I want to use an opensuse VM for x265 encoding so I do not need much space for documents per se. Would a 5GB virtual disk be enough? I will be using 1GB of RAM which 90% of will be used up.
Sure, openSUSE can install in just a few GBs and be just fine, or even
less if you trim things down to server-only (drop the GUI).
–
Good luck.
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Ok cool. One question tho, why is the opensuse ISO 4.37GB if it can be installed to just a few gigs? The Windows XP CD for example is about 600MB and installs about 1.5GB, Windows 7 is 2.5GB and installs 10GB.
You forgot the “(drop the GUI)” from ab’s post. When you install a more or less default with KDE only, you will need about 6 GB without having much user space and not many extra applications (well in this case I have LAMP beside the default).
And a network install will need a much smaller DVD/CD.
On Thu, 27 Aug 2015 20:26:02 +0000, Inds wrote:
> Ok cool. One question tho, why is the opensuse ISO 4.37GB if it can be
> installed to just a few gigs? The Windows XP CD for example is about
> 600MB and installs about 1.5GB, Windows 7 is 2.5GB and installs 10GB.
It can be installed by not installing a lot of stuff with it.
Windows doesn’t include a full office suite, for example. openSUSE
includes LibreOffice - a full-featured office suite.
Just as one example.
Comparing Windows’ installation media to a Linux distribution’s
installation media sizeis like comparing a single apple to an orchard. 
Jim
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C
On 08/27/2015 03:25 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> Windows doesn’t include a full office suite, for example. openSUSE
> includes LibreOffice - a full-featured office suite.
>
> Just as one example.
>
> Comparing Windows’ installation media to a Linux distribution’s
> installation media sizeis like comparing a single apple to an orchard.
As has been mention by you and hcvv, you can install from a few dozen MBs
directly from a network (windows cannot, at least not without a lot of
work to setup your own repositories) and end up with a few hundred MBs
total on disk, literally/.
Besides also having a complete productivity suite (LibreOffice), you also
get several GUIs… Gnome, KDE, XFCE, etc. instead of just one (each one
behaves in a different way, so meet the needs of different types of
users). There are also a dozen different filesystem options depending on
your needs, a few dozen different types of server services (compared to
maybe one for windows, if you count file sharing as a service), etc.
Don’t forget advanced graphics manipulation software (paint does not
compare well to Gimp or Inkscape, and you get both here, plus others),
PDF-reading software (without any Acrobat malware), dozens of games
(windows comes with a few too), the ability to handle archives of many
types (windows can handle zip files as I recall… slowly), a few
different web browsers (windows comes with a bad one that supports ActiveX
of all horrible things), Java (windows doesn’t come with Java), a huge
variety of network/computer/peripheral compatibility and troubleshooting
tools… plus a lot more that I am sure I have never touched. Linux
supports several powerful shells; windows has had command/cmd for years,
and they’re crap; apparently powershell is providing some better features
these days. To its credit, windows is much better at hosting hosts of
viruses, malware, and other stuff that has a hard time on Linux because
you cannot just execute something that’s downloaded, or take over an
entire system when running as a non-privileged user (the default). For
all of those windows benefits, you pay more than you will for Linux,
especially if you try to get software that exceeds what Linux provides out
of the box.
windows is designed (per its long history) as an end-user tool. Linux is
a kernel (the interface between software and hardware), and is implemented
in distributions designed to be a server, or desktop, or the backend for
phones, embedded devices, and the fastest supercomputers in the world (see
the Top 500 report for a list of them). Apples to orchards is probably a
valid comparison. They are fundamentally different because they have
different goals. windows’ goal is to be good enough to run for people who
do not care about computers, and so, as part of microsoft’s general
strategy with products, it’s “good enough” for most. If that’s good
enough for you, stick with it.
–
Good luck.
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Ah thanks I have unchecked Office when installing. With 6GB I will have 1.5GB free space which is good enough for me.
