The BARE NECESSITIES

kaloka2398 · 2019-01-21 11:19:53

Seriously, I want to install the BONES of arch, WITHOUT it's flesh OR skin.. Like.. just give me the linux kernel, and the bare necessities, like the coreutils, bash.

I want a TRULY. minimal linux system, and I do not want to use pacstrap to batch download everything from the base or base-devel packages, What is the BARE minimum that is required for that tty1 login screen?? I don't want gcc, awk, perl ANYTHING, I just want arch linux to boot up.

Allan · 2019-01-21 11:22:07

My install command:

pacman -S base --ignore cryptsetup,jfsutils,lvm2,mdadm,nano,netctl,reiserfsprogs,s-nail,vi,xfsprogs

You probably want to add an editor...

Slithery · 2019-01-21 11:23:13

You don't have to install the entire base group using pacstrap, it's just the default if no other options are given. Just use the -i or --ignore flags with pacstrap and only install the packages you want.

Bear in mind that a lot of packages assume that all packages in base are installed so don't list them as dependencies. This may lead to breakage which it will be up to you to fix. Also Arch packages aren't really designed for minimalism by which I mean software is usually configured for the most possible features which may bring in unwanted (for you) dependencies. You'll never get an Arch system as light as lets say Alpine without some recompilation of a lot of core packages.

The results you can achieve will also be dependant on the type of hardware/software you intend to run, an old post of mine may be relevant here...
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 4#p1512824

Trilby · 2019-01-21 14:41:29

kaloka2398 wrote:

What is the BARE minimum that is required for that tty1 login screen?

So do you want a tty with a shell, or do you want bash? If you want bash, you need to install bash and all it's dependencies.

But the bare minimum would be two binaries: the kernel, and a statically linked busybox.

Slithery · 2019-01-21 15:00:52

Trilby wrote:

But the bare minimum would be two binaries: the kernel, and a statically linked busybox.

But could you still call that Arch?

Trilby · 2019-01-21 15:14:24

I can call it whatever I want. One could argue that if you do not install the entire base group according to the installation guide, then neither should that be called arch. In that case, though, I suspect a large portion of the active users on these forums are not using arch by that definition.

Which bits of the base group are essential to earn this right to call a system 'arch linux' becomes subjective and political. Must one use systemd to call their system arch linux? Or bash? Or coreutils?

Last edited by Trilby (2019-01-21 15:15:56)

schard · 2019-01-21 15:22:25

Trilby wrote:

I suspect a large portion of the active users on these forums are not using arch by that definition.

Indeed:

$ comm -13 <(pacman -Qq | sort) <(pacman -Sqg base | sort)
dhcpcd
jfsutils
netctl
reiserfsprogs
systemd-sysvcompat
vi

Trilby · 2019-01-21 15:26:17

$ pacman -Qq | sort >| /tmp/local.pkgs

$ pacman -Sqg base | sort | comm -13 /tmp/local.pkgs -
inetutils
iproute2
iputils
jfsutils
logrotate
lvm2
mdadm
nano
netctl
reiserfsprogs
s-nail
usbutils
vi
which
xfsprogs

I had two commands as I don't even use bash. A large portion of the remaining packages in base I'd be happy to do without, unfortunately so many things in the repos are built --with-kitchen-sink that removing them would break dependencies (despite me having no use for those features).

Last edited by Trilby (2019-01-21 15:36:15)

Arch Linux

#1 2019-01-21 11:19:53

The BARE NECESSITIES

#2 2019-01-21 11:22:07

Re: The BARE NECESSITIES

#3 2019-01-21 11:23:13

Re: The BARE NECESSITIES

#4 2019-01-21 14:41:29

Re: The BARE NECESSITIES

#5 2019-01-21 15:00:52

Re: The BARE NECESSITIES

#6 2019-01-21 15:14:24

Re: The BARE NECESSITIES

#7 2019-01-21 15:22:25

Re: The BARE NECESSITIES

#8 2019-01-21 15:26:17

Re: The BARE NECESSITIES

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