Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on April 23, 2005 02:27 AM
How big can the installion size be so as to be compressible to a =700MB iso. Texstar says doing df should report 1.9GB or less. I got a 560MB iso with df reporting 1.6G and a 600MB iso with df reporting 1.7GB (bordering on 1.8GB) so compression seems close 3:1 overall. I use CDRW discs to avoid coasters, and it seems they can take a 700MB iso but I have yet to try that size.
The swap partition does need to be 2GB or so, and I found<nobr> <wbr></nobr>/tmp needs 1.5GB or more also.
The remainder comment is offtopic but could be useful if you are like me with a lowly PC with only 256MB ram, integrated graphics & do dial-up. My 600MB iso is a p8 upgraded to KDE3.4, plus KOffice and a GNOME 2.10 desktop but traded off Nvu, Gaim, Gnomemeeeting, Xpdf and some other forgotten stuff.
PCLinuxOS p8 iso seems fairly optimally mklivecd'd to me ?? and just about runs in 256MB. However when you remaster with mklivecd defaults, 256MB is very very tight to run your new iso. So if you have only 256MB, you must use --nodir to exclude guest & or username accounts and also exclude<nobr> <wbr></nobr>/var/cache/apt/archives if apt/synaptic uses it.
During bootup of your new iso, if you don't have enough ram, you will get multiple 'insufficent write space errors' as it tries to build the directory structure in ram and it dumps you at a login or a runlevel prompt. Users with integrated graphics might try reducing any bios setting for integrated video mem & rebooting.
Some tips to reduce iso size
1) Its worth cleaning up stale data in All accounts before remastering ie empty all web browser caches, delete stale<nobr> <wbr></nobr>.directorys for removed pkgs, image browser thumbnails etc.
2) If you set Apt/Synaptic to cache downloads in<nobr> <wbr></nobr>/var/cache/apt/archives etc then use -nodir to exclude this cache from mklivecd. Subtract this cache size from the df reported size.
3) To roughly learn the installed size of apps, go in synaptic and set its options to reveal install size & download size then view installed pkgs sorted by install size. Mark a biggish candidate pkg for removal then check yes for all its dependant / related pkgs to be also marked. Review descriptions for all the marked pkgs and only if they also seem unwanted then hit toolbar apply button. View the total size you could recover and then cancel if you think there's not enough return or proceed the removal.
4) Dial-up users should enable Synaptic to cache downloaded files (in<nobr> <wbr></nobr>/var/cache/apt/archives) incase you need to experiment and reinstall a removed downloaded pkg. But remember to -nodir the cache and remember to subtract the cache size from df.
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Re:HD install size and some tips
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on April 23, 2005 02:27 AMTexstar says doing df should report 1.9GB or less.
I got a 560MB iso with df reporting 1.6G and a 600MB iso with df reporting 1.7GB (bordering on 1.8GB) so compression seems close 3:1 overall.
I use CDRW discs to avoid coasters, and it seems they can take a 700MB iso but I have yet to try that size.
The swap partition does need to be 2GB or so, and I found<nobr> <wbr></nobr>/tmp needs 1.5GB or more also.
The remainder comment is offtopic but could be useful if you are like me with a lowly PC with only 256MB ram, integrated graphics & do dial-up.
My 600MB iso is a p8 upgraded to KDE3.4, plus KOffice and a GNOME 2.10 desktop but traded off Nvu, Gaim, Gnomemeeeting, Xpdf and some other forgotten stuff.
PCLinuxOS p8 iso seems fairly optimally mklivecd'd to me ?? and just about runs in 256MB. However when you remaster with mklivecd defaults, 256MB is very very tight to run your new iso. So if you have only 256MB, you must use --nodir to exclude guest & or username accounts and also exclude<nobr> <wbr></nobr>/var/cache/apt/archives if apt/synaptic uses it.
During bootup of your new iso, if you don't have enough ram, you will get multiple 'insufficent write space errors' as it tries to build the directory structure in ram and it dumps you at a login or a runlevel prompt.
Users with integrated graphics might try reducing any bios setting for integrated video mem & rebooting.
Some tips to reduce iso size
1) Its worth cleaning up stale data in All accounts before remastering ie empty all web browser caches, delete stale<nobr> <wbr></nobr>.directorys for removed pkgs, image browser thumbnails etc.
2) If you set Apt/Synaptic to cache downloads in<nobr> <wbr></nobr>/var/cache/apt/archives etc then use -nodir to exclude this cache from mklivecd. Subtract this cache size from the df reported size.
3) To roughly learn the installed size of apps, go in synaptic and set its options to reveal install size & download size then view installed pkgs sorted by install size. Mark a biggish candidate pkg for removal then check yes for all its dependant / related pkgs to be also marked. Review descriptions for all the marked pkgs and only if they also seem unwanted then hit toolbar apply button. View the total size you could recover and then cancel if you think there's not enough return or proceed the removal.
4) Dial-up users should enable Synaptic to cache downloaded files (in<nobr> <wbr></nobr>/var/cache/apt/archives) incase you need to experiment and reinstall a removed downloaded pkg. But remember to -nodir the cache and remember to subtract the cache size from df.
Brian Nugent
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