BareBones Debian
Is it possible to have a bare bones version of debian available, which has nothing installed, apart from apt-get.
This way we can build the distro how we require it and to our own specifications.
Thanks,
Adam
8 Replies
caker
Linode Staff
The Debian distro I provide is the smallest I could get installed - it's only about 90Megs used space - and contains pretty much a bare-bones install.
Plus, as you know, anything you don't want you can use "dselect" or "apt-get remove" to get rid of.
Will that work for you?
-Chris
It is just things like apache and mysql we use custom install settings for, and install some things in other locations than the standard, also things like bind we use for caching only
I think the only thing we install through apt-get is wget and sendmail.
Could you tell me what apps you make available with the standard debain install
Thanks,
Adam
caker
Linode Staff
Here's the list of packages that come with the Debian small install:
ii adduser 3.47 Add and remove users and groups
ii apt 0.5.4 Advanced front-end for dpkg
ii apt-utils 0.5.4 APT utility programs
ii at 3.1.8-11 Delayed job execution and batch processing
ii base-config 1.33.18 Debian base configuration package
ii base-files 3.0.2 Debian base system miscellaneous files
ii base-passwd 3.4.1 Debian Base System Password/Group Files
ii bash 2.05a-11 The GNU Bourne Again SHell
ii bsdmainutils 5.20020211-4.9 More utilities from FreeBSD.
ii bsdutils 2.11n-4 Basic utilities from 4.4BSD-Lite.
ii console-common 0.7.14 Basic infrastructure for text console config
ii console-data 1999.08.29-24 Keymaps, fonts, charset maps, fallback table
ii console-tools 0.2.3-23.3 Linux console and font utilities.
ii console-tools- 0.2.3-23.3 Shared libraries for Linux console and font
ii cpio 2.4.2-39 GNU cpio -- a program to manage archives of
ii cron 3.0pl1-72 management of regular background processing
ii debconf 1.0.32 Debian configuration management system
ii debianutils 1.16 Miscellaneous utilities specific to Debian.
ii dhcp-client 2.0pl5-11 DHCP Client
ii diff 2.7-29 File comparison utilities
ii dpkg 1.9.21 Package maintenance system for Debian
ii e2fsprogs 1.27-2 The EXT2 file system utilities and libraries
ii ed 0.2-19 The classic unix line editor
ii exim 3.35-1 An MTA (Mail Transport Agent)
ii fdutils 5.3-7 Linux floppy utilities
ii fileutils 4.1-10 GNU file management utilities
ii findutils 4.1.7-2 utilities for finding files--find, xargs, an
ii gettext-base 0.10.40-5 GNU Internationalization utilities for the b
ii grep 2.4.2-3 GNU grep, egrep and fgrep.
ii groff-base 1.17.2-15.wood GNU troff text-formatting system (base syste
ii gzip 1.3.2-3woody1 The GNU compression utility.
ii hostname 2.09 A utility to set/show the host name or domai
ii ifupdown 0.6.4-4 High level tools to configure network interf
ii info 4.1-2 Standalone GNU Info documentation browser
ii ipchains 1.3.10-15 Network firewalling for Linux 2.2.x
ii iptables 1.2.6a-5 IP packet filter administration tools for 2.
ii klogd 1.4.1-10 Kernel Logging Daemon
ii libc6 2.2.5-11.2 GNU C Library: Shared libraries and Timezone
ii libcap1 1.10-12 support for getting/setting POSIX.1e capabil
ii libdb2 2.7.7.0-7 The Berkeley database routines (run-time fil
ii libdb3 3.2.9-16 Berkeley v3 Database Libraries [runtime]
ii libgdbmg1 1.7.3-27 GNU dbm database routines (runtime version).
ii libident 0.22-2 simple RFC1413 client library - runtime
ii libldap2 2.0.23-6 OpenLDAP libraries.
