Talk:Knoppix Remastering Howto


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Revision as of 21:24, 25 February 2005 by GMATYOLA (Talk | contribs)

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Tips around apt-get to install/update/remove applications:

  • Get apt-spy and use it to modify the sources.list file with the best mirrors for your particular region. This will speed up the downloading. Backup the original sources.list just in case.
  • Use apt-get update to get the lists with the latest releases and patches. Do not update a package if you don't need to, it may lead to the use of additional disk space (precious commodity when you want to keep everything below 700MB) and you may brake something else without knowing. Abuse the -s option to simulate the installation.
  • Before doing the update, I modified my default releases to testing, that means that the software I'll be using will have a good balance of stability and features. Knoppix uses unstable by default, which is too risky for my personal taste.
  • Get [apt-get install] locale and configure it with the locales you are going to use. It will save lots of space when downloading applications with plenty of locale modules.
  • I use aptitude to get/remove applications, it is character based so it works character mode. As you mark packages for install/update/removal, it will tell you how much disk space you will save/use, try to solve depencies problems and give you plenty control to fix them manually when possible.
  • When installing applications it is likely that your /etc/rc?.d directories will have new entries, many of them unwanted or unplanned. Make sure you check them and remove the new entries based on your preferences. I usually leave /etc/rc2.d and /etc/rc5.d as close as the originals and modify /etc/rc3.d and /etc/rc4.d to test new stuff.

Example: You may want to have ntfs installed, but not necessarily running unless you need. Same with apache, mysql and many others.

  • When removing/purging applications, they may leave behind non-empty directories. Usually this is announced by aptitude, apt-get or any other package you are using. Make sure to check the messages.