Minimal Install Option

Bill Anderson bill at noreboots.com
Thu Aug 21 16:39:04 UTC 2003


On Thu, 2003-08-21 at 09:09, Bill Rugolsky Jr. wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 21, 2003 at 09:38:09AM -0400, Jef Spaleta wrote:
> > File it as a bug! Or maybe you want to step up and be part of a
> > worthwhile discussion as to re-working of the existing minimal install
> > option. Since it seems its really a more a matter of how the packages
> > are grouped and which groups a minimal install actually installs..its
> > more a policy issue than an expert coding issue. This seems like
> > something we can have a nice lovely little community discussion
> > about...instead of just poking repeatedly at the anaconda maintainer to
> > remove this one package here...or this one other package..or maybe add
> > this one package to minimal. And its certainly a better idea to fix the
> > current minimal install offering than adding another minimal minimal
> > layer beyond the "broken" minimal. 
> > 
> > http://www.redhat.com/archives/rhl-beta-list/2003-July/msg00569.html
> 
> This discussion always tends to conflate different notions of "minimal".
> 
> The question is "minimal" w.r.t what criterion?  Is it the bare list
> of packages necessary to get to a login prompt on a standalone machine?
> Is it a networked host?  Is documentation included?  Manpages?
> Info files? /usr/share/doc?

In general, I could agree with this. However, the description on Minimal
states "for small router/firewall boxes" which gives us a reasonable
expectation.

IMO, part of the problem is that selecting the minimal install there are
so many required packages that most firewalls will not need, and some
that all firewalls should not have.

IMO, a firewall installation ("minimal") is pretty darned close to a
minimal network-ready install. One certainly could use it (after the
changes I proposed in another email) as a bootstrap for network add-ons.

Install the minimal, then install yum (or add yum during install), then
yum-away. Then create a kickstart config file.  Or, select the Minimal,
then add individual packages.

Oh, and for those who say "just install and remove... then make a
kickstart"...

The problem with the "just install and remove then make a kickstart
file" mentality is the "and remove" section. Remove foo and find it
relies on bar, eggs, bacon, and spam. So if in the package tool during
installation, you have to backtrack and find all these other
dependencies and remove them, then try again.  It is easier to build
then remove.

-- 
Bill Anderson
RHCE #807302597505773
bill at noreboots.com







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