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Slax-Dude 09-01-2010 02:10 PM
Slack minimal install - HowTo
 
Judging from the number of threads about it, there seems to be quite some people that want/need a minimal install of Slackware.
So, I made this little HowTo to make it easy for them.

Please note that this is only my way of doing so, and probably not even the best way to do it... but there it is.

Since I'm a noob with wordpress (this is hosted on my home internet line and SPAM scares me), I turned off comments to my blog, so if you have any questions about it, feel free to contact me here at LQ.

EDIT:
You can grab the tagfiles for slackware 13 and up, here.

My goal is to have a "as small as possible" Slackware install with the following requirements:
  1. udev must be working, so hardware detection functions properly
  2. pkgtools must be working, so expanding the base install is not a problem
  3. slackpkg must be working, so getting/installing new packages is made easy
  4. sshd must be working, so you can access your machine remotely
  5. network must be working, see points 3 and 4

The package list, which after install will use around 335MB, is as follows:
Code:
aaa_base                                       
aaa_elflibs                                     
aaa_terminfo                                   
acpid                                           
apmd                                           
bash                                           
bin                                             
bzip2                                           
coreutils                                       
cpio                                           
dbus                                           
dcron                                           
devs                                           
dialog                                         
e2fsprogs                                       
etc                                             
findutils                                       
gawk                                           
glibc-solibs                                   
grep                                           
gzip                                           
kernel-huge-smp                                 
kernel-modules-smp                             
lilo                                           
logrotate                                                                             
module-init-tools                               
openssl-solibs                                 
pciutils                                       
pkgtools                                       
procps                                         
sed                                             
shadow                                         
slocate                                         
sysfsutils                                     
sysklogd
sysvinit
sysvinit-functions
sysvinit-scripts
tar
udev
util-linux-ng
which
xz
diffutils
nano
slackpkg
hal-info
ncurses
dhcpcd
gnupg
gnupg2
gpgme
iputils
net-tools
network-scripts
openssh
wget

TSquaredF 09-01-2010 10:41 PM
This is a topic that interests me. I used to keep a live-CD around to help me recover from any mistakes I might make in tweaking my system. Years ago I installed Slax-Frodo (a CLI system) to a 1G partition on my HD. I later replaced all the packages in that system with the ones from Slackware. Now Linus72 has a minimal list on his site, which I recently made tagfiles from & installed. He said it is under 700 MB, but it was just over 800 on my system, without a WM. I have not had a chance to compare my tagfiles with yours. How big is the system that yours installs?
Regards,
Bill

samac 09-02-2010 01:35 AM
You should cut and paste the howto (without the pictures) to this thread, also add a link to the parent directory of the tagfiles, so that people can download for their version of Slackware , and also list the files that are included. This would allow people to tailor the tagfiles for themselves, for example you ADD xfs but SKP jfs, others might prefer it another way.

Looks good.

samac

mjjzf 09-02-2010 02:36 AM
I can mirror it with full credits on writtenandread.net, if you are interested - and it is not a disgrace to put it on a Debian server...
You may also consider actually describing how tagfiles work. In my world, they are the way to go. Also, they make it easy to do a Slackware remix of your own.

Slax-Dude 09-02-2010 10:07 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by TSquaredF (Post 4085592)
How big is the system that yours installs?
After installed, the system will take up about 335MB.
Updated my post with this information.

Slax-Dude 09-02-2010 10:07 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by mjjzf (Post 4085751)
I can mirror it with full credits on writtenandread.net, if you are interested - and it is not a disgrace to put it on a Debian server...
You may also consider actually describing how tagfiles work. In my world, they are the way to go. Also, they make it easy to do a Slackware remix of your own.
You can mirror it if you want, but please keep a link to the original post.
As for tagfiles, users should read chapter 18.4 of the Slackbook here.

Slax-Dude 09-02-2010 10:08 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by samac (Post 4085702)
You should cut and paste the howto (without the pictures) to this thread
I don't believe it's necessary to replicate it here, as following a link is trivial.
Also, I might have to change something and that would mean correcting all the "mirrors". I simply don't have the time to maintain several copies of it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by samac (Post 4085702)
also add a link to the parent directory of the tagfiles, so that people can download for their version of Slackware , and also list the files that are included. This would allow people to tailor the tagfiles for themselves
Done

Quote:
Originally Posted by samac (Post 4085702)
for example you ADD xfs but SKP jfs, others might prefer it another way.
That was a mistake I made. I already removed xfsprogs from the tagfiles. Thx for catching it!