ii liblockfile1 1.03 NFS-safe locking library, includes dotlockfi
ii libncurses5 5.2.20020112a- Shared libraries for terminal handling
ii libnewt0 0.50.17-9.6 Not Erik's Windowing Toolkit - text mode win
ii libpam-modules 0.72-35 Pluggable Authentication Modules for PAM
ii libpam-runtime 0.72-35 Runtime support for the PAM library
ii libpam0g 0.72-35 Pluggable Authentication Modules library
ii libpcap0 0.6.2-2 System interface for user-level packet captu
ii libpcre3 3.4-1.1 Philip Hazel's Perl Compatible Regular Expre
ii libpopt0 1.6.2-7 lib for parsing cmdline parameters
ii libreadline4 4.2a-5 GNU readline and history libraries, run-time
ii libsasl7 1.5.27-3 Authentication abstraction library.
ii libssl0.9.6 0.9.6c-2.woody SSL shared libraries
ii libstdc++2.10- 2.95.4-11woody The GNU stdc++ library
ii libwrap0 7.6-9 Wietse Venema's TCP wrappers library
ii lilo 22.2-3 LInux LOader - The Classic OS loader can loa
ii login 20000902-12 System login tools
ii logrotate 3.5.9-8 Log rotation utility
ii mailx 8.1.2-0.200204 A simple mail user agent.
ii makedev 2.3.1-58 Creates device files in /dev.
ii man-db 2.3.20-18 The on-line manual pager
ii manpages 1.39-1.1 Man pages about using a Linux system.
ii mawk 1.3.3-8 a pattern scanning and text processing langu
ii mbr 1.1.5-1 Master Boot Record for IBM-PC compatible com
ii modconf 0.2.43 Device Driver Configuration
ii modutils 2.4.15-1 Linux module utilities.
ii mount 2.11n-4 Tools for mounting and manipulating filesyst
ii nano 1.0.6-2 free Pico clone with some new features
ii ncurses-base 5.2.20020112a- Descriptions of common terminal types
ii ncurses-bin 5.2.20020112a- Terminal-related programs and man pages
ii net-tools 1.60-4 The NET-3 networking toolkit
ii netbase 4.07 Basic TCP/IP networking system
ii netkit-inetd 0.10-9 The Internet Superserver
ii netkit-ping 0.10-9 The ping utility from netkit
ii nvi 1.79-20 4.4BSD re-implementation of vi.
ii passwd 20000902-12 Change and administer password and group dat
ii pciutils 2.1.9-4 Linux PCI Utilities (for 2.[1234].x kernels)
ii pcmcia-cs 3.1.33-6 PCMCIA Card Services for Linux.
ii perl-base 5.6.1-8.2 The Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister.
ii ppp 2.4.1.uus-4 Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) daemon.
ii pppconfig 2.0.14 A text menu based utility for configuring pp
ii pppoe 3.3-1.1 PPP over Ethernet driver
ii pppoeconf 0.9.10.6 configures PPPoE/ADSL
ii procps 2.0.7-8 The /proc file system utilities.
ii psmisc 20.2-2.1 Utilities that use the proc filesystem
ii sed 3.02-8 The GNU sed stream editor.
ii setserial 2.17-24 Controls configuration of serial ports.
ii shellutils 2.0.11-11 The GNU shell programming utilities.
ii slang1 1.4.4-7.2 The S-Lang programming library - runtime ver
ii ssh 3.4p1-1 Secure rlogin/rsh/rcp replacement (OpenSSH)
ii sysklogd 1.4.1-10 System Logging Daemon
ii syslinux 1.66-1 Bootloader for Linux/i386 using MS-DOS flopp
ii sysvinit 2.84-2woody1 System-V like init.
ii tar 1.13.25-2 GNU tar
ii tasksel 1.18 Tool for selecting tasks for installation on
ii tcpd 7.6-9 Wietse Venema's TCP wrapper utilities
ii telnet 0.17-18 The telnet client.
ii textutils 2.0-12 The GNU text file processing utilities.
ii util-linux 2.11n-4 Miscellaneous system utilities.
ii whiptail 0.50.17-9.6 Displays user-friendly dialog boxes from she
ii zlib1g 1.1.4-1 compression library - runtime
Thanks,
-Chris
After I have finished configuring the linux install, is it possible to backup the configuration, along with all the files, so that if nessecary we could restore back to our inital configuration.