On Fri, 28 Aug 2015 00:36:02 +0000, Inds wrote:
> Ah thanks I have unchecked Office when installing. With 6GB I will have
> 1.5GB free space which is good enough for me.
Office is but one of several thousand packages that are available on the
installation - which is the point. You can install a minimal install
that has no GUI and no applications at all, or you can install everything
- so the amount of disk space needed varies wildly, depending on what you
want to do with the system.
Jim
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C
I only need to do x265 encoding but I do want a GUI. I unchecked games, office and GIMP. I kept the streaming services in case one of them handles reading of .Y4M files and I might need to do things in the future which might require something a little more than a bare minimum installation. So I sort of don’t know what I want. But I know for certain I won’t need office or graphic manipulation tools.
If you want to create a virtual machine with minimal disk space
- Choose a virtual disk format (ie raw, vmdk, etc) that can be expanded if you need to do so.
- I doubt if it’s what you really need, but if you ever want to deploy a <very> minimal openSUSE, there are JEOS images available by using tools like Kiwi which are about 650MB. But unless you have a very special need for a really bare starting point, most people will prefer to do a proper install.
- I strongly recommend you choose “Advanced” Install options and <uncheck> the option that creates a separate /home partition. Installing all of openSUSE (except the swap partition) on a single partiton significantly makes your disk space usage more efficient.
- I generally recommend LXDE and XFCE as recommended “finished” lightweight Desktops. Others are either not lightweight or are buggy.
I have found that 20GB is a safe minimum size no matter what you might hope for because…
- You will need plenty of disk space for system updates
- You will need plenty of disk space for Web downloads
- You may find yourself installing a few extra unplanned apps, Any new apps will need room both for the app and data.
- You cannot simply exclude apps during install expecting to use less space. I’ve found that openSUSE regularly installs <all> default apps, then uninstalls the excluded apps, so you do <not> save space during the initial install.
If you’re trying to save physical disk space, the better decision is to create a growable virtual disk instead of setting the total disk size very small.
Good Luck,
TSU
On 2015-08-28 08:06, tsu2 wrote:
> I have found that 20GB is a safe minimum size no matter what you might
> hope for because…
I have a 7 GiB test partition in this laptop, it suffices. Including
graphical and office tools. Of course, there is no space to /work/.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))
On Fri, 28 Aug 2015 03:16:02 +0000, Inds wrote:
> hendersj;2725941 Wrote:
>> On Fri, 28 Aug 2015 00:36:02 +0000, Inds wrote:
>>
>> > Ah thanks I have unchecked Office when installing. With 6GB I will
>> have
>> > 1.5GB free space which is good enough for me.
>>
>> Office is but one of several thousand packages that are available on
>> the installation - which is the point. You can install a minimal
>> install that has no GUI and no applications at all, or you can install
>> everything - so the amount of disk space needed varies wildly,
>> depending on what you want to do with the system.
>>
>> Jim –
>> Jim Henderson openSUSE Forums Administrator Forum Use Terms &
>> Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C
>
> I only need to do x265 encoding but I do want a GUI. I unchecked games,
> office and GIMP. I kept the streaming services in case one of them
> handles reading of .Y4M files and I might need to do things in the
> future which might require something a little more than a bare minimum
> installation. So I sort of don’t know what I want. But I know for
> certain I won’t need office or graphic manipulation tools.
You can always add things later if you find you need them.
Since you’re installing in a virtual environment, you might also want to
be aware that if you create, say, a 20 GB drive, that full 20 GB is
generally not allocated up front, but only when the space in the VM is
needed.
It isn’t reduced when you delete files, but there is a tool to compact
the vmdk/vdi disk file.
Jim
–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C
Thanks for the tips, guys. I’m skeptical of running an absolute minimum install because that opens a new variable if I run into problems later and you know how one problem in computing cascades to 50 new problems easily.
