minimal install

thetank · n00b Joined: 14 Nov 2009 Posts: 3

I want to install only the necessary to run cmd line programs for video conversion. Maybe blackbox too. What filesystem should I use? Is there a simple way to install a system, like the gui, but for a minimal install? I just want it up and running and later update with portage. Is there sources for precompiled packages? Thanks for taking the time to read this

John R. Graham · Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 4:42 am Post subject:

Welcome to Gentoo!

You're in luck. The Gentoo Handbook install results in the minimal system you're looking for. Now, Gentoo is not the easiest install. Almost everything in Gentoo is built from source: you don't need precompiled packages. The advantage is that your system is built and optimized for your particular hardware.

Regarding the correct filesystem, if you're predominantly going to be dealing with video (i.e., large files), then the filesystem choice is less important. Plain old ext3 wouldn't be a bad choice. XFS is also good with large files.

- John
_________________
Yoda: "Intentionally left blank, this space is."

lanark · Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2009 8:35 am Post subject:

Hi!

I'm in the same kind of search as thetank here, and I have installed quite a few gentoos in the past. The minimal system which gentoo gives with the traditional installation instructions results in a ~2GB load, that's not very minimal for a console only system and a few video utilities (in particular I'm interested in running only ffmpeg, dvdauthor, ImageMagick, mjpegtools, some other little apps, portage). Is there a way of having a really minimal console system? There are liveCDs of other distros that take no more than 50MB, now, THAT'S minimal. It would be useful to have such a system, gentoo based, over an USB flash drive, etc.
_________________
·-=: lanark :=-·

aguettinger · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 26 Sep 2003 Posts: 83

Hm, one problem:

%du -cshx /usr/portage
250M /usr/portage

without distfiles.
_________________
regards
- andy

lanark · Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2009 9:18 am Post subject:

yes, I see.

I didn't realize that portage has become so bloated lately... but let alone portage, what else can one do? Let's reduce my aspirations, let's say 500MB, portage included?
_________________
·-=: lanark :=-·

cwr · Veteran Joined: 17 Dec 2005 Posts: 1211

Well, a start would be just installing a Stage 3 file; that's what, 120MB compressed,
so 250MB uncompressed? (I'm suprised portage is 250MB - a snapshot is 25MB ??
so it shouldn't be more than 100MB, even though the small files waste a lot of space.)

Will

djdunn · Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2009 6:02 pm Post subject:

Python is like that, if it was written in C or C++ it would be a different story. Portage has come a long way in recent years so it is not really a surprise to me.

2g~ really shouldn't be an issue on a desktop type system, even an embedded system.

Modern computing has reached the point where even flash storage is in the 2 digit gigabyte range.

It's not like back in the 90s when my dad was so excited and believed he would never fill up the 100meg hard drive he got.
_________________
Now, with penguins, (cuddly such), "contented" means it has either just gotten laid, or it's stuffed on herring. Take it from me, I'm an expert on penguins, those are really the only two options.

--Linus Torvalds

lanark · Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2009 10:18 pm Post subject:

well, djdunn, I know that 2g is not an issue now, but I'm not talking about a desktop system, I'm thinking of a kind of power console system, for running a few specific apps, like a DSL or that rescue distros that fit on a mini-cd, that would be enough for running the minimal apps that me or thetank want to run. I'm speculating if it's possible to build such a system with gentoo, being this my distro of preference, waaaaaaayyyyy beyond the others.
_________________
·-=: lanark :=-·

thetank · n00b Joined: 14 Nov 2009 Posts: 3

It would be interesting to use portage to install the minimal system. For example, emerge tovid-base.
Emerge tovid, would normally only install dependencies like mplayer etc.
Emerge tovid-base, would install kernel and specific programs that it relies on.

Excuse me for my first post, it's even confusing to me :S

I meant to ask, is there a gui for installing a minimal gentoo system? Something like the one that is available on thet gentoo live cd?

RedSquirrel · Guru Joined: 22 Apr 2008 Posts: 336

thetank · n00b Joined: 14 Nov 2009 Posts: 3

Can gentoo install autoconfigure hardware still?

lanark · Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 10:09 pm Post subject:

I think its possible to install a minimun system and after that get ride of the things one don't need, I mean, that portage 250M are the portage tree, isn't it? so, I can erase, I don't know, the kde-base branch, and if I never will install kde, that's not a problem. I know that for that is needed to touch a couple of conf files here and there, but I see that perfectly possible, and also get ride of all that is not really needed. After all, SystemRescueCd is gentoo based and its livecd is 238M of size...
_________________
·-=: lanark :=-·