16GB Install

[Flatcap]

Hi All,

As noted in a previous forum thread, the installer won't let you install with less than 16.5GB of drive space.  But, the minimum requirements listed say 8GB.

Is there a way to do a more minimal install?  I ran 'live' off a usb drive and everything looked great, but I don't need the office apps, thunderbird, etc.

At a minimum, can the minimum requirements be changed to reflect the reality of the installer?

I really like Linux Lite and it seems plenty 'lite' enough to run on my old laptop.  Just wish I could install it!

Thanks,
Bob

[Valtam]

Great suggestion, I have updated both the Download page and Lite Welcome (in 7.2 release)

[Şerban S.]

[...] Is there a way to do a more minimal install?  [...]

Yes, there is.

You need to install it in VBox. After creating the .vdi file, you need to convert it into a .img file, using the command line feature of VBox.
Then you write the .img file where you want (including any suitable USB drive).
My installation is heavily customized and GPartED says it has:
512 MB, /dev/sda1, (boot, efi);
17,58 GB /dev/sda2 (/);
7,51 GB /dev/sda3 (/home);
3 GB /dev/sda4 SWAP.
That means 28,59 GB.
Some of the files might be "junk" though.
On a clean install, I got about 700 MB for the /home, and less than 8 GB for / (Root). I guess about 6,5 GB.
Adding up the figures, this goes at about 11 GB, considering a 3 GB SWAP.
If the system has 4 GB of RAM, I would add a 4096 MB SWAP, maybe even 5120 MB (5 GB).
That goes to 13 GB overall.
Now, if you strip the installation (Uninstall LibreOffice, Thunderbird and maybe some others), you might get some 4,5 ... 5 GB for the / (Root).
This will make more room for the /home partition.
Anyway, i doubt that you will be able to run it acceptably (speed issue) on a 16 GB USB stick. I'd rather use a small HDD or even a SD card, which are a little more expensive, but are faster than the sticks.
So, if you add some extra sweat, you can shrink enough the installation to make it fit on your system.
I made myself a venture installing a FreeDOS on a stick, for BIOS/UEFI updates. Sadly, the BIOS .exe seems to run on a 32 bit OS and FreeDOS looks like working on 16 bit, or maybe lacks the 32 bit drivers. But it works and the drive can be customized adding Apps like in old times, just by copying them.
So, if you want an administrative kit, you can build it in VBox, make it as small as necessary to fit a 16 GB drive and use it.
I'm thinking to do this in order to make a Linux Lite drive for administrative purposes (GPartED, Boot-Repair-Disk 64bit). This would allow me to work with a fully functional Linux Lite but a tiny, tiny version, limited to only the emergency Apps I need and some editor like Pluma, MousePad or even Geany.

Best regards, Șerban.

[Flatcap]

Hi Șerban,

Thanks for the suggestions!  This gives me a path forward, though I'll have to learn how to use VBOX and do it on another machine.  And that's great; it's the sort of thing this linux install was for anyway.

My old laptop only has 2GB of memory. So I could shrink that swap a bit too.

(More options in the installer would still be cool)

Regards,
Bob