network server install

[jrknowles1]

Hello, I recently installed Gentoo 1.4r1 and think that this is a great distribution. So much so that I would like to redo my network server so that I can run the same distro on both machines. The only thing is the network server has a limited space (1.2 GB) and a slow processor (AMD K6-2 266). I'm not so much concerned with it being slow as I am to the amount of space that it has. When I installed gentoo on my desktop computer it took up a lot of space. Whether or not I did something to influence that I'm not sure. So, my question is how would I go about installing the same version but with only the minimum amount of stuff. Some of the things that I would like to run is webmin so that I can configure the machine openssl for secure conections iptables of course and possibly some other networking programs.

[rac]

The #1 biggest hog of disk space in my experience with Gentoo is compiling xfree. If you don't need X, you will save a lot of space. If you can afford some downtime (or buying a spare hard disk), you can install the Gentoo for your slow machine when the disk is in your fast machine, and that way you can use extra disk space on the fast machine as build scratch space.
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For every higher wall, there is a taller ladder

[jrknowles1]

That's actually a really good idea. Is 1.2 GB enough space though.

[de4d]

some ideas:
1) remove all unwanted USE flags (better yet: dont forget to remove ...;)
2) maybe put your compile area on an nfs mount if not enuff space
3) use distcc (compiling on 266mhzCPU takes forever) if u dont want to exchange/buy HDs
4) if u dont like downtime, just put gentoo over ur existing system. assuming that u use your server mainly for routing/NAT purposes, the install procedure wont touch your system until reboot (imho).
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[mrchuckles]

Not to be a voice of disent here, but Gentoo is not really ideal in this situation. Maybe it's the network admin in me coming out, but Gentoo is not what I'd call stable for server use. That, combined with your low-end hardware and small hard drive space, leads me to recommend Debian over Gentoo in this instance. Don't get me wrong, I love Gentoo, and use it on my PC and laptop, but all my servers run Debian. Compiling security updates on a low-end server is not my idea of fun, particuarly if I have a large number of users hitting that machine at the time. It's just as soon do an apt-get off the security-updates section of any Debian mirror.

Okay, let the flames fly...

[phong]

There are a few other things you can do to trim it down - first, clean out /var/tmp/portage and /usr/portage/distfiles periodically. If you start from stage 1, check out this howto to avoid installing extra locale info. If things get really tight, try compiling with "-Os" instead of "-O3". Actually, it would be even better to use the program mentioned here. There are a number of packages in a default install that aren't really necessarly for everyone. You can take out what you don't want/need (though be aware that that file gets restored with each emerge rsync). The trimming of USE variables is a good idea. Some ebuilds can probably be modified to install lighter weight versions of some things too (like you could probably install a version of gcc that doesn't have so many extra languages like fortran, java, etc.).
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[Jeld]

Nice signature. Star Control 3 is it?
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