There are a few more programs that aren't so big but are worthy to have at the live-CD. x11-apps/xset net-misc/vnc x11-misc/x11vnc x11-misc/x2vnc net-misc/rdesktop some graphical frontend for VNC and rdesktop (maybe net-misc/grdesktop or net-misc/tsclient) sys-fs/dd-rescue and/or sys-fs/ddrescue I don't remember right now if the next programs are already installed, but I also think they are useful: x11-apps/xev sys-apps/lshw dev-util/strace app-text/wgetpaste sys-process/htop I've reported it here: http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-5122604.html#5122604 And the reason for VNC is explained here: http://my.opera.com/CrazyTerabyte/blog/2008/06/11/installing-gentoo-linux-amd64-on-my-notebook
Unfortunately, we had a space issue on the LiveCDs for 2008.0, which resulted in us *removing* a few things (Openoffice and thunderbird in particular). We'll try to get at least some of these added in the next release.
qsize shows this to me (slightly reformatted for viewing[1]): 18.441 KB - app-text/wgetpaste-2.10: 1 files, 2 non-files 19.213 KB - x11-apps/xsetroot-1.0.2: 3 files, 7 non-files 23.898 KB - x11-apps/xev-1.0.2: 3 files, 7 non-files 25.530 KB - sys-fs/dd-rescue-1.10: 2 files, 5 non-files 43.680 KB - x11-apps/xset-1.0.3: 3 files, 7 non-files 57.563 KB - x11-misc/x2vnc-1.6.1: 5 files, 7 non-files 71.780 KB - sys-fs/ddrescue-1.8: 8 files, 8 non-files 92.951 KB - sys-process/htop-0.7: 7 files, 9 non-files 339.386 KB - dev-util/strace-4.5.16-r1: 14 files, 7 non-files 301.369 KB - net-misc/rdesktop-1.6.0: 46 files, 9 non-files 2050.715 KB - x11-misc/x11vnc-0.9.3: 16 files, 10 non-files 2219.562 KB - net-misc/vnc-4.1.2-r4: 20 files, 16 non-files 5126.413 KB - sys-apps/lshw-02.12.01b: 51 files, 10 non-files So, let's just forget lshw (which can be handy for an installer live-cd, but requires 5 MB, probably because of its "fancy" GTK gui). VNC is important. It should fit inside that disk somehow. It was the main reason why I asked to add more programs, and why I wrote a blog/forum post. rdesktop is almost as useful as VNC. And the others... Well, they add up to less than one megabyte. I guess it is possible to afford one megabyte at the live-cd* image, somehow. (unless they require some large dependencies) * I'm talking about both graphical live-cd and the minimal live-cd, since at least some of these tools are text-only. Some other programs that I've just remembered: 455.250 KB - sys-block/partimage-0.6.7: 28 files, 21 non-files 1106.832 KB - x11-misc/synergy-1.3.1: 7 files, 6 non-files 1191.378 KB - net-misc/curl-7.18.1: 77 files, 13 non-files If you can afford another megabyte, net-misc/curl is nice to have too. (it supports HTTP POST, for example) x11-misc/synergy is meant to behave in a similar way to x2vnc, but on multiple platforms. And, finally, partimage is a nice program to backup and restore partitions. Well, I hope this helps. And I hope these programs help other people in future. [1] I've used the following Vim command, and then hand-edited the result: :%s/\(.*\), \([0-9.]\+ KB\)/\2 - \1/
People seem to not realize that we have to justify nearly every *byte* on our release media. Every megabyte of packages that aren't required for installation is generally a megabyte taken from somewhere else. We've been at the cusp of the 700MB limit since we first brought about the LiveCD. Honestly, if you need lots of tools, you should be looking into a DVD-based solution.
Bleh... I forgot to change the resolution.
(In reply to comment #3) > Honestly, if you need lots of tools, you should be looking into a DVD-based > solution. Not really. System Rescue CD has tons of tools, but still fits into a mini-CD. I just thought it would be really nice to have at least some extra (small) tools on the live-cd, specially because the minimal live-cd has plenty of space. The most predictable answer for this will probably be: "then burn that other live-cd and stop whining" I don't want to be a troll, I know that 2008.x has been delayed for so many months, but I'm just trying to improve the gentoo. I've not checked yet, but I think that it will be possible to squeeze some megabytes by removing some images or media files. (gonna check it soon)
OK. You apparently did not listen to what I said. There is no room. Period. Making room will take valuable Release Engineering time. We don't want to spend all of our time trying to hack out a few megabytes just to add a few packages that almost nobody will use. I hate to say it like that, but that's really the truth of it. As you said yourself, if System Rescue CD does what you need, burn it and use it. There's no reason that would force you to need Gentoo-branded media to perform an installation. Sorry.
