

Re: Minimal installation

On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 16:38:25 +0000, Carlos Rodrigues
<carlos efr mail telepac pt> wrote:
> I've tried to do a minimal installation of FC3, only to find that it
> really isn't that minimal... So, my suggestion is: would it be possible
> to have a really minimal installation option? I was thinking something
> like the base installation of the BSDs.

This comes up somewhat frequently.  My understanding is that some
people in the community have been working on making kickstart files
and post-installation instructions to produce more minimal installs. 
Its a completely valid approach that people can use, and kickstart
files provide a range of minimal install targets depending on the
dedicate purpose once people are aware of kickstart.

But if you want to make the anaconda installer's native concept of
minimal more minimal then you have to re-work the comps.xml
information that defines the groups anaconda uses. This isn't an
unaccomplishable task, and my understanding is the red hat developers
who oversee anaconda in fedora are willing to accept reasonable
changes to the groupings which make the minimal option more minimal
but do not affect the desktop or workstation install.  But its going
to take some concerted effort and concensous from community who want
to see this change.  Having everyone interested in making this happen
individual offer small changes that the developers have to review is
going to burn too much developer time that the developers don't have
to spare. The real reason the minimal install option isnt better is
more a matter of priorities than complete uninterest.  If community
members who want to see this changed can work together and provide
something concrete for a groups.xml file that can be reviewed, things
might actually move forward.

What i personally would love to see from community members who are
interested in enhancing the minimal install option in anaconda is to
start publishing alternative comps.xml files that can be used to
generate new iso images that other people in the community can test
and try out and then give feedback on.  The goal being... to craft a
new comps.xml file  that ONLY changes the minimal install.. but leaves
the rest of anaconda functioning exactly the same. The same desktop
and workstation install behavior would absolutely be a must.  And
keeping the visible groups in custom install the same would be
desirable as well.  There's no reason why interested community members
can't learn how to edit the groups defined in comps.xml and try to do
some coherent testing of changes before asking for the changes to be
included in fedora.

