ReMaster?

Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: ReMaster?
started by: rich

Posted by rich on June 21 2004,22:43

Not that I think there's anything wrong with DSL, its just that I like the business card idea and want to put some work stuff on there and need to remove some stuff to make room.

I've tried mounting the KNOPPIX image and removing stuff via rm, but this seems a bit hap-hazzordous and dosn't seem to reduce much space. So what I want to do is start with a blank / dir and fill up the image myself.

What would be the best way to do this? Mount the KNOPPIX image and rm -r * and then create the dir and apt-get stuff (i'm not a debian user so apt-get is new to me, but im asuming its simular to slackware's installpkg)

Or just touch KNOPPIX; format, mount via /dev/loop1 and start from there?

How do you work the Kdrive Xvesa and Xfbdev servers into the mix?

Having just read < http://damnsmalllinux.org/packages.html > is there an apt-remove function as that would be cleaner than maunally trying to rm individual files?

Is there a list on non-debian packages applications that I can grab file lists for and remove anything I don't particularly use to make more room?

I've just kicked off a debian iso download as I suspect I'm going to need a debian install to run apt-get etc?

(VMWare becomes an absolute God for doing this!)

Im asuming that by leaving boot.img alone it will boot ok. And i just need to make sure my remastered KNOPPIX image has a decent init?

I was thinking of using Busybox for the core tools - anyone any thoughts as to how much space this would actually save.

All in all - i'd like to have a decent console and X (with a web broswer) and need around 20mg of extra apps prior to compression - anyone any thoughts on the likly hood or how much I need to lose to achive this?

Cheers

Rich

Posted by nucpc on June 22 2004,16:30

Rich, you can get about 3Mb of compressed stuff (so something like 10Mb of uncompressed
if you're lucky) back onto a business card CD anyway.........the DSL iso is only 47Mb.

For the rest of your 10Mb requirement I'd go for a manual deletion in /usr/bin /usr/local.
Haphazard yes, but if you re-install apt-get you'll need to get rid of everything it brings
in as well.......... Perhaps though if your requirements can be made to nearer 10Mb end
of things you might be in business without too much trouble.

Posted by rich on June 23 2004,11:51

Can I not just rm /var/lib/dpkg/* to get rid of everything dpkg-restore installs?

Rich

Posted by nucpc on June 23 2004,12:49

Hi Rich,

There's a few more things to watch I'm afraid. You're right that an rm of var/lib/dpkg will get
rid of the dpkg install but as you use apt-get you'll build up things in var/cache/apt, etc

To clean it all out you'll need to remove these as well, also the dpkg executables in usr/bin, and
any other archives........

One way to learn about this (just my opinion) is;

if you can go live/toram from CD, check the usage in ramdisk, i.e. du -sk *, then re-enable apt
and look again with du. You'll see where it's putting things and as you apt-get you'll see
where it's building up archives.

All the best.

Posted by rich on June 23 2004,13:02

Hmm damm and I thought i was saving some space

Thanks for that - will be using that from now on. I think the following boot error is an example of not cleaning the filesystem fully - but I'm open to suggestions...

cp: cannot stat '/KNOPPIX/.bash_profile' : No such file or directory

[I get this just after eth0 is broughtup for DHCP and the automounter is started]

Rich

Posted by nucpc on June 23 2004,13:14

Hi Rich,

Quick answer - in your copying of the /KNOPPIX you've missed the .bash_profile.....
you'll need to copy this in manually into the root directory of your remaster
(cp -Rp won't see it). Have a look with ls -al at the difference between your remaster
and original.

For your dpkg removal stuff.........try this script........

#!/bin/sh
rm -rf var/lib/dpkg/info/*
rm -rf var/cache/apt/archives/*
rm -rf var/cache/apt/*.bin
rm -rf usr/bin/dpkg*
rm usr/bin/apt-sortpkgs
rm usr/bin/apt-show-versions
rm usr/bin/apt-get
rm usr/bin/apt-ftparchive
rm usr/bin/apt-extracttemplates
rm usr/bin/apt-config
rm usr/bin/apt-cdrom
rm usr/bin/apt-cache
rm usr/sbin/apt-setup
rm usr/sbin/dpkg-statoverride
rm usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure
rm usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure
rm usr/sbin/dpkg-divert
rm -rf var/lib/dpkg/*
rm -rf var/lib/apt/lists/*

Can't guarantee it but hopefully it should get most things.......

Posted by rich on June 23 2004,13:41

/me runs off a hide under a rock, and scribbles . . . . . all over the walls - damm how stupid of me, must check of other . files I might have missed.

that script is the daddy

cheers

Rich

Posted by nucpc on June 23 2004,14:07

I'm not owning up to how many times I've forgotten the .profile myself........
nor the size of the mountain of ruined CD's that I've produced........

Hope the remastering goes well. All the best, nucpc.