minimal install [was Re: Fedora Present and Future: a Fedora.next 2014 Update (Part I, “Why?”)]

[Matthew Miller]

On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 05:38:48PM +0100, lee wrote:
> >> What do you consider as "base OS"?
> > It's somewhat nebulous, but, as a general working definition, the system
> > stuff below the applications layer. (Not in the OSI sense.)
> Are there significant differences in that with different Linux
> distributions?

It depends on what you mean by "significant". From some points of view, it's
very, very different -- different init systems (although that seems to be
slowly converging on systmed), different packaging, different logging
conventions. Or maybe you care that there are different library and even
kernel versions. But from other points of view, that's all implementation
details.

> >> And on top of that, what is the Fedora-way of replacing gnome --- which
> >> I find totally useless --- with fvwm, which perfectly does what I want?
> > It sounds like you want to do a minimal install and then add up from that.
> Yes, that`s what I always did with Debian.

You can do that on Fedora, although minimal isn't quite as small.

> > I think you will benefit from this effort in that the minimal install will
> > be better defined and curated.
> That would be nice --- I wouldn`t even have thought that there is one if
> I hadn`t read on this list that there is one, somewhere.  I still don`t
> know how I would start with a minimal install, though.

In the GUI installer, under software selection, scroll to the bottom and
pick "Minimal Install".

In kickstart, close-to-minimal is the default, and you can use "%packages
--nocore" if you're really serious.

> When you get the installer and boot it, you get a working system.
> That`s a good way to go because otherwise you need a second computer
> around when installing to look up things.  But where is the minimal
> install, and what when you don`t get a GUI?

The above will start you without a GUI.

[snip]

> Take a look at the Debian installer.  I never used their graphical one
> --- an installer shouldn`t require a GUI; a GUI is just annoying for
> that.  It`s been a while since I used it, but it`s worlds ahead of the
> installer Fedora has.  It`s not perfect, either, though.

You can use the installer in text mode. You can also use it in completely
scripted mode.

> > On the specific you do give, I'm pretty confident in saying that you're
> > actually wrong.
> Unless the installer majorly changed from F19 to F20, I`m not wrong.
> > Storage is hard, and the new anaconda contains the most
> > sophisticated and powerful GUI partitioning tool ever made.
> Seriously?  And like I said, I don`t like GUI installers at all.

Seriously. And since you don't want a GUI installer, you probably should
preconfigure your disk with whatever tools you want and then install onto it
with kickstart.


(more on the rest in a separate reply)

-- 
Matthew Miller    --   Fedora Project    --    <mattdm at fedoraproject.org>