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I've only got a small hard drive and I need to delete some things so I can get more on. What can I delete?
Use slackpkg to remove package series, if you need space in /usr
From Slackware-Howto:
Code:
A The base Slackware system. (405 MB)
AP Linux applications. (445 MB)
D Program development tools. (1.1 GB)
E GNU Emacs. (117 MB)
F FAQs and HOWTOs for common tasks. (33 MB)
K Linux 3.10.17 kernel source. (582 MB)
KDE The KDE desktop environment and applications. (1.4 GB)
KDEI Language support for KDE. (1 GB)
L System libraries. (1.3 GB)
N Networking applications and utilities. (340 MB)
T TeX typesetting language. (291 MB)
TCL Tcl/Tk/TclX scripting languages and tools. (19 MB)
X X Window System graphical user interface. (389 MB)
XAP Applications for the X Window System. (571 MB)
XFCE The XFCE desktop environment and applications. (72 MB)
Y Classic text-based BSD games. (6 MB)
Removing KDE and KDEI will save 2.4 GB. If you don't want to compile programs, D is another candidate for 1.1 GB. Removing the kernel source (K) can add another half GB to that. Most people also don't need the E/T series, which account for almost another half GB.
So you can free up more than 4 GB by executing
Code:
slackpkg remove d e k kde kdei t
while still having a rather usable system. Xfce makes a good desktop environment too and it's quite lean.
If you miss something, you kann reinstall series as easily. For example if you want to have your compilers back, use
Code:
slackpkg install d
You may have to adjust /etc/slackpkg/mirrors to point to your Slackware DVD.
If you've compiled a new kernel then running 'make clean' in /usr/src/linux should free up nearly a gigabyte. After you're system is setup (video and all the hardware is working), you can remove the kernel-source package to free up approx. 440MB.
You can also remove the linux-faqs and linux-howtos packages (~31MB).
If you don't use Emacs, removing the emacs package should free up another 110MB.
Removing the gforth, gcc-gfortran, gcc-gnat, gcc-go, and gcc-objc packages should free up another 200MB or so (as long as you are not programming in those languages).
You probably don't need both Seamonkey and Firefox, choose one. If you choose Seamonkey then you probably don't need Thunderbird (similarly for PDF viewers, word processors, and text editors).
Use the following command to see how much disk space each of your packages take, and focus mainly on the ones that are 10MB or more.
Consider the biggest packages first and if or how you use them. This will give you the biggest bang for your buck when cutting the install size down. Some potential candidates for removal include (these sizes are based on a 32-Bit 13.37 install, if you have a newer and/or 64-Bit Slackware version they are likely to be bigger still):
All of the KDE series for a 900Mb saving
kernel-source package 415Mb (installed size). Whilst you will need this package if you want to compile a custom kernel or if you need to compile special kernel modules (like the VitualBox Guest additions), it can be a nice saving if you don't need it. Even if you do need it you can still consider removing after you are finished with it, as it is the type of package you are most likely to want only at the beginning, when first setting up your system.
All of the t/ series for a 250Mb saving
Qt another 129Mb (worth it if you aren't using KDE or other Qt based apps)
Samba for a 125Mb saving
Emacs 90Mb or Vim 26Mb (or both!)
If you are running 32-Bit remove either kernel-modules (most likely) or kernel-modules-smp as you won't use need both. The are just over 70Mb each.
Seamonkey 66Mb or Firefox 32Mb (or both and install Opera at 34Mb, which could also replace the 30Mb Thunderbird)
Gimp 54Mb
More generally reconsider each of packages that make up the xap/ series (just look in the slackware/xap/ directory on a mirror to get a list). These packages are often large and generally don't interdepend on each other. Removing a bunch of stuff here will also clear up your application menus in KDE or Xfce, which is a nice added bonus.
For tips on how to keep your /tmp from getting too big read (it often balloons out of control) this SlackDocs article.
Another potential idea if you want even more space would be to kill some (or if you want to be extreme, all) the contents of the /usr/doc. Most of this stuff is is purely extra information and not needed by the applications themselves. In my experience, it is very rare that removing these files causes a problem. Indeed some distros (e.g. Crux) don't install any doc files at all by default. If you really need to know more about a package you can always run a quick search online anyway or reinstall that one package to get its doc files back.
Last edited by ruario; 11-18-2013 at 01:25 AM.
Reason: Added a comment on xap/; adding link to my old post
By default a typical ext2/3/4 drive will have 5% of every partition set aside as 'reserved blocks'. The tune2fs command will let you change that number. On my box I have separate root and home partitions so:
tune2fs -m 2 /dev/sda1
tune2fs -r 0 /dev/sda3
This reduced my root partition down to 2% of reserved blocks and my home partition having 0 reserved blocks. If, for example, your /home is 100 GB, this frees up 5 GB of disk space.
Are you using only one partition? If not, I suggest 20 Gb for /, and the rest for /home and swap. 20 Gb is plenty for Slackware, even with KDE installed and lots of log files.
Then, if you have software in /opt (LibreOffice and Google Chrome, for example, go there by default) and /usr/local (stuff you compile), set up /home/opt and /home/local directories and symlink those to /opt and /usr/local, respectively. That also protects them if you upgrade or change distros.
If you want really thorough look at disk usage, I strongly recommend ncdu (NCurses Disk Usage). I used it to locate and remove most space consuming packages in many similar situations in the past.
Last edited by yenn; 02-05-2014 at 05:30 PM.
Reason: typo
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