Quote:
Originally Posted by samac (Post 4085702)
Looks good.
Thx :)

Lufbery 09-02-2010 01:16 PM
Nice work, Slax-dude.

One quick comment/question: why use the -huge kernel instead of the -generic one? Typical practice with Slackware is to use the huge kernel for the initial boot and installation, but then make an initrd and boot one of the generic kernels for day to day running. You've got mkinitrd in your list, so why not the generic kernel?

Regards,

Slax-Dude 09-02-2010 02:36 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lufbery (Post 4086225)
why use the -huge kernel instead of the -generic one? Typical practice with Slackware is to use the huge kernel for the initial boot and installation, but then make an initrd and boot one of the generic kernels for day to day running.
I experimented with different packages, but ultimately decided that using a huge kernel would be the fastest and less complicated way to install Slackware.
Note that after booting your new minimal system, you can always use slackpkg to download and install any package you want (that's one of my main goals).

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lufbery (Post 4086225)
You've got mkinitrd in your list, so why not the generic kernel?
My mistake. I forgot to remove it from the final package list.
I fixed the tagfiles and the list on this post.

Thx for spotting that and for your comment :)

Lufbery 09-02-2010 02:41 PM
Glad to be of some little help. :)

<kidding>Now you just need to add Emacs and you've got yourself an operating system.</kidding>

Regards,

Ahmed 09-02-2010 03:13 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lufbery (Post 4086313)
<kidding>Now you just need to add Emacs and you've got yourself an operating system.</kidding>
<kidding>An operating system lacking a decent editor</kidding>

*Ducks*

-A

igadoter 09-02-2010 03:23 PM
Hi,
I tried to do minimal X server installation. But what appeared to be enough and really minimal for Ati Radeon 7500 GPU on a box was not enough for an Intel 82xxxGM card on my notebook. Both computer are running on slack 13.1.

enine 09-05-2010 09:01 PM
I need to dig out my old system, it was 10.x IIRC and on a 128M flash card. I just installed the A set in setup then a package or two here and there from the rest.

igadoter 09-06-2010 01:46 AM
@enine
Thank for BackTrack 4. Never hear before. But I had look at website - looks nice.

gnashley 09-06-2010 02:45 AM
Slax-Dude, that's a very nice list there. It's the closest I've seen to a really minimal install since the one I used to have for slackware-9.1. the trouble with most minimal install package lists is in the fine print of what the authors' idea of 'minimal' is. Like you, I tried to pare the concept down as far as possible -bootable, with login being the most minimal of all(always using full packages instead of cut down ones). Of course extendability and minimal network capability are the next step. Beyond that, the term minimal doesn't really apply any more IMHO. It's a great learning exercise to produce such a list.

Slax-Dude 09-06-2010 09:42 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by gnashley (Post 4089248)
Slax-Dude, that's a very nice list there. It's the closest I've seen to a really minimal install since the one I used to have for slackware-9.1. the trouble with most minimal install package lists is in the fine print of what the authors' idea of 'minimal' is. Like you, I tried to pare the concept down as far as possible -bootable, with login being the most minimal of all(always using full packages instead of cut down ones). Of course extendability and minimal network capability are the next step. Beyond that, the term minimal doesn't really apply any more IMHO. It's a great learning exercise to produce such a list.
Thx for your nice comments :)

I totally agree that a minimal system should not use cut down packages, or it's not Slackware any more.

The beauty of my minimal install is that once you uncomment a mirror in /etc/slackpkg/mirror then it is fairly trivial to expand it to your needs:

This will install apache + mysql + php
Code:
slackpkg update
cd /etc/slackpkg/templates/
wget http://cybercenter.com.pt/slack-minimal/slackpkg-templates/LAMP-server.template
slackpkg install-template LAMP-server

This will install ALL packages, giving you a full install of Slackware
Code:
slackpkg update
slackpkg install slackware
Or anything in between :)

I also have a post on how to expand Slackware minimal install to support wordpress (which is what I used to build my site).

My goal is, eventually and with the help of any interested slackware users, build a repository of slackpkg templates which will expand the the minimal install.
It would be very nice if you could, easily, have a Slackware Fluxbox minimal install, or a Slackware XFCE minimal install, or even a Slackware qemu-kvm minimal install.

How cool would that be? :)

gnashley 09-06-2010 10:20 AM
How cool would that be? Very... The next tricky level to reach is a minimal installation with X -again keeping in mind the most minimal list possible -in order to be fair you should probably include twm. There is a fairly recent thread with some good pointers.


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