Hi,

I hope this hasn't been asked before. I did do a search on the forums and couldn't find anything similar. My apologies if its a repeat question.

I want to do a minimal installation of Slackware. So rather than download the huge 650MB CD, I was wondering what other options I have.

1) Is it possible I can download some of the sets (A, D, E, etc etc) which are the bare minimum and from there on make a bootable CD and install? If yes, has anyone already made some such CD and put for download? I guess that would be easier than downloading all the sets and making a CD myself ...

2) Alternatively, can I do something like a network installation? I understand I can install over NFS, but can I install over the Internet through FTP maybe?

Thanks,
Rakhesh

I did a bit of searching around and it seems Slackware does not have an FTP installation method. So downloading and burning a CD seems to be the way to go.

Also, from the Slackware HOWTO I see that the minimum requirements are the "A" set; as well as the AP, D, L, and N sets if more than bare minimum. So downloading these and making an ISO is the way to go I guess ...

Any comments/ suggestions appreciated.

Thanks,
Rakhesh

There is this.

But as you can see, it is a little old, pre-10.2, so I don't know if it would still work. But it might be worth a shot.

yes, it's easy to download only the sets you want and then make yourself a small ISO...

just google for slackware ISO customization howtos (there's tons of them IIRC) and then just replace (in your mind) anything that says "get blah from the ISO" to "get blah from the FTP site"...

remember that the ISO image needs to be bootable, you can make it using a command resembling this: ftp://ftp.oregonstate.edu/pub/slackw...nux/README.TXT

There's a good Slackware customization howto right here on LQ.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/...ome_Slack_CUSS
Check out Part II about tagfiles.

Another suggestion would be to take a look at the ZipSlack directory on any Slackware mirror. The README.1st file contains a list of packages that would be a safe minimal install.

what's wrong with just choosing the minimal or bare
installation on the official disk 1?

the fact that you would have had to download the entire disk 1...

What's wrong with downloading the entire disk 1?

If it's bandwidth, then why not purchase a boxed slackware?

imagine you have a dial-up connection - then the answer to your first question should be obvious...

as for the second question, the reasons why someone wouldn't want to purchase a boxed set will probably be very varied depending on the person...

by downloading only the packages you need, you get to save TONS of download time, plus you end-up with an ISO containing only that which you desire and nothing else... why waste time downloading a bunch of stuff if you're sure you're never gonna use it??

or you can use zipslack. wget the files you need, then move it to a usb drive, cdrom, linux drive.

oh, the beauty of zipslack.

the best distro out there