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debfoster how-to

Page history last edited by Paul G. Taylor 15 years, 2 months ago

I've been using debfoster and learning about it for a short time. Here are some of my thoughts.

 


loscompanion.com/forums/index.php

I have been learning more about debfoster lately and would recommend its use for temporarily eliminating applications and dependencies to get the distribution size down within the 700 MB limit of a CD. The advantages of using debfoster, as I see it, is that you can have ready-made lists of applications that you want for both the base and the full version and just switch between them, as required, when running debfoster. You could even do the same with any other distro that you install and bring it into line with your preferred suite of applications in just one run. It could be used to switch an installed version between different desktops, such as KDE, Gnome, Xfce, etc. Debfoster will remove or install and fix all the dependency issues automatically to conform to the list it is given. Just specifically include anything that debfoster may consider an 'orphan' that you know that you need to keep.

The trick with APTonCD, would be to pare down your applications to the point where you are within the desired size, build the distribution ISO, then, using the 'full' list of applications download and install the purged applications, placing and leaving an up-to-date version of the .deb files in the cache. After that, use APTonCD to write the newly downloaded .deb files to an ISO and burn that to CD.

Then, when installing on more than one computer, you have the base system on one CD and you can add back all the remaining applications in one go using APTonCD. Or, alternatively, if bandwidth is not a problem, just use debfoster with the full list of applications and it will download, configure and install everything that was taken out to conserve space.

There may be some configuration files that would need to be kept rather than purging all. They could be handled specially, I guess.

Any way, that's my ideas. I haven't actually been through the process fully myself, so there may be some issues I haven't covered.

Paul


http://linuxinternationals.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1050&p=5613#p5613

Hi Dean,

Glad to have caught up with you again. Where've you been hiding?

Here's my thoughts, I just posted them over on that other forum, but here they are again.

Based on this helpful How-to on the Ubuntu forums.

HOWTO: using debfoster in practice

Using debfoster is easy. The first time you run it in quiet mode to generate a keepers list of all installed applications.

You can add to or delete from this list either from debfoster or by editing the file itself.

Running debfoster in 'force' mode makes the system comply with the specified list of applications, taking care of all dependencies and removing all orphaned libraries.

So, how would this work in practice for this project?

1) Anyone can set up their system as they like it, then publish their keepers list for others to use.

Since you can specify any list at run-time debfoster will simply make your system comply with any one else's keepers list.

You can make any distro. comply with your set of applications, or anyone else's list of applications.

2) You would just need the boot files, the kernel, an installer and the basic applications to get started with, then debfoster could install your selected suite of applications. If there are special files or configurations you would just include them in the base.

3) The setting up of repositories would complete the package.

You could even keep a local 'repository', using APTonCD if you wanted to build various flavours of Linux around the same repositories. Download the .deb files once and install as often as required on as many machines as desired.

What have I missed?

One of the mysteries of Linux, to me, is why some distros have better hardware recognition than others, better drivers, etc, since they should all make use of the same kernel, more or less, I would have thought .

Any way, that would be my idea of how to mix and match a Linux of your choice.

One thing that I would like to learn about is compiling your own kernel. People used to do that when their computers were much less powerful than most of todays computers. Compiling the kernel means that it will be specifically tailored to your hardware and will be lean and mean, and so should be faster and more reliable, should it not? Anyone done this themselves?

Paul

 

PS : --

 

I have uploaded the 'keepers' file from my working installation of Klikit-Linux

 debfosterkeepers.txt

 

       debfosterkeepersoneline.txt

 

the latter being a one-line per item list with the same apps as the former.

 

See posting on Linux Internationals Forums

Managing applications with debfoster.

 


 

Using debfoster in a LiveCD session of Cosmosis-x32, I uninstalled a selection of applications, then reinstalled them, leaving the .deb files in the cache : --

 

