[SATLUG] Re: Decision-based ISOs

[Eric Hobbs]

On Tue, 2004-05-04 at 23:05, indigotwilight at softhome.net wrote:

[cut]
> 
> A better solution would be a multi-step process.  From the web site, you can 
> download a CD of the absolute minimal stuff to install Linux.  Go about the 
> install, and once the minimal system is loaded, you could be taken into some 
> sort of "further configuration utility."  Here, you can select all of the 
> additional software you want and all of the repositories to use.
> 
> Once you have the first machine up and going, you can create a local 
> repository based on the packages you've downloaded.  You can then create a 
> CD based on the local repository on this system.  Now, armed with the 
> minimal CD and your personalized "updates" CD, you have all you need to do a 
> complete install on another system with only the packages you want.  This 
> process doesn't buy you anything if you're just doing a single install.  
> But, this is a lifesaver if you'll be doing multiple identical installs or 
> need to install on a machine with a slow or non-existant internet 
> connection.
[cut]

Sounds like a job for Gentoo...sort of!  It's not really relevant to the
original question, but have a look here:

http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=133711

It kind of goes against the spirit of Gentoo, I suppose, but this
article describes how you can build a functional Gentoo system in "5
minutes".  By hand, it's more like 30 minutes.  Gentoo does have a set
of pre-built "big" apps like OpenOffice, XFree, KDE, Gnome, etc. on a
packages CD, though you can quite easily build your own binary packages
if you have a Gentoo system installed somewhere.  Those custom binary
packages can be put on a CD along with the Gentoo-created packages, and
this could be your personalized packages CD.  

So basically, you can lay down the base system as described in the above
article in about 15-30 minutes, put in the custom packages CD, and
"emerge -k" the binary packages from CD. If you're so inclined, you can
make your own custom Gentoo boot CD (LiveCD, in Gentoo-speak) using
their "catalyst" tool.

Could you host something like this as a web service?  Err..maybe, but
you'd need some pretty serious hardware to do it.  Either that, or you
would need to severely limit the package choices.

A Debian-based Internet install might be more practical.  You'd download
a single ~200Meg CD, boot it, then install just the packages you need.
http://www.debian.org/CD/netinst/

--Eric