Thanks,
Adam
caker
Linode Staff
@adamgent:
After I have finished configuring the linux install, is it possible to backup the configuration, along with all the files, so that if nessecary we could restore back to our inital configuration.
There is no duplicating a file-system (yet) through our control panel. But, if you have the space you can create an empty virtual disk, and cp -a everything to that device.
If something goes wrong, you can modify your configuration profile to boot off the new disk image.
Thanks,
-Chris
@caker:
ii ipchains 1.3.10-15 Network firewalling for Linux 2.2.x ii iptables 1.2.6a-5 IP packet filter administration tools for 2. ii lilo 22.2-3 LInux LOader - The Classic OS loader can loa ii man-db 2.3.20-18 The on-line manual pager ii manpages 1.39-1.1 Man pages about using a Linux system. ii mbr 1.1.5-1 Master Boot Record for IBM-PC compatible com ii modconf 0.2.43 Device Driver Configuration ii modutils 2.4.15-1 Linux module utilities. ii pciutils 2.1.9-4 Linux PCI Utilities (for 2.[1234].x kernels) ii pcmcia-cs 3.1.33-6 PCMCIA Card Services for Linux. ii ppp 2.4.1.uus-4 Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) daemon. ii pppconfig 2.0.14 A text menu based utility for configuring pp ii pppoe 3.3-1.1 PPP over Ethernet driver ii pppoeconf 0.9.10.6 configures PPPoE/ADSL ii setserial 2.17-24 Controls configuration of serial ports. ii syslinux 1.66-1 Bootloader for Linux/i386 using MS-DOS flopp
I believe the above packages may be safely removed from the default Debian installation provided by Linode. Most of the above are simply useless on a UML system. Others may be installed as necessary.
@inkblot:
@caker:ii ipchains 1.3.10-15 Network firewalling for Linux 2.2.x ii iptables 1.2.6a-5 IP packet filter administration tools for 2. ii lilo 22.2-3 LInux LOader - The Classic OS loader can loa ii man-db 2.3.20-18 The on-line manual pager ii manpages 1.39-1.1 Man pages about using a Linux system. ii mbr 1.1.5-1 Master Boot Record for IBM-PC compatible com ii modconf 0.2.43 Device Driver Configuration ii modutils 2.4.15-1 Linux module utilities. ii pciutils 2.1.9-4 Linux PCI Utilities (for 2.[1234].x kernels) ii pcmcia-cs 3.1.33-6 PCMCIA Card Services for Linux. ii ppp 2.4.1.uus-4 Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) daemon. ii pppconfig 2.0.14 A text menu based utility for configuring pp ii pppoe 3.3-1.1 PPP over Ethernet driver ii pppoeconf 0.9.10.6 configures PPPoE/ADSL ii setserial 2.17-24 Controls configuration of serial ports. ii syslinux 1.66-1 Bootloader for Linux/i386 using MS-DOS flopp
I believe the above packages may be safely removed from the default Debian installation provided by Linode. Most of the above are simply useless on a UML system. Others may be installed as necessary.
Not useless at all. Iptables/chains for firewalling, manpages for reference, ppp for tunnels/vpns, although syslinux, setserial pppoeconf could be removed, but as they only take up very little space I don't think its such a big deal.
@eadz:
Not useless at all. Iptables/chains for firewalling, manpages for reference, ppp for tunnels/vpns, although syslinux, setserial pppoeconf could be removed, but as they only take up very little space I don't think its such a big deal.
…which is why I said "Others may be installed as necessary". It's a default installation. Additionally, it's the smallest available installation and I think it could be smaller. If someone wants to use if for those things you've listed then the packages can be reinstalled, but they can be safely removed from the default, which is what I was getting at. There are probably a few others as well, my initial list was the result of a cursory glance.