[CentOS] 'Many' packages installed - CentOS 4.1

John Hinton webmaster at ew3d.com
Thu Aug 25 17:15:40 UTC 2005


Craig White wrote:

>John - you are rambling
>
>  
>
Yeah, sort of hoping it might fall upon RedHat ears somewhere! I 'feel' 
better either way. ;)

>RHEL 4 / CentOS 4 installs a very light package set  (and no X) if you
>simply choose server. I think that there was mention of a special server
>CD iso for installing a super light set and that it was working with
>text install but not the GUI install. See the archives from a few weeks
>ago - something like Server CD. I didn't even know one had existed.
>
>You do have to be careful when you add stuff because some things will
>cause a bunch of stuff to be installed as dependencies.
>
>  
>
I'll give minimal a shot on a test machine. I normally start with 
server, but then fine tune. I use the package list as a 'checklist' to 
help me remember what I need and what I don't for any particular 
install. EL4 does seem to leave out a lot of server items (PHP, MySQL) 
which were installed in the past, while adding things that weren't. My 
last installs (el4) have all resulted in systems that defaulted to a 
startup of X at the console.

Aside from apache/bind/sendmail, I normally install php, mysql, 
imagemagick (without gui), netpbm, apache-devel, sar, top, mrtg, 
spamassassin, cyrus-imap and at the moment, I forget just what else 
(that checklist is useful!).

I don't know, I must be choosing something that's throwing the extra 
garbage in. And I know, I could write my own KS, but gee, I don't do it 
often enough for that and some machines vary, for instance some are 
nameservers some are not. A person can spend a lot of time in dependancy 
hell trying to get a clean install. If one does select minimal, are you 
presented with the custom option during install? Or is minimal only 
available at the bottom of the customization screen? Seems like figuring 
out what's missing might not be worth the effort to trim the fat? And 
maybe I'm crazy, but it seems that installing packages like bind during 
the intial install, configures itself more completely off the start 
versus installing the package later?

A great point was made..... Custom should be Custom and should allow 
minimal within that scope. Custom doesn't even seem to have nearly the 
full package list shown, although yes, it can be argued that some 
packages simply must be installed and therefore don't need to be shown. 
Then again, maybe one of my 'other' selections is throwing X into the game?

When CentOS finalizes their 'Server CD', perhaps a copy should be sent 
to RedHat!! LOL!

Again, I know this is not a 'CentOS' issue. And crap... here I go 
rambling again! Sorry.

John Hinton



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