Re: Help: Dselect ran out of disk space
Heather wrote:
>
> > Tim wrote:
> > >
> > > Bolan Meek wrote:
> > > > What's your partitioning look like? What's the output of `df`?
> > > > If you use cfdisk, are there any partitions you don't see in `df`,
> > > > i.e. not have mounted?
> > >
> > > I have 104MB as root and 16MB swap there is 1% unuseable, presumably
> > > something to do with the drive geometry.
> >
> > Is this from a `df` report? I don't remember X% Unusable in that...
> >
> > Only a single root partition, everything going into it? OK, you can
> > run with 104MB, but you don't have much room. You'll have to be really
> > choosy about what you install, and only install a few packages at a
> > time, remembering to "hold" (if you're using dselect, which I recommend)
> > Up To Date packages so that when they're updated, they won't
> > automatically get installed, clogging up your limited space for /var/cache...
>
> I recently had a need to do the same thing (install in almost no space)...
> in my case, because a friend is using a FlashDisk instead of a standard hard
> drive so to have lots less power consumption for his libretto.
>
> You *could* install minimum only by using the "debinst" option of the Linuxcare
> bootable business card. It drops in only base for slink (well, updated kernel
> though) and configures the bootup.
>
> However, we got a fairly usable day-to-day config by the following means.
> If anyone wants to turn into a mini-HOWTO or add it to one, I'm cool with
> that :)
> Forget using the installer.
> mount the drive temporarily on another system.
> format a small swap, the rest one-big-slash. (you did)
> don't forget a hibernate volume if you need it!
> (In our case, this is why we are so cramped.)
> drop in the base tarball.
> drop in a kernel package of your choice. plus modules.
> delete modules you expect to not need, if it's
> not a custom build.
> perform steps the installer would have done to make it bootable
> create an /etc/fstab which mounts /tmp as a ramdisk.
> set /etc/hostname, create /etc/hosts with 127.0.0.1 localhost
> if you don't things will complain a lot.
> "missing neighbor table" -> you have to setup the
> localhost interface!
> mv /sbin/uncofigured.sh to somewhere else
> doctor /etc/syslog.conf so that all fluff is logged
> to VCs only. critical stuff still hits disk.
> I didn't, but you could, have it log to ramdisk.
> anyways this is crucial otherwise bootup babble
> will nail your free space.
> create an /etc/lilo.conf correct for the environment
> it will become. Do Not Yet run LILO!
> umount it and install it in the correct system.
> boot a rescue disk of some sort; tomsrtbt or linuxcare BBC
> are my preference.
> chroot /dev/hda1 or whatever your / is.
> /sbin/lilo
> adjust /etc/rcN.d sequence so it only boots things you really
> want. if you stay with default /etc/inittab, it's
> enough to fixup /etc/rcS.d (should be ok) and /etc/rc2.d
> exit chroot and umount
>
> At this point anyone is welcome to tell me what else the installer normally
> does for us, that I've skipped and which might affect something.
>
> boot the machine "normally"
> check your /etc/apt/sources.list (tempoarily goto woody)
> apt-get update
> apt-get install console-apt
> this offers the ability to Hold and Purge things such as
> dselect does but Muuuch nicer interface. huge stacks of
> good things use curses so the extra library is not bad.
> (switch sources.list back to your own preference if not woody)
> pick a text editor, Purge all the others.
> I don't know whose drugs thought ae was best default.
> vim + vim-rt was my pick though I had to install them.
> I got rid of tiny-elvis, ae, there are some others in base.
> if you won't do mail switch your MTA to Masqmail. because of its
> focus it's much smaller than the others, and cron inists
> on an MTA for its scripts, but since you need it to
> keep a tight leash on diskspace you can't toast it. *sigh*
> in other words, install Masqmail, then purge exim, then
> tweak the cron setup so it doesn't -need- mail.
>
> equivs can be used to defeat this and even get rid of the MTA? I haven't
> tried it.
>
> Purge all other base packages you don't want. If console-apt won't let
> let you, you can exit and use apt-get remove <package>
> to see what its complaint is -- maybe get rid of 3 things
> at once. It may seem huge but no, you can't get rid of perl.
>
> Good time to backup a tar.gz of your trimmed results to another system!
>
> Add things you want in small chunks. move their /usr/[share/]doc
> to some other system or toast the docs.
>
> I think it's possible to remove the locales whose languages you won't be using.
> Unfortunately you have to do this as you go because messages are in each app's
> package.
>
> Tomsrtbt saves space by turning all the man pages it does use into rawtext
> instead of troff.
>
> I can tell you, maybe you can get X, but if so, a very tight fit. (look at
> the BBC for a good minimum X kit, they use Amaya as browser which is way
> crashy.) You can get okay functionality by installing mc, lynx-ssl (from
> international), and sticking to curses apps. We had a little more space to
> play with than you do (more like 150 Mb) and succeeded at squishing X and
> netscape in. (you might prefer links which can deal with tables, to lynx
> which can't, but I don't think links does SSL.) I know you can get a fairly
> small kit but haven't measured the size it results without hurculean efforts
> to trim fat first.
>
> Does apm still require X to satisfy its xlibs-for-xapm problem?
>
> * Heather Stern * star@ many places
>
Wow!
I'm quite blown away by that.
It willtake me some time to digest.
I'm 1,00 miles from home for the next 2 weeks so have time to work
through it.
The laptop in question is an odd one with non-standard drive so using
the drive on another machine is not an option.
I'm thinking of simply restarting from scratch with the floppies but not
using dselect, which seems to be a large part of your suggestion.
Thanks,
Tim
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