DSL Ideas and Suggestions :: stripped down DSL

Perhaps you could search the forums?

http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....nd+apps

http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....nd+apps

I have searched the forums as well as the web and have not found an easy way to remove preinstalled apps. The posts that you reference dont give you an easy way to remove them. Using firefox as an example, how do you determine all the files that are installed with it so you know what to remove.

I think the most effective way is to learn how the filesystem hierarchy works. Applications are usually installed with a specific arrangement of directories. If you know or discover the prefix of an app's installation, for example /usr/local or /opt/something, most apps will have their executable(s) installed in $PREFIX/bin. Docs, examples, images, etc will be in $PREFIX/share. Often there is a subdirectory with the same or similar name as the name of the application, so finding which files to remove is not usually a huge task. Firefox is an exception, since its files are all within a single directory. Although it's in /usr/local, it uses a directory structure normally reserved for apps in /opt.

The only big problem is deciding whether the files you remove are needed by other programs. You often see this with libraries ($PREFIX/lib), so i tend to leave libs alone unless I'm absolutely sure they are not needed by other programs.

yeah i really like the idea of DSL Customization, so editor, browser only one. and i can add more program to it

Yes, I agree to the idea of being able to easily remove some programs to make DSL even smaller. I just use Firefox on my DSL system and have downloaded quite a few extensions for the same. I can do without the editors and RDesktop and Xpaint etc. It would be nice if I can remove these applications. I use Live CD and run it from my 128MB RAM using the cheatcode "toram". If I can remaster the live CD without the applications I dont use, I can make better use of my RAM.

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