Does anyone know of a project to make a micro-distribution of debian for
use on older hardware? Eg 486, 32 MB, 100 MB. One problem with
installing with Woody and upgrading is that the list of packages in Main
is so huge it takes up a good chunk of disk space (and memory space when
using aptitude). Its getting harder and harder to use old hardware for
things like firewalls or print servers not because the application needs
more oompf but because the package managment system takes up so much
space.
I would like a simple system that can be kept up-to-date (i.e. remain
part of stable) with security updates and all, with the following
capabilites/programs (in no order):
mc
lynx
wget
shorewall
bzip2
tar
vim
mutt
exim4
lpd (more advanced spoolers take up a lot of room)
minicom
setserial
ssh
mgetty
man pages
installation manual, debian-reference, shorewall docs,
harden-doc, etc
basic X with a pdf reader for documentation that is only in pdf
(e.g. hardware documentation on CD)
The driving force behind this is the experience of having my main
computer totally die suddenly. The only hardware I had that worked was
the 486 and initially only a 171 MB hd. The only media I had was a
woody CD set. Backup media was CD, Zip, and floppy (intentionally, so
that worked as planned). I later found a larger hard drive so I could
update.
For ancillary computer uses (e.g. a firewall), having an install option
that focuses on a small footprint would be usefull, eg. no man pages,
no documentation, etc since that's all on the main computer. This
suggests a modified package installation where the documentation doesn't
get installed. However, for security I would want to use the regular
debian packages. I don't want a totally separate distro.
Any ideas?
Doug.
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