Fedora minimal install...

[David T Hollis]

On Sun, 2004-05-23 at 21:43 +0200, MG wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> When will be avaiable in Fedora the absolute minimal install option?
> It could be the 300-400MB with the absolute necessery packages?
> For exmaple for a single firewall system.
> 
> Bye!
> Gabor
> 
I've managed some minimal installs of Fedora by using some of the tips
that have appeared on the list in the past.  What I do is to boot into
rescue mode from the CD.  I use fdisk to create my partitions, format,
etc then mount my filesystems under /mnt/sysimage directory.  I then do
an 'rpm --initdb --root /mnt/sysimage' which creates the rpmdb
under /mnt/sysimage/var/lib/rpm.  I then do an 'rpm -ivh
--root /mnt/sysimage kernel-xxxxx.rpm' or other known-needed package and
keep adding the requirements until all are satisfied.  Once glibc, rpm,
bash and their myriad of dependinces are installed, you can
'chroot /mnt/sysimage' so you are in your new install (kinda feeling
like Gentoo at this point ;) ) and continue adding your desired
packages.  

Things to remember:

If you want to keep with Fedora/RH tradition, label your filesystems and
copy an /etc/fstab from a different system for a base.  Tweak it as
necessary to match your partitioning.

Install grub or lilo if you want to boot!  Run through their respective
install routines so that you can boot.

There will be some package dependencies that don't make sense or you
don't feel are really needed.  If you want to maintain your sanity, just
go with the flow.  Fedora is not intended to be an embedded distro
fitting in as little space as possible.  If that is your real desire,
find a distro with that intent.  Don't try to use a belt sander when you
need to change a light bulb.

I would recommend trying to get yum or apt installed.  This will mean
additional reqs that you may not want such as python, but since you may
have next to nothing installed, it's so much nicer just saying 'yum
install blahblah' and letting it work things out instead of going
through all of the dependency fun all over again.  Of course, the yum
headers will add to your storage reqs.

With this method, I've managed working installs around 200mb with
additional utils installed that I needed/wanted.  Pretty spartan to be
sure (no man pages, etc) but it did work rather well.  Also helps you to
appreciate what Anaconda does for you!

-- 
David T Hollis <dhollis at davehollis.com>