I basically use slackware to learn linux, I was intrigued by its completeness, stability and speed as learned from the internet, but, man, it is big! I just need a command line interface with minimum size, I have removed KDE and hadn't installed XFCE, and now I am left with 6.0G, which is still way too big. Is there anything else I can remove to get a slim yet complete linux so that I can play with on command line?

Slackware is intended to be installed in full. Many others have tried to slim it as much as possible, but you will waste spend a lot of time just doing that. Better install an already trimmed down derivative like Salix Xfce-14.2. You will be offered a choice of three installation modes. Choose the Core one.

This being said, if you use the runlevel 3 in Slackware you will get a similar experience and none of the additional installed software will get in your way. But you already know that, right?

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If you don't really want a GUI (according to another thread you started) you can also remove the "x" and "xap" package sets. If you don't want to do any development or compile software either, then you can remove the "d" set and the kernel source as well. On the other hand, to be on the safe side I would keep all the other sets fully installed.

Of course you will do the above at your own risk. LQ members on the Slackware forum generally assume, for very good reasons, that people coming for help do have a full install of all package sets.

The problem here is that you're defining two fundamentally contradictory properties for the system you want: "slim" (i.e., consuming as little space as possible) yet "complete" (i.e., containing as much software as possible). You appear to have a target installation size in mind that you're trying to work back to by 86ing packages you think you don't need: I'd argue that you're thinking about this backwards, and that you ought to think about what you want your installation to be able to do (serve web pages? read mail? run a desktop environment?) and install packages that achieve those objectives on top of an installation that does almost nothing useful.

The best starting point is probably the Slackware LXC template in -current: if you created a Slackware LXC container, this is what would be installed. There are some packages missing from that list that you'll need to install in order to boot Slackware outside of a containerised environment, but you'll need to figure out what that list is by yourself. That'll give you a system that boots and connects to the network, but not much else. From there, install packages until your system contains both the software with the functionality you want and the libraries needed to run that software.

And don't do this on a live system, obviously. Treat it like an academic exercise. If you do this on a live system, it will all end in tears, as it has so many times before for people in this forum.

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Newegg currently has 8gb thumb drives on sale for $5.99. For the price of a sandwich, you could upgrade your storage and have plenty of space for a full install of Slackware.

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Thank you. A full install of Slackware works out of the box with all dependencies met. You are of course free to tinker with, and or pare down your install to meet your individual needs. We of course assume that you know what you're doing when you remove package sets.
As a rule we support full installations of Slackware.

for a minimal install without X, I usually install only a,ap,l,n. I have gone through each one and removed things I knew I wouldn't need, but that is usually a lot of work for what little extra space you get.

I agree with Didier Spaier. Do the full install, then just use the CLI.

One reason Slackware is "big" is that includes lots of stuff, including kernel headers, kernel sources, multiple text editors, and many programming and development tools.

Having wanted to compile from sources on other distros and then having discovered that, in order to do so, I needed to install kernel headers, compilers, and so on and so forth, I think the robustness of Slackware is a positive thing.

Thanks, I have a virtualbox installation, thus cannot spare too much space for this system along with several other vb installed on my computer.

Run the live DVD. No disk space needed.

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I would also suggest a full install when possible. There is no performance benefit to a minimal Slackware install (as many people seem to think) and disk space is very cheap these days. If however, you have some reason why adding disk space is hard or you are doing this as a learning exercise, then this will give you some clues.

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Thanks, Ruario, I will give it a try. 2G size would be perfect for my purpose. But seeking help might be a bit hassle as I really don't know whether it is because I hadn't installed something or I made a mistake. But let's wait and see as it is a learning process for me.

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Wouldn't that mean I cannot upgrade or change the kernel or anything to do with the operation system?

Use Crux then.

This sounds interesting, is Crux and Slackware designed under a similar philosophy? Slackware is indeed more familiar to my very old unix impression than other distro like ubuntu etc.