Other Help Topics :: How to make DSL smaller?

Well, it's like this:

I know how and what to do, it even seems to work, though as for now I've managed to make a non-X version of DSL [

startx went into oblivion somewhere in the process ].
But if I try again [I'm too tired to do it now] tomorrow I will probably manage to make a working .ISO without XMMS [no problems with removing it] and that's about it...

Those non apt-get programs [Beaver & Co.] probably take a lot of room and I don't need them at all...
But I'm too newbie in linux to remove them alone so if someone could gimme a little hint I'd be grateful

And by the way (cause I've never mentioned) I'm trying to make a working DSL with:
- GCC,G++,make (gcc1.dsl)
- emacs (no idea where to get it from apart from GNU page, but it's HUGE there [20MB]

)
- maybe (I don't really need it for now) xwpe or another debugger
- some additional libraries for C/C++ programming

...and I'd like all that to be an ISO of max. 64MB [Pendrive limit]

So, basicly, I'm making (trying to make ;) )a "programmer's DSL".
Is it even possible to make such a thing and keep it under 64MB?

Hmm. Or maybe someone had already made a similar thing and I'm wasting time and my eyes ( stupid 60Hz refresh :P - still no idea how to set that to 85Hz) instead of doing something creative (like sleeping) ?

I made one of those "Programmer's DSL" remaster containing the following:

gcc, g++, g77, make, coreutils, binutils, findutils, bison, flex, libncurses5-dev, libreadline4-dev, perl, gnuplot

Except for gnuplot, these are the bare essentials that you will need to compile a lot of console-based programs (especially the GNU ones that uses "./config - make - make install"). I added gnuplot because it is needed for plotting in Siag.

All of them were retrieved in one shot by apt-get from the debian testing package using this procedure by clacker:

http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....;t=2363

So this procedure created a dsl extension first. Afterwards, use the procedure from the "big remastering thread" by meo to merge this dsl extension with the original KNOPPIX cloop file and create a new one. This produced a remaster that is 80MB with nothing removed from the original.

If you want to cut its size further, just wade through the dependencies and delete those things that you do not need. Example is firefox, which is self-contained in its own folder /usr/local/firefox and is 18MB uncompressed (probably 7MB savings). Then there is gnuplot and the man files of that "programmers dsl" that was included in the 80MB count. Other than these, everything else are small that I doubt if you will be able to reduce the remaster size back to 50MB.

Don't let this discourage you though. The learning process was fun and worth every bit of the effort.

If you want to save space, maybe you can get by with
"emacs lite" instead of full blown emacs.

For example, older versions of DSL contained the "zile" program which is a much lighter program that works like a stripped down emacs.

It certainly isn't 20MB, that's for sure.

You know what, I'm thinking I won't be able to maintain <64 MB size and install all the things I want so I can as well use the standard DSL and add stuff instead of deleting it and record it on a CD and use the USB for storing stuff.

I'll install all the mentioned above packages, normal emacs with C syntax higlighting and some other things

I'm having problems with man though... The online version is shall we say "fine", but I need to have a normal offline version too. Can it somehow be added?

And thanks for help everyone

Quote (QmQ @ May 07 2005,08:43)

USB remaster is more flexible and faster than CD. Besides, where is the challenge when you know that you have 700MB of space to fill? You might just as well use KNOPPIX LiveCD.

If you are open to suggestions, mine will be for you to make your own bare-bones "Programmer's DSL" on your USB pen drive. This will teach you how to balance functionality and utility. Afterwards, create extensions (tar.gz, dsl, or uci) of other things you like but are not always needed and put these on the CD-RW. You can do this on the things you removed from the original DSL iso. This way you become a "strike anywhere" programmer.

The good thing about this is if you happen to make an extension that you think others will like, you can submit it to the on-line DSL extension repository. And it will be easy to update your "Programmer's DSL" remaster whenever John releases new versions of the DSL base iso; you may even write a script that will do this automatically.

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