Feature Request : canned minimum

[Chris Snook]

Kam Leo wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 4, 2008 at 11:51 AM, Beartooth <Beartooth at swva.net> wrote:
>> On Mon, 03 Mar 2008 21:53:29 -0500, Carroll Grigsby wrote:
>>
>>  > On Monday 03 March 2008 3:44:54 pm Beartooth Sciurivore wrote:
>>  >>      Didn't anaconda use to include an option to do a minimum install?
>>  [...]
>>
>>>>      I don't know whether the feature is feasible, much less why or
>>  >> why not; but I'd sure be glad of *some* easier way.
>>
>>
>>> How about starting with one of the live CDs? Less to trim, easier to
>>  > update and you can then add various bits and pieces to fit within your
>>  > space budget. I did that last week using the Live KDE version of F8, and
>>  > it went very well.
>>
>>         Hmmm .... I *think* I tried that ...
>>
>>         I tried so many things that I've not only forgotten why I gave
>>  upon which, but even what all I tried. Otoh, I was wondering last night
>>  whether I ought to try it again ...
>>
>>
>>  > I should point out that space isn't a problem here -- I've got a 320 GB
>>  > hard drive and had plenty of space for Fedora. I was just trying to cut
>>  > down all of the time spent installing, upgrading and then maintaining a
>>  > bunch of stuff that I don't need and don't use.
>>
>>         IOW, the feature would be welcome, if it were to (re)appear, in
>>  more places than just among early adopters of tiny machines.
>>
>>         I remember I tried EeeDora first of all; the deviser of it had
>>  obviously put a lot of work into it, and I've been seeing more than I
>>  want of how much that really was.
>>
>>         I'm pretty sure the trouble there, once I got the right version,
>>  was that his minimum wasn't my minimum. It seems several of the
>>  minimalist distros -- Knoppix, DSL, and several others -- still use a
>>  kernel that's not compatible with the hardware in the EeePC. But EeeDora
>>  was made from F8.
>>
>>         At this point, I'm down to where I can hardly remove half a dozen
>>  apps without getting a dependency requirement I'm not willing to live
>>  with. Pretty soon I'll have to start not only removing one at a time, but
>>  rebooting every time.
>>
>>         Stay  tuned.
>>
>>  --
>>  Beartooth Staffwright, PhD, Neo-Redneck Linux Convert
> 
> Therein lies the rub: Their minimum is not your minimum.
> 
> Use pungi and create your own distribution.
> 

That doesn't help.  Pungi's idea of a minimal distribution contains 373 
packages.  Somehow, gnome is a dependency of the kernel.  I just filed 
this bug against revisor, but it's using pungi under the hood:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=436020

This is why Debian has Requires, Recommends, and Suggests.

-- Chris