[ILUG] laptop slimdown...

[kevin lyda]

my method for doing minimalistic installs with cons listed at the
bottom:

1) install the bare minimum.
2) nuke /usr/doc.  in fact on really compressed installs i remove
   stuff in /usr/doc during the install (really fun on a 486...).
   some stuff has huge files in /usr/doc.
3) redhat's idea of a minimum install actually has some extra fat.
   trim it - linuxconf, etc.
4) most binaries come stripped, but it doesn't hurt to check.
5) install enough to build a kernel + sources (or do it on another
   machine) and build the bare minimum you need.
6) use tune2fs -r to reduce the # of reserved blocks (there's a
   performance hit once you pass a certain point, so be careful).
7) also, you might look into mounting with the noatime option
   for a meager performance gain.
8) install up to what you want.
9) if all else fails look to remove extra locale files, unused
   binaries (be really sure on this), make sure man pages are
   gzipped (or nuke them altogether).
10) if you add and delete a lot of packages: rpm --rebuilddb
11) as a last resort look at utilities that compress/decompress
    binaries on the fly.

the biggest problem with this: upgrades suck.

kevin
--
kevin at suberic.net       "we were goin' for breakfast.  in canada.  we
fork()'ed on 37058400    made a deal: if she'd stop hookin', i'd stop
meatspace place: home    shootin' people.  maybe we were aiming high."
                                                   --porter, "payback"