root@custom:/var/lib/debfoster# cd /var/cache/apt/archives/

root@custom:/var/cache/apt/archives# ls -l

total 73036

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    10092 2008-02-07 10:03 apt-mark-sync_0.0.2-0ubuntu2_all.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   212952 2008-09-17 14:04 aptoncd_0.1.98-0ubuntu3_all.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    36580 2008-05-05 10:05 debfoster_2.7-1_i386.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   206486 2008-05-07 05:05 gimp2.0-quiteinsane_0.3-9_i386.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  4697838 2004-12-08 21:45 gimp-data-extras_1%3a2.0.1-3_all.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  2598356 2008-05-10 19:04 gimp-gap_2.4.0-2_i386.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   102822 2008-10-06 16:05 gimp-gutenprint_5.2.0~rc1-0ubuntu1_i386.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 14912550 2008-05-03 11:07 gimp-help-common_2.4.1-1_all.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   877558 2008-05-03 11:07 gimp-help-en_2.4.1-1_all.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  1371616 2008-10-14 12:04 gimp-plugin-registry_1.0-1ubuntu1_i386.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    22718 2008-05-04 22:04 gimp-resynthesizer_0.16-1_i386.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    25976 2007-10-25 11:03 gimp-texturize_2.0-2_i386.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   427724 2008-11-10 10:06 gnome-cards-data_1%3a2.24.1.1-0ubuntu1_all.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   405712 2008-08-01 08:04 gocr_0.45-2_i386.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 21847398 2008-05-12 06:03 grokking-the-gimp_1.0-2_all.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    71876 2008-08-27 10:05 gtkam-gimp_0.1.15-0ubuntu1_i386.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   826446 2008-10-06 16:05 gutenprint-locales_5.2.0~rc1-0ubuntu1_all.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   220552 2008-06-16 12:04 libblas3gf_1.2-1.6_i386.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    34494 2005-11-28 19:30 libexif-gtk5_0.3.5-3_i386.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   230806 2008-10-25 06:04 libgfortran3_4.3.2-1ubuntu11_i386.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   118672 2008-10-06 16:05 libgutenprintui2-1_5.2.0~rc1-0ubuntu1_i386.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    79386 2007-10-02 14:04 libjpeg-progs_6b-14_i386.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  2880302 2008-06-16 14:04 liblapack3gf_3.1.1-0.4ubuntu1_i386.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    16388 2008-06-20 12:04 liblqr-1-0_0.1.0-1_i386.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    76744 2006-06-20 23:10 libmpeg3-1_1.5.4-5_i386.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    66226 2008-06-02 09:04 libnetpbm10_2%3a10.0-12_i386.deb

-rw-r----- 1 root root        0 2008-10-29 22:25 lock

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   122806 2008-09-11 21:05 memtest86+_2.01-1ubuntu2_i386.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    16284 2008-10-22 04:19 mobile-broadband-provider-info_20081015.1-0ubuntu1_all.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  1190508 2008-06-02 09:04 netpbm_2%3a10.0-12_i386.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    64062 2008-11-24 21:04 openoffice.org-gnome_1%3a2.4.1-11ubuntu2.1_i386.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   148244 2008-11-24 21:04 openoffice.org-gtk_1%3a2.4.1-11ubuntu2.1_i386.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  7562492 2008-09-22 07:04 openoffice.org-help-en-us_1%3a2.4.1-9ubuntu1_all.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   339630 2008-04-08 14:26 openoffice.org-hyphenation_0.3_all.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    54600 2008-07-02 04:44 openoffice.org-hyphenation-en-us_2.4-2ubuntu1_all.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  5136252 2008-06-26 10:04 openoffice.org-thesaurus-en-au_2.1-3.1_all.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  5142318 2008-10-19 11:05 openoffice.org-thesaurus-en-us_1%3a2.4.0-2ubuntu4_all.deb

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root       40 2009-01-05 03:59 partial

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   837820 2008-02-12 05:04 quiteinsane_0.10-14_i386.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   476254 2007-07-26 11:03 reiserfsprogs_1%3a3.6.19-6_i386.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   563944 2008-06-11 13:04 transfig_1%3a3.2.5-rel-3.1_i386.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   268088 2008-07-04 09:06 wamerican_6-2.2_all.deb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   101488 2007-12-17 01:04 zsync_0.5-1ubuntu3_i386.deb

 

These were then put into an ISO file for burning to CD, if needed, but available on my pendrive for reinstallation using APTonCD.

 

This ISO file is 71.5 MB in size and is called aptoncd-20090105-CD1-1.iso located in file:///media/DATAUSB/Cosmosis-Linux/aptoncd-20090105-CD1-1.iso

 

The keepers files used are in the same folder, vis : --

 

/media/DATAUSB/Cosmosis-Linux/keepers and

/media/DATAUSB/Cosmosis-Linux/keepers-slim, the difference being

/media/DATAUSB/Cosmosis-Linux/keepers-diff

 

root@custom:/var/lib/debfoster# diff keepers-slim keepers  [Output slightly edited for readability]

 

> gimp-data-extras

> gimp-gap

> gimp-gutenprint

> gimp-help-en

> gimp-plugin-registry

> gimp-resynthesizer

> gimp-texturize

> gimp2.0-quiteinsane

> gnome-cards-data

> grokking-the-gimp

> gtkam-gimp

> memtest86+

> mobile-broadband-provider-info

> myspell-en-au

> myspell-en-za

> openoffice.org-gnome

> openoffice.org-help-en-us

> openoffice.org-hyphenation

> openoffice.org-hyphenation-en-us

> openoffice.org-thesaurus-en-au

> openoffice.org-thesaurus-en-us

> quiteinsane

> reiserfsprogs

> wamerican

 

Note 1 : I selected these applications merely for test purposes to see how the method would work.

 

Note 2 : After this command the cache has been cleared out or cleaned : --

 

root@custom:/var/lib/debfoster# apt-get clean

root@custom:/var/lib/debfoster# ls -l /var/cache/apt/archives

total 0

-rw-r----- 1 root root  0 2008-10-29 22:25 lock

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 40 2009-01-05 03:59 partial

root@custom:/var/lib/debfoster#

 

 

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