Re: Multi-arch netinst getting too big
On Wednesday 16 June 2010, Steve McIntyre wrote:
> >I'm afraid I don't have any good ideas. Is this particular image
> >supposed to contain a complete base system or just enough to fetch the
> >remainder of the base system from the net?
>
> The netinsts are meant to have the base system, yes. I can't see
> anything obvious myself that we can drop. Maybe time to give up on
> powerpc on that image, like we've done on the m-a DVD. Shame, but
> there's only so much stuff we can accommodate here. Anybody else have
> an opinion here? Frans/Joey?
The i386 netinst has also grown substantially. The base system probably
needs cleaning as part of the final preparations for Squeeze. I suspect
ATM 2 versions of Python get installed for example, and probably some
(old) libs have a too high priority.
But partly it's "normal" growth: the G-I initrds are still larger than
for Lenny due to the switch to X.Org. The kernel packages are undoubtedly
bigger again and the addition of firmware packages will not have helped
either.
Someone will have to do a detailed comparison between Lenny and Squeeze
images to see where the changes are and whether some cleanup is possible.
Possibly some udebs and/or packages can be excluded.
All inclusion/exclusion lists should be reviewed in general.
Beside the netinsts, all first CD and DVD images will need careful review
of contents as well: are desktops installable using first images only (at
least for i386 and amd64)?
One option may be to drop PDF and text versions of the manual. But space
will have to be reserved for the Release Notes.
I will not be doing any work on any of this myself this release.
Cheers,
FJP
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