Andrew_Lucas
May 27th, 2014, 03:53 PM
Hi all,
This is more of a 'check I'm on the right lines' rather than 'fix my problem' thread.
I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and have decided that _buntus comes with too much 'junk' installed (packages that I don't need or want).
Having looked into Arch, and deciding that the effort/skill required to maintain it is beyond me, I've come round to the idea of setting up a minimal installation. This lets me have to have an 'Arch-like' experience (i.e. only packages I want will be installed), but once set up, I shouldn't have to worry about the rolling release cycle breaking things, as well as saving me from learning the nuances of another package manager. (I've also tried Bodhi, and I like everything about it apart from Enlightenment - unfortunately, Bodhi is E17). I'm also hoping this is something of a learning experience, and that I'll gain knowledge of my chosen packages. There's a great line in the 'Package Management' section of LFS, about how some people use no package management, because they know their system intimately. Whilst I'm a long way off that, it's fun to dream...
My DE of choice is Xfce. What I want after installation of the following packages is a desktop (with the Whisker menu) and some basic administrative utilities, but as little else as possible (call this 'Stage 1', where installing the minimal iso is 0, applications is 2, configuration is 3). The list will be installed with the --no-recommends argument.
Package list:
thunar
xfce4-mixer
xfce4-panel
xfce4-session
xfce4-settings
xconf
xfdesktop4
xfwm4
xfce4-notifyd
xserver-xorg
xinit
gtk3-engines-xfce
xfce4-power-manager
thunar-archive-plugin
thunar-media-tags-plugin
xfce4-artwork
xfce4-battery-plugin
xfce4-clipman-plugin
xfce4-cpufreq-plugin
xfce4-cpugraph-plugin
xfce4-datetime-plugin
xfce4-dict
xfce4-diskperf-plugin
xfce4-fsguard-plugin
xfce4-genmon-plugin
xfce4-mount-plugin
xfce4-netload-plugin
xfce4-quicklauncher-plugin
xfce4-screenshooter
xfce4-sensors-plugin
xfce4-systemload-plugin
xfce4-taskmanager
xfce4-terminal
xfce4-volumed
xfce4-xkb-plugin
xfce4-power-manager-plugins
xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin
lightdm
lightdm-gtk-greeter
xdg-user-dirs
dkms
light-locker
light-locker-settings
Note: I do realise xfce4-artwork is just eyecandy, but since this list was created with the help of the dependencies listed on the Ubuntu package search site, I've stuck it in here. The same applies to the plugins - I've already discarded ones I think I won't use.
Questions:
1) Are there any obvious necessary packages missing (necessary not in so far as dependencies - I know apt will pick these up - but in so far as functionality)?
2) The two bold packages, I'm unsure about - xinit I've read in one place isn't needed since LightDM will handle starting X, whereas another source said it was needed. With xserver-xorg, logic dictates that it is of course needed, but unless its so far down the dependency chain I've not seen it, I can't find it listed as a dependency for the Xfce packages (e.g. xfce4-session, xfwm4, xfdesktop4). LightDM only recommends the xserver-xorg package too.
3) As part of the minimal installation, I've disabled root (so will be controlling the system with sudo). Do I need to manually add myself to the sudoers group, or would that be done already (i.e. as a consequence of root being disabled)?
4) Aside from installing packages, and fiddling with settings in the GUI to get things how I want them, are there any tasks which are automatically done by the 'normal' _buntu installer but not by the minimal one, that would need doing manually? This is really more of a generalisation of (3).
Ta!
This is more of a 'check I'm on the right lines' rather than 'fix my problem' thread.
I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and have decided that _buntus comes with too much 'junk' installed (packages that I don't need or want).
Having looked into Arch, and deciding that the effort/skill required to maintain it is beyond me, I've come round to the idea of setting up a minimal installation. This lets me have to have an 'Arch-like' experience (i.e. only packages I want will be installed), but once set up, I shouldn't have to worry about the rolling release cycle breaking things, as well as saving me from learning the nuances of another package manager. (I've also tried Bodhi, and I like everything about it apart from Enlightenment - unfortunately, Bodhi is E17). I'm also hoping this is something of a learning experience, and that I'll gain knowledge of my chosen packages. There's a great line in the 'Package Management' section of LFS, about how some people use no package management, because they know their system intimately. Whilst I'm a long way off that, it's fun to dream...
My DE of choice is Xfce. What I want after installation of the following packages is a desktop (with the Whisker menu) and some basic administrative utilities, but as little else as possible (call this 'Stage 1', where installing the minimal iso is 0, applications is 2, configuration is 3). The list will be installed with the --no-recommends argument.
Package list:
thunar
xfce4-mixer
xfce4-panel
xfce4-session
xfce4-settings
xconf
xfdesktop4
xfwm4
xfce4-notifyd
xserver-xorg
xinit
gtk3-engines-xfce
xfce4-power-manager
thunar-archive-plugin
thunar-media-tags-plugin
xfce4-artwork
xfce4-battery-plugin
xfce4-clipman-plugin
xfce4-cpufreq-plugin
xfce4-cpugraph-plugin
xfce4-datetime-plugin
xfce4-dict
xfce4-diskperf-plugin
xfce4-fsguard-plugin
xfce4-genmon-plugin
xfce4-mount-plugin
xfce4-netload-plugin
xfce4-quicklauncher-plugin
xfce4-screenshooter
xfce4-sensors-plugin
xfce4-systemload-plugin
xfce4-taskmanager
xfce4-terminal
xfce4-volumed
xfce4-xkb-plugin
xfce4-power-manager-plugins
xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin
lightdm
lightdm-gtk-greeter
xdg-user-dirs
dkms
light-locker
light-locker-settings
Note: I do realise xfce4-artwork is just eyecandy, but since this list was created with the help of the dependencies listed on the Ubuntu package search site, I've stuck it in here. The same applies to the plugins - I've already discarded ones I think I won't use.
Questions:
1) Are there any obvious necessary packages missing (necessary not in so far as dependencies - I know apt will pick these up - but in so far as functionality)?
2) The two bold packages, I'm unsure about - xinit I've read in one place isn't needed since LightDM will handle starting X, whereas another source said it was needed. With xserver-xorg, logic dictates that it is of course needed, but unless its so far down the dependency chain I've not seen it, I can't find it listed as a dependency for the Xfce packages (e.g. xfce4-session, xfwm4, xfdesktop4). LightDM only recommends the xserver-xorg package too.
3) As part of the minimal installation, I've disabled root (so will be controlling the system with sudo). Do I need to manually add myself to the sudoers group, or would that be done already (i.e. as a consequence of root being disabled)?
4) Aside from installing packages, and fiddling with settings in the GUI to get things how I want them, are there any tasks which are automatically done by the 'normal' _buntu installer but not by the minimal one, that would need doing manually? This is really more of a generalisation of (3).
Ta!