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#1 2017-09-23 10:00:48

eddilein
Member
From: Germany / Bavaria
Registered: 2008-08-06
Posts: 21

Reducing file size of the ISO [solved]

Dear Team, dear Community,

I am an old and discreet supporter of this wonderful GNU/Linux distribution but it doesn't matter who I am.

I am also suspecting this is possibly the wrong subforum to post; in this case, i'll kindly ask the admin of this forum to put this topic/posting on it's right place.

The automatic build script for the monthly releases of Arch is very smart and is full of codelines deliberately following the KISS principle:
https://git.archlinux.org/archiso.git/t … /mkarchiso

Now comes my question:

At lines: 225 227 242 244 simply add the following switches

-b 1024K

and you will save a lot of bandwith?

And if it is so easy (it is indead, because I could observe an iso file reduced by one third (1/3)), where are my errors in reasoning?

To anybody: have a nice week-end!

Edit:

Sorry, this is obviously not the fact anymore, but it was (with the dualboot versions)

The results are:

- without the switcfhes: 518.0M
- with them: 480.0M

Anyway, the question remains...

Edit II:

I am afraid I am getting annoying, but by the way, for the bootstrap, why does nobody change the compression algorithm (*.tar.xz)? Here the results are more obvious...

Sorry, don't want to be boring anymore.

Edit III:

According to #2

Old subject was: ISO distribution

Last edited by eddilein (2017-09-23 17:23:19)

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#2 2017-09-23 12:30:00

x33a
Forum Fellow
Registered: 2009-08-15
Posts: 4,587

Re: Reducing file size of the ISO [solved]

Please rename your thread to something clearer, like, "Reducing file size of the ISO".

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#3 2017-09-23 12:49:24

Allan
Pacman
From: Brisbane, AU
Registered: 2007-06-09
Posts: 11,365
Website

Re: Reducing file size of the ISO [solved]

eddilein wrote:

why does nobody change the compression algorithm (*.tar.xz)? Here the results are more obvious...

What to?

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#4 2017-09-23 12:57:52

eddilein
Member
From: Germany / Bavaria
Registered: 2008-08-06
Posts: 21

Re: Reducing file size of the ISO [solved]

Sorry,

this is probably my bad englisch. I mean, why not compress the bootstrap with xz rather tan gzip.

What to?

If you mean what for, simply to spare bandwith, Arch is a well known distribution and I just suppose ther are a lot of people downloading the install media.

And, I know stupid remark from me: just to get the touch of "ecologically green"?

Just my humble point of view.

@Allan

After reflection, it is quite naive from me: In this case, the Team could deliver just the init image and would save even more space.

So my thougths are pure nonsense, in a certain case.

But maybe there are still other opinions?

Thank you for the question

Last edited by eddilein (2017-09-23 13:13:19)

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#5 2017-09-23 16:32:34

eddilein
Member
From: Germany / Bavaria
Registered: 2008-08-06
Posts: 21

Re: Reducing file size of the ISO [solved]

Dear Allan,

Your kind answer brings my overheated head to the following (sick) arguments:

First of all, I hope your "grade" is some kind of joke, because if not, I would be so ashamed that it would stop me immediately.

Maybe it is a coincidence, but I tend not to believe in "hasard"...:

Today, the distribution TinyCore brought a new release out.

What I wanted to say in my prior postings, I guess coming from my subconscious, was a kind of "TinyArch" distribution.

Please don't argue that I am free to choose, just because it simply would not be the same as "Arch inside".

Anyway, I am much too respectfull as to fork Arch just because of a "stupid" experiment... How can I do something better than that what is already near from
perfection? And even so, I have neither manpower nor infrastructure nor money (just to say it) to investigate in this direction...

But my question to the community (not to the Team, it has enough to do) would be:

Does anyone have some experience in manipulating (bad word, let's say 'optimizing') the init image?

Does it make some kind of sense what I am trying to explain?

How far is it possible to reduce a linux distribution (the same question as with a simple mousetrap) without breaking it's functionality?

If you only take away one component, it would be the 'halleluya' for mice. That would be what I would like to reach.

And to anticipate your possible further question, "what to?", I would argue: because it is possible?

Kindly "thank you!" for the  time you invested in reading this couple of lines.

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#6 2017-09-23 16:52:21

Slithery
Administrator
From: Norfolk, UK
Registered: 2013-12-01
Posts: 5,776

Re: Reducing file size of the ISO [solved]

eddilein wrote:

First of all, I hope your "grade" is some kind of joke, because if not, I would be so ashamed that it would stop me immediately.

No joke. Allan is one of the lead Arch developers.

Arch has never been, and never will be a distribution optimised for size due to the fact that packages aren't split and are built with most options enabled. As to the size of the install media, how often do you install Arch? The fact that it's a rolling release means that re-installation isn't necessary.

Last edited by Slithery (2017-09-23 16:55:48)


No, it didn't "fix" anything. It just shifted the brokeness one space to the right. - jasonwryan
Closing -- for deletion; Banning -- for muppetry. - jasonwryan

aur - dotfiles

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#7 2017-09-23 17:22:02

eddilein
Member
From: Germany / Bavaria
Registered: 2008-08-06
Posts: 21

Re: Reducing file size of the ISO [solved]

@slithery

Thank you so much for the info, so, if x33a agrees, I would like to close this thread (this will be my next step after answering you) by once more editing the subject.

Your answer fully makes sense to my understanding.

But to answer your question, oh, I use to install Arch plenty of times, but this is just *because* I am experimenting with the init process. It's fantastic! Anyhow, I am not as dumb as to download it every time from the servers, don't worry.

Hence, I know this is an unusual approach, and once again, you are fully right.

One last time before closing this thread,

Thanks to all the readers!

Etienne

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#8 2017-09-28 14:36:10

eddilein
Member
From: Germany / Bavaria
Registered: 2008-08-06
Posts: 21

Re: Reducing file size of the ISO [solved]

Would you kindly allow me to respond, dear Allan, as a friendly hommage to you, the following way?

http://borbely.org/tuxmaster/scripts/ht … 09.28.html

Thank you!

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