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I would improve my understanding of the GNU/Linux system, and I have in particularly decided to install the newest version of Slackware.
I have only an Asus eeepc 701 with 4GB HDD, consequently I cannot select the "Full" option during the installation.
On the other hand, neither the choice of the single package during the process should be ok, because I am sure to fail.
In my opinion the best choice is the creation of the right tagfiles according what software I need.
I use my netbook for:
- programming (gcc and octave);
- watching videos and multimedia (Vlc);
- surfing on the web (Firefox and Skype);
- reading pdf (xpdf);
- record music (Audacity).
I don't need any other software, and for the graphical environment Fluxbox is perfect.
Please, can someone suggest what I need in my tagfiles?
I've searched in Google, but the concept of "Minimal System" is too different from people to people that I haven't found any suggestion.
Either use SalixOS directly or you could use the tag files I generated based on what 'official' Slackware packages Salix install. Since you want Fluxbox and not Xfce, you can either hand tweak the tagfiles first or just use them as is for the initial install and then afterwards remove the Xfce stuff, adding in Fluxbox and Xdf afterwards. Use the 'Basic' tag file set as your starting point (it is only 1.6Gb even though it includes some Xfce stuff at this stage). After you have removed Xfce grab the other stuff like Vlc, Skype and Audacity from SlackBuilds.org.
Oh what the hell, I am a nice guy so I took the Xfce stuff out of the 32-Bit Basic tag file set, and added in Firefox, Fluxbox, rxvt (since you will need a terminal), Xpdf and a bunch of dependencies you will later need for your extra applications:
Note: Yes there are a few odd choices but then it wasn't my selection originally and it is relatively small. You can start with this and adjust as you see fit.
Last edited by ruario; 04-18-2013 at 05:29 PM.
Reason: added note at the end; added installed size; added extra packages; added tetex as needed to build octave
Of the 4 biggest packages 3 are needed because of your requirements. Vlc you asked for directly and it depends on Qt (for the full graphical interface, which I assume you want) and teTeX is needed as a build dependency of Octave.
EDIT: You can gain most of this space back however if you remove teTex after you have Octave installed (I believe it is only a build dependency, not a runtime dependency). Even better would be to remove Qt, since you could continue to use Vlc's command line interface (cvlc) to play your media. You can still control everything with Vlc keyboard shortcuts or via your web browser.
Another tip, if you use the above command (take the '| tail -n 4' off the end) you can find other big packages that may be of no use to you. Some suggestions would be to: remove vim and switch it for elvis; kill big tools like subversion, git, mercurial, etc. (if you don't need them); remove some of the font packages (stuff like wqy-zenhei-font-ttf and ttf-indic-fonts are large regional font packages); drop tools for filesystems you do not use (e.g. xfsprogs, btrfs-progs, ntfs-3g, jfsutils, reiserfsprogs, dosfstools, etc.); get rid of unused partitioning tools like parted and gptfdisk; I'd also install the generic kernel, setup an initrd, reconfigure lilo and then remove the huge kernel (you are better off running the generic kernel anyway). Even with your additional software, you should be able to get your install around the 2Gb mark or less, leaving you with the other half the disk for any personal files.
P.S. You probably want to install wicd from /extra given this is a mobile device.
Last edited by ruario; 04-19-2013 at 08:53 AM.
Reason: Added bolding; comment on removing teTex and Qt; linked to Vlc information; comment about further reduction; suggested wicd
Thank you very much for the great suggestions!
I really appreciate your attempt to help me
I have just installed Slackware using your tagfile-package, and for the moment I have no problem.
The system is really small (less than 2GB), and now I have Firefox, Xpdf and Gcc working very well (basing on my experience this is however a first good result ).
During the next days I am configuring the rest of the system, especially Vlc and Skype, so surely I will post soon in order to point out some problem I am sure I will have.
By the way, based on a very quick scan of the list, here are some things you could consider removing to gain a little more space (I'm leaving in teTex and Qt for now):
Another potential idea if you want even more space would be to kill 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. Removing the contents of /usr/doc would gains you another 130Mb.
If you want to automatically remove new stuff added to /usr/doc by package additions or upgrades you could even add the following to a /etc/rc.d/rc.local_shutdown file and make it executable, to clear the directory on every shutdown (or alternatively stick the code in a cron job):
During the next days I am configuring the rest of the system, especially Vlc and Skype, so surely I will post soon in order to point out some problem I am sure I will have.
I must admit I'm a little curious. how did it all work out for you in the end?
I'm very sorry, but during the latest week I haven't found enought time to work on my eeepc.
As promised, I'll post here my news as soon as possible :-)
I am sorry for my inactivity, but unfortunately I'm incredibly busy during this period.
As soos as possibile, I'll post my news.
Please, be patient. :-)
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