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Linux Fatware: Distros That Need To Slim Down
snydeq writes "We need bare-bones Linux distros tailored for virtual machines or at least the option for installs, writes Deep End's Paul Venezia. 'As I prepped a new virtual server template the other day, it occurred to me that we need more virtualization-specific Linux distributions or at least specific VM-only options when performing an install. A few distros take steps in this direction, such as Ubuntu and OEL jeOS (just enough OS), but they're not necessarily tuned for virtual servers. For large installations, the distributions in use are typically highly customized on one side or the other — either built as templates and deployed to VMs, or deployed through the use of silent installers or scripts that install only the bits and pieces required for the job. However, these are all handled as one-offs. They're generally not available or suitable for general use.'"
Got that. It's called Debian Net Install.
Done.
Ubuntu core distribution is ~34 MB, and available for x86, amd64, and ARM. It's more than suffcient to bootstrap a lean OS.
No interface, but you wanted tiny didn't you?
SliTaz is also another tiny one but has an interface and a cute spider.
I always like to use TurnKey Core for such things http://www.turnkeylinux.org/core
It's small, lightweight and runs very quickly even on older hardware. It does a great job.
-americamatrix
RHEL/CENTOS minimal does this just fine.
Why bother about a solved problem?
If you really want lightweight and have a specific purpose in mind, just use something that only gives you what you want/need based on what you install. Then, localepurge.
I'm really liking Crunchbang lately! It's very fast, very stable, and it's based on Debian so it works pretty well with mainstream software. It also comes with non free repositories, and codecs.
For RPM-based distros, it's easy enough to set up a task-*.rpm to install a minimal subset of the entire repository for a specific purpose, like a LAMP server. I'm sure .deb-based distros have something similar, so I'm really not seeing the problem here, just a lack of understanding the power of FOSS by the OP.
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
PEBKAC
I have Fedora 18 running in VBox with a Windows 7 host at this exact moment.
sudo make me a sandwich
and why do we still need vmware tools to be installed separately? why are these guest tools not already natively supported out of the box?
the author in TFA are irrelevant outside the proprietary sphere of vmware. what i suspect is really being cited is the piss-poor nature of error reporting and handling with respect to what images it can and wont handle.
every linux distro ive seen has a 'bare minimal install' option; puppet chef and to a lesser extent cfengine and spacewalk exist solely to chisel the initial image into "your server." PXE boot can ensure "your server" just gets decompressed into the guest space as well. dont understand any of those? just save and copy a version of "your server" as a blueprint to use whenever a new one is necessary
speaking as someone whos contributed to open source projects like Fedora, i can agree bluetooth isnt necessarily appropriate everywhere. thats a bottle of mr potterings special sauce that had you cared to research might make more sense. however, it is rather shocking to hear a vmware user whos software uses a minimum of a gigabyte of disk storage (that doesnt include the generous 20 gigabytes free for your host OS) bitch about the default load of something like, say, centos which stands around 4 gigabytes. That includes KVM/QEMU. indeed this is not as you put it "rocket surgery."
Good people go to bed earlier.
If you aren't recompiling the kernel to include only the things you "really need", you don't deserve to be talking about bloat.
http://susestudio.com/ and make your own. As light or as heavy as you desire.
A starting point is JeOS. From the first page:
You can export your custom operating system as a Virtual machine, Live USB Disk, CD/DVD-ROM, Hard Disk Image and so much more.
As you want something very specific a great way would be SUSE Studio. Because I might want just a little bit different configuration then what you would want.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
2GB for a full Slackware install? Try nearly 8.
And yeah, I'd like to put it on a diet, but once something is already included it becomes quite entrenched. It's extremely difficult to remove anything large enough to make a difference without causing rioting in the streets with torches and pitchforks. I suspect it's the same for any Linux distribution.
Don't be a pansy. Use Gentoo. Quit bitching about not having the features you want, or having features you don't need. Need to deploy a bunch of VMs? Just create your own portage mirror, remove the packages you don't want to be available, create an overlay for things that aren't in portage and to deploy your own meta package, for shits and giggles, since you seen to be so fascinated with binary packages, build all the packages you want, create binary packages for everything, then deploy to a VM. Once that's done, just copy the base VM image every time you need to deploy a new VM, then log in, run a portage update and quit whining. Hell, I'm sure you could even create your own packages for deploying binary kernels. I'm so sick of this, "My linux doesn't do what I want because I'm a (insert your distro here) fanboi."
What exactly need be "tuned" for virtualization in a VM? I start my VMs with ubuntu-minimal, which is pretty darned minimal indeed. I think "eject" is about the only package in there that a VM wouldn't want.
What about PuppyLinux or DamnSmallLinux?
http://puppylinux.org/ http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/
Both are tiny, and boot in less than a minute.
Want a slim OS? Try NetBSD. with just the minimal sets (base.tgz, etc.tgz and kern.tgz), it brings a full Unix system with just 120 MB. It can be slimed down by making custom build without some bits (kerberos, PAM...)