Jim Henderson, that’s a good idea to use a dynamic virtual disk. The reason I don’t normally use them is because I need a guaranteed minimum amount of space the virtual disk would take up because they are large files and they tend to get fragmented.
What is this compact tool you speak of? It would be useful. And would I still be able to compact it if I had active snapshots?
On Fri, 28 Aug 2015 20:46:02 +0000, Inds wrote:
> Thanks for the tips, guys. I’m skeptical of running an absolute minimum
> install because that opens a new variable if I run into problems later
> and you know how one problem in computing cascades to 50 new problems
> easily.
>
> Jim Henderson, that’s a good idea to use a dynamic virtual disk. The
> reason I don’t normally use them is because I need a guaranteed minimum
> amount of space the virtual disk would take up because they are large
> files and they tend to get fragmented.
> What is this compact tool you speak of? It would be useful. And would I
> still be able to compact it if I had active snapshots?
Fragmentation isn’t an issue on modern filessytems, especially systems
that are designed for multi-user use (as Linux filesystems are).
Compacting virtual disk files is an easy thing to do. A quick google
search turned up this:
https://superuser.com/questions/529149/how-to-compact-virtualboxs-vdi-
file-size
Jim
–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C
Fragmentation is always an issue on HDDs no matter the filesystem and I’ve used NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, especially with big files like virtual disks.
So you aren’t speaking from experience? For all I know there can be only 3GB worth of data on a 50GB virtual disk and it only gets compacted to 30GB.
On 2015-08-29 02:06, Inds wrote:
>
> hendersj;2726091 Wrote:
>> Fragmentation isn’t an issue on modern filessytems, especially systems
>> that are designed for multi-user use (as Linux filesystems are).
>
> Fragmentation is always an issue on HDDs no matter the filesystem and
> I’ve used NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, especially with big files like virtual
> disks.
Those are Windows filesystems, not Linux filesystems 
> hendersj;2726091 Wrote:
>> Compacting virtual disk files is an easy thing to do. A quick google
>> search turned up this:
>>
>> http://tinyurl.com/q36x7u9
>> file-size
>
> So you aren’t speaking from experience? For all I know there can be only
> 3GB worth of data on a 50GB virtual disk and it only gets compacted to
> 30GB.
You may have a confusion here. The suggestion is to compact the virtual
store, however it is called, not the filesystem. It is a feature of the
virtualization technology, not of the guest or host operating system. In
vmware, for instance, it is a menu option.
If the store is not dynamic, you can not compact it.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))
I’m aware of that.
Fragmentation may not be an issue normally, but file compaction which is typically a result of defragging is important for consolidating free space prior to actual disk compaction.
TSU
As I described in my other post, defragging for performance reasons is mostly not an issue today. I’ve only seen this not to be the case on a system which was heavily used (disk file reads/re-writes) daily for over 2 yrs, in its 3rd year files were so fragmented it had to have an effect, finally. After defragging, there was a very substantial performance improvement.
BTW - I suppose people should know how to defrag a linux file system? AFAIK there are no defrag utilities so you would do this “the old way” which is to move files off the partition and back again. You can’t copy, you have to move the files and they can be to another partition on the same disk or to a different disk.
Besides defragging/compacting the files on the disk, the other recommended step before compacting a virtual disk is to zero the free space which can be done easily and quickly using dd.
If you do the above, you can easily compact your virtual disk to approximately the size of the data on the disk. The factor you can’t control is that virtual disks will compact to its own “best” size so may not be very exact to the size of data. But, you won’t have a very wide discrepancy like what you describe (3GB data, 30GB virtual disk).
TSU
BTW - AFAIK the use of the term “dynamic disks” is largely deprecated, I’d only be guessing but could be to avoid confusion with Microsoft’s “Dynamic Disks” which is something altogether different.
To avoid confusion, the various documentation I follow today usually call them “growable disks.”
TSU