debian on 256MB flash drive??

[hemsk]

Hi all,

Yesterday I was given the challenge to install Debian on a 256MB flash memory (thin client), and I've spent all day trying to find a solution, unsuccessfully. I've found loads of info on how to strip it down once installed, but the problem is even the Base System is too big to fit. Is there a way to modify this during installation or am i looking at having to develop my own distro here? :/ All suggestions appreciated!

[arespi]

Well , it may be cheating , but puppy linux is based on Ubuntu wich is based on Debian, and it runs on about 100mb of disk.

Long-Term-Supported WaryPuppy (LTS)

[jayd512]

I've never tried making an installation that small, but maybe you could use one of the SmallCD (or SmallerCD) downloads.
Work from a minimal type of base install, and include only what is needed.

[atreyu]

Hi all,

Yesterday I was given the challenge to install Debian on a 256MB flash memory (thin client), and I've spent all day trying to find a solution, unsuccessfully. I've found loads of info on how to strip it down once installed, but the problem is even the Base System is too big to fit. Is there a way to modify this during installation or am i looking at having to develop my own distro here? :/ All suggestions appreciated!

if you've got good ways to pare down an installed system, why not just install to a bigger system (CF Card, etc.), then transfer the filesystem to your true, 256MB card, once it is installed? it is fairly simple to do this, just use a card reader to access the CF Card on Linux and tar up the filesystem(s). then modify them as need, and lay them down on the new CF card. you'll have to partition the card yourself (unless you use dd to do a straight copy, but as you want to modify the system, i'd steer clear of this), but again, that is no big deal. you'll also want to make sure that both devices appear as the same block device (e.g., /dev/sda).

[nixblog]

if I'm trying to get disk space used to a minimum I look at the following,

Removed "unwanted contents" like documentation from directories such as /usr/share/doc

install ncdu and you can navigate the file structure looking for high usage in files and directories

run aptitude clean and autoclean

install and run localepurge to rid the system of unwanted locale info installed with packages

install deborphan to weed out orphaned packages not needed

This is a start, Google for more info on the subject