Xserver-xorg or just Xorg?

[ibjsb4]

I am running without a display manager (using startx) and xorg package installed, works fine.

I also run a virtual machine (a pretty bare install) using just the package xserver-xorg. Which also seems to work fine.

So the question is:
Can I use just the package xserver-xorg in the real world (desktop installed) or will I miss the extra packages that comes with the xorg package?

If you wonder why I want to do this, its just part of the never ending quest for minimal everything

EDIT: I guess I should mention that I run metacity only, no compiz installed.

[TheFu]

You need a minimal window manager. I'm like you - I run fvwm as my WM. No need to worry about which X packages are pulled in, the dependencies will handle that for you.

Take a look at the starts script - educational, it is.

[tgalati4]

xserver-xorg has a huge list of dependencies. Without repackaging, I don't see how you could reduce them. If you want minimal X-Windows, look at http://tinycorelinux.net/welcome.html and how they handle a minimal X-server.

tgalati4@Mint14-Extensa ~ $ apt-cache depends xserver-xorg
xserver-xorg
Depends: xserver-xorg-core
|Depends: xserver-xorg-video-all
Depends: <xorg-driver-video>
fglrx
fglrx-updates
nvidia-173
nvidia-173-updates
nvidia-current
nvidia-current-updates
nvidia-experimental-304
nvidia-experimental-310
virtualbox-guest-x11
xserver-xorg-video-ati
xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
xserver-xorg-video-dummy
xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
xserver-xorg-video-intel
xserver-xorg-video-mach64
xserver-xorg-video-mga
xserver-xorg-video-modesetting
xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
xserver-xorg-video-qxl
xserver-xorg-video-r128
xserver-xorg-video-radeon
xserver-xorg-video-s3
xserver-xorg-video-savage
xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
xserver-xorg-video-sis
xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
xserver-xorg-video-trident
xserver-xorg-video-vesa
xserver-xorg-video-vmware
|Depends: xserver-xorg-input-all
Depends: <xorg-driver-input>
xserver-xorg-input-acecad
xserver-xorg-input-aiptek
xserver-xorg-input-elographics
xserver-xorg-input-evdev
xserver-xorg-input-joystick
xserver-xorg-input-kbd
xserver-xorg-input-mouse
xserver-xorg-input-mtrack
xserver-xorg-input-multitouch
xserver-xorg-input-mutouch
xserver-xorg-input-penmount
xserver-xorg-input-synaptics
xserver-xorg-input-tslib
xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse
xserver-xorg-input-void
xserver-xorg-input-wacom
Depends: xserver-xorg-input-evdev
Depends: libc6
Depends: xkb-data
Depends: x11-xkb-utils
Recommends: libgl1-mesa-dri
Conflicts: xserver-xorg:i386

[TheFu]

+1 on TinyCore. I'm with @tgalati4. Use it all the time for my online banking and brokerage access VM. 12MB for a working OS with a GUI. They have 3 versions:
* no GUI - about 4M
* minimal GUI w/browser - 12M
* GUI w/popular browser and common tools - 64M

Definitely good for a quick need, but lacking in infrastructure software things that even I want on a daily use machine. OTOH, TinyCore is FAST on any machine - don't think we could tell the difference in speed between a Pentium4 and a Core i7.

I know that IBM started with TinyCore as the base for a remote computing desktop project for about 10K people too. Can't recall if they used NX, Spice, VNC, RDP or something else as the main protocol.

[ibjsb4]

Yes, I will have to research how tinycore builds X. I realize that I am basically just reinventing the wheel, but this is something I like to do

The little bit of research I have done on this, indicates that I could just install xserver-xorg-core and build up from there.

I haven't look at those start scripts yet, home work is piling up

This is going to take a few weeks, depending on how many times this little project gets shove off to the back burner. So expect another post in a few weeks.

Thank you both

[VMC]

CorePlus 5.0 is 74+ megs now. I never thought of using in a VM. I think I will try it.
Installing apps is a bit odd compared to apt-get, but its small size and speed make up the difference.