 30 minutes and boots in less than a minute, so far I have not had problems with "dependency hell" and hope I won't.

Thanks for the help and advice in advance!

K contains only the kernel but is responsible for almost a third of the space. It contains the kernel source, but when you install, it uses the kernel from the CD. Do I need the kernel source in the first place?

According to the tag-file, it's recommended. So it's not absolutely necessary.

Okay. Good. I was hoping I could get away with only having one font installed, not the xll-fonts-misc package, but X won't start, so that adds another 10 megs back on. The current install size is down to 332megabytes, so I'm getting there. The system this is going to be installed on doesn't have a keyboard so I don't really need a lot of command line utilities besides the obvious navigation and text editor programs. I installed nano on it as I like it much more than vi or vim (don't flame me...vi is still there). And I don't need software with which to compile programs as the system should be all self-contained. The pkg tools are still installed but I have tried to remove any libraries or programs concerning development to save room.

"A" is my largest folder now, at 37 megabytes. Runner up is "l" at 30, then "x" at 23. Total size of /slackware directory is 110 megabytes. I really need to figure out what I can do without to get it down more. I still need to get another 120-130 megabytes off the install size.

I try to avoid using vi too, whenever possible. Keep telling myself I should learn to use it, but...

Can you get anything useful from this?

http://slackwiki.org/Minimal_System

I'll have to examine his list further, but offhand, he has 73 packages in "A" and I only have 39. I'll check the rest though. Also, he doesn't want a GUI and do, but he also is using services and development software I dont need. So hopefully I can sort things out.

Its so irritating because I'm so close and I need to compile a kernel for the first time and that may take a little while.

On that subject, a quick question, do you have to compile a kernel on the system it will be used on? Because wouldn't that require all these development tools I've deleted? And we're talking about a 400MHz processor. Its pretty fast, put compiling a kernel on it might take a couple months It will probably be a very small 2.4.3x kernel, as I don't need support for printers, webcams, copiers, etc. Only external thing I really need support for is a USB stick and keyboard/mouse if needed.

I've never compiled a kernel, but I should think that yes, you would have to compile it on the system it was intended for. Don't know if this is practical, but couldn't you just install any necessary development tools, compile the kernel, then remove them to make room? This thread would be better off in the Slackware forum really, where all the brains are.

Thats the problem. The hard drive on these tablets are only 256megabytes. I don't have enough room for it. Even if I were to get rid of X and all the X programs to do it, I wouldn't know if the kernel would work with Xorg correctly or not.

I don't know whether it's possible to get a workable system of only 256 MB from Slackware, or any full size distro. Maybe you should be looking at other minimal systems, but I've no idea what to suggest.

Have a look at these:
http://www.google.co.uk/Top/Computer...ibutions/Tiny/

Well, I'm pretty darn close to getting it. So I'm going to go ahead and continue. I'm hoping determination will come out on top. lol... cross your fingers.

Makes it awkward typing, but they're crossed.

This is a relatively new mini distro:
http://www.slitaz.org/en/

I'll look into it if I can't get what I need to work. But I'm not giving up yet. Thats sort of the point of using Linux isn't it? Breaking records? Who would think of shrinking Slackware down to fit on a 256 megabyte media as a real system? It will simply show how versatile the system is won't it?

Yes, that's what makes linux interesting - challenges.

Alright. I am down to 305 megabytes. Unfortunately, I have to put pango back in as pcmanfm (my file manager) requires it. There goes half a meg. Also, Firefox won't start without libatk-1.0.so.0. Any idea where I can get that? I will probably hold off on the kernel compiling for now. The system boots in no time anyway (with a virtual computer using 512 megabytes of RAM that is..) I've decided to take audio support out for right now to save space.

Can someone tell me if I actually need both of the following packages?

Terminus-font-4.20-noarch-1bj.tgz ----------------- 1.4MB
x11-fonts-misc-6.9.0-noarch-5.tgz ----------------- 17.0 MB

I substituted one of the default fonts that took up 3.1MB for Terminus as it's smaller, and if I only have the x11-fonts-misc, it doesn't seem to want to start X. Same thing if I remove the extra font. I there any chance I could either replace both with a file that contains the needed font, or replace the x11-fonts-misc package with something smaller? Ironically, x11 itself is only a meg smaller than the fonts-misc package. That seems a little stupid. Any idea if it can be replaced somehow?