Re: was: support for xfce in bullseye minimal netinst iso
On Tue, Sep 14, 2021 at 11:49:02AM -0400, Gene Heskett wrote:
> On Tuesday 14 September 2021 10:08:34 Brian wrote:
>
> > On Tue 14 Sep 2021 at 09:27:25 +0000, Sriram wrote:
> > > [...] Can you suggest some links for downloading the bullseye along
> > > with xfce which comes to less than 1 GB or preferably somewhere
> > > around 500-800 MB, or suggest ways to install the xfce offline ,
> > > there is no deb file for such GUI's.
> >
> > An xfce installation will pull in about 600 M of packages no matter
> > what you choose to do. Does this give some perspective?
> >
> > What I would consider is:
> >
> > 1. Skip installation of a desktop in d-i and finish the remainder of
> > the process.
> >
> > 2. Reboot, log in and create /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/01keep-debs.
> >
> > 3. Edit this file to have
> >
> > Binary::apt::APT::Keep-Downloaded-Packages "true";
> >
> > Packages should remain in /var/cache/apt/archives/ for you to
> > reuse. No futher downloading of xfce packages is now needed. You have
> > your own personal "ISO" at no extra cost to disk space or bandwidth.
> >
> > 4. And finally do
> >
> > apt install task-xfce-desktop
>
> This is interesting and I will likely do it when I install the
> debian-11.1-net-install I just burnt.
>
> But, I have installed 4, 1 terabyte samsung SSD's on a separate non-raid
> controller card which I intend to use as a software raid-6 or 10 after
> moving the current boot disk with stretch on it to be /dev/sdd, or even
> leaving it disconnected until 11.1 is installed. It has precious data on
> its platters.
>
> Those samsungs have not been configured for anything yet. They are seen
> ok but individually in dmesg. Looked at by gparted, but nothing written.
>
> So, can the installer handle the configuration of those into a bootable
> format all by itself?
>
> If not, what do I install and do to ready them before moving /dea/sda out
> of harms way and booting the 11.1 net-install iso? I can if needed,
> install a 60 or bigger Gig SSD as the /boot partition on the motherboard
> controller as /dev/sda if the software raid can't be booted from.
>
As ever, it depends. Are you booting using UEFI?
If so, then you'll need to allow the partitioner to configure an ESP
EFI system partition] which will allow the machine to store files for
booting. The rest can be set up using guided partitioning and mdadm.
If you're using Legacy/DOS booting - all bets are off.
I'd be tempted to completely disconnect your stretch drive to do this
and then reconnect it just to copy dot files and ssh configs. Essentially,
stretch is gone and the likelihood of being able to use configs directly
is low - so keep it safe out of the way until you want to copy precious
data off it, at which point mount it under /mnt or /media temporarily.
If you have a spare 60G SSD, then you might want to use that as boot and
root filesystem anyway and let the partitioner create the RAID system
from four absolutely identically sized disks.
One thing to watch out for in guided partitioning is that swap space in a
dedicated partition is now only 1GB by default. If you've got a decent amount
of memory, you may never hit swap anyway. I won't trespass on your patience
further but will be happy to help if needed.
All best, as ever,
Andy Cater
> So how do I best proceed?
>
> Thank you.
>
> Cheers, Gene Heskett
> --
> "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
> soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
> -Ed Howdershelt (Author)
> If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.
> - Louis D. Brandeis
> Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
>
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