Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 446542
No self contained minimal download to do a minimal install
Last modified: 2014-03-16 23:14:43 EDT
Description of problem: I want to install a minimal F9. That is, one with none of the optional packages selected. None of the available install methods seem appropriate. The install guide lists the following options: 1. Full distribution DVD Nope. I don't want to download 6 CDs (or a whole DVD) worth just to install a minimal system. 2. Live image ``also provides an "Install to Hard Disk" desktop shortcut''. Nope. That implies it'll install a duplicate of the currently running system onto the hard drive. Since I don't want X, the existence of a desktop shortcut tends to rule that one out. 3. Minimal boot media Sounds promising. Except that it doesn't do a minimal install. It refers to the fact that the size of the media is minimal, rather than the installed package list being minimal, which is what I want. Plus, it necessitates a network install, which is not what I want. All I want is a self containted single bootable image that I can use to install a minimal Fedora 9 system. Once it's up and running, I can yum install anything extra I need that's missing. Now maybe you'll claim that a custom spin could be created to do this. I'm sure it probably could. But that's simply not something I have the time or facilities to do. I just want to install the OS. While I accept that it's far from a mainstream approach, I suspect it's not sufficiently unusual to justify its absence from the standard install methods.
A truly minimal install theoretically could be done with just CD1 (but I haven't tried this recently.) Realistically, this is the perfect area for a new user-contributed spin - it's not one we're planning on doing as part of the main spin. Considering most users of a 'minimal' install will want to do *some* minor package customization later, (requiring network access in most cases), it seems best to target boot.iso + HTTP/FTP for those that want a truly minimal download.