RE: How to reduce a debian system to a base system


Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:28:20 -0900 <gomadtroll@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Friday 19 March 2010 03:52:44 pm Mike Viau wrote:
On Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:31:44 -0300 <rogluz.news@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Ok the bigger problem you should have is "what is a base system"

I agree, what a base system means can be different among users.

I was refering to what Debian calls a 'base' intall and 'standard'. When you
install Debian (net install) the base system is installed, then a reboot is done
to install any 'tasksel' (gnome the default or alternate desktops) items. i
think 'standard' packages are added if you allow aptitude to run after the first
reboot without selecting any additional tasks. hope this makes sense.


How can the packages of base, standard, and so forth be view. Basically how does tasksel or the Debian install know what packages to install based on user selection.

Are you saying the 'standard packages' are install regardless if 'standard system' is selected at setup or not. This occurs after the setup reboots and aptitude is run?


You could run in another box a installation and get a list of the basic
system packages, but what do you want the box for? give us a user case
and we would try to sort this mess out for you.

Thanks :)

Definitely purging X is a must -- that will take down about 90% of the
"flavour" packages and none of the essential stuff, could you not start
there ?

Absolutely, I think that would be a good place to start

Do you need SQL ? Mail ? Apache ... etc ...

Not at the moment. My hopes are to remove all the packages that have been
installed as time progressed after the initial installation. I am fine with
keeping the later versions that were not present on the installation media
I used.

A use case would be great ... or is this a experiment?

I suppose I can classify this as an experiment case, whereas I will likely
later on try out various (which may include Apache, Samba, whatever really,
etc) Debian packages on the system. This time I plan to keep better track
of what I have installed so that the packages can be purged easily when I
am finished with the application.


Rogerio

2010/3/19 Greg Madden <gomadtroll@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

On Friday 19 March 2010 01:09:20 pm Mike Viau wrote:
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:31:40 +0100

From: iodine@xxxxxxxxx

To: debian-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Subject: Re: How to reduce a debian system to a base system

Mike Viau wrote:
In essence I would like to revert my system back to a freshly

installed state, without reinstalling. Ultimatly is this possible?

-snip-

I was hoping to find a solution for a currently running Debian system

rather then to create a bare bone baseline or image...

Wouldn't the easiest way be to backup all important data and

reinstall? That _should_ give the same end result. But if that

isn't a viable option for you, please explain why. Is this perhaps

a remote server that you can't get your hands on, I can see how

that would be a problem.



--

Odd

I do have physical access to the box, but it does not have an optical
drive

to make re-installation painless. I temporarily borrowed a USB drive that

is not with me anymore. The hardware is very recent and last time I tried

to used the net install disk the e1000e driver I was unable to detect my

network card and the Debian setup insisted that I was to use Ethernet
over

Firewire.

Would be nice to have a 'snapshot' feature to revert to. I have used
aptitude

(dselect) to get close to a standard install, base + standard is not that
many

packages, no X.



It is a bit tedious, but it can be done, Search for and purge xorg, gnome
stuff.

Aptitude remembers packages that have been installed as recommends and will
prompt

you to offer to remove them. 'deborphan' can help find & remove orphaned

libraries.





--

Peace



Greg Madden





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Greg Madden


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