openSUSE 11.4 on 701 Eee PC 4GB HDD

dokterw · April 10, 2011, 3:36pm

I’ve tried to look around the website, forum and even Googleing it, but I can’t find how much openSUSE 11.4 GNOME LiveCD is in size when you install it on your computer.

I’m going to give openSUSE 11.4 a go and I’m just trying to find out if the LiveCD will be smaller than installing using the DVD. Anyone know?

Any feedback much appreciated.

jdmcdaniel3 · April 10, 2011, 5:01pm

I’ve tried to look around the website, forum and even Googleing it, but I can’t find how much openSUSE 11.4 GNOME LiveCD is in size when you install it on your computer.

I’m going to give openSUSE 11.4 a go and I’m just trying to find out if the LiveCD will be smaller than installing using the DVD. Anyone know?

Any feedback much appreciated.
I don’t know the answer to your question, but I am thinking with such a small “hard drive”, you will want to stick with the LiveCD method. I feel that any attempt to load openSUSE might render anything else useless. If you where to get it to load, it would be barley better than using the CD in any event and may run out of space during the first package update. It is just my opinion of course.

Thank You,

martin_helm · April 10, 2011, 5:20pm

The resulting size of what will be installed on your HDD has absolutely
nothing to do with the question what install media you use.
It depends solely on the question what software packages you choose for the
system.
Depending on the question how comfortable you feel installing linux or esp.
openSUSE I would do the following.

Use the net install cd as a basis (you should use a wired connection while
installing).
Select a minimal installation during the install without any desktop
environment.
From that after successful installation do the rest from the command line
with zypper or yast (ncurses) and add step by step carefully only the parts
you will need.
This is not a step by step guide now, I just want to give an idea how I
proceed in a resource limited environment.

By the way I use essentialy the same approach when I install a debian in
resource limited situations.

martin_helm · April 10, 2011, 6:38pm

martin_helm wrote:

> The resulting size of what will be installed on your HDD has absolutely
> nothing to do with the question what install media you use.
> It depends solely on the question what software packages you choose for
> the system.
> Depending on the question how comfortable you feel installing linux or
> esp. openSUSE I would do the following.
>
> Use the net install cd as a basis (you should use a wired connection while
> installing).
> Select a minimal installation during the install without any desktop
> environment.
> From that after successful installation do the rest from the command line
> with zypper or yast (ncurses) and add step by step carefully only the
> parts you will need.
> This is not a step by step guide now, I just want to give an idea how I
> proceed in a resource limited environment.
>
> By the way I use essentialy the same approach when I install a debian in
> resource limited situations.
>
Bofore someone misunderstands:
Of course I installed a GUI and do not leave the system with a command line
interface.
In my case it is an ecafe 800 (not so limited HDD but also slow cpu and
limited ram) and went that road. After installing a base x11 system I added
fluxbox as a wm (lxde is also a good option).

I just want to make clear that when using simply a default install with
gnome or kde you will be lost in space on such a machine.

dokterw · April 11, 2011, 1:30am

Thanks for the advice guys! Much appreciated.

In regards to how many packages etc, I was thinking more in the line of, default install via DVD and LiveCD. But I guess LiveCD will always be smaller by default. Just curious if it is 1.7 GB or 2.7GB, to make up a number.

dokterw · April 11, 2011, 2:36am

If I do it like this, boot up and then install GNOME, will that also configure the system to boot up with GNOME, or do I need to configure that manually?

martin_helm · April 11, 2011, 4:13am

dokterw wrote:

>
> martin_helm;2321319 Wrote:
>> Select a minimal installation during the install without any desktop
>> environment.
>> From that after successful installation do the rest from the command
>> line
>> with zypper or yast (ncurses) and add step by step carefully only the
>> parts
>> you will need.
>
> If I do it like this, boot up and then install GNOME, will that also
> configure the system to boot up with GNOME, or do I need to configure
> that manually?
>
>
If you decide for gnome, just use the gnome cd but be carefull not to fill
up your complete HDD. Maybe you will not succeed with the first attempt.

martin_helm · April 11, 2011, 4:15am

dokterw wrote:

>
> Thanks for the advice guys! Much appreciated.
>
> In regards to how many packages etc, I was thinking more in the line
> of, default install via DVD and LiveCD. But I guess LiveCD will always
> be smaller by default. Just curious if it is 1.7 GB or 2.7GB, to make up
> a number.
>
I would setup a virtual machine (vmware or virtualbox) on your pc and make a
test run with that. Set the size of the virtual machines hdd to 4GB and you
can quickly see if it works.

dokterw · April 11, 2011, 5:12am

Thanks! Hopefully I’ll have time to give it a go tonight.

caf4926 · April 11, 2011, 5:21am

I can tell you that a DVD install in this example, which has Base Development added
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/11.4_DVD_Install/35.Final_summary.jpg
Shows as 2.9 GB

The CD is considerably smaller. Unfortunately my screen of the same in a CD install doesn’t show the size.

dokterw · April 12, 2011, 11:41am

2.9 GB isn’t bad to be a DVD install. I’ll try the CD on my 701 Eee PC and maybe later, when I have time, try the DVD on my 1000H Eee PC.

martin_helm · April 12, 2011, 1:31pm

dokterw wrote:

>
> caf4926;2321589 Wrote:
>> I can tell you that a DVD install in this example, which has Base
>> Development added
>> http://tinyurl.com/62dyq5t
>> Shows as 2.9 GB
>>
>> The CD is considerably smaller. Unfortunately my screen of the same in
>> a CD install doesn’t show the size.
>
> 2.9 GB isn’t bad to be a DVD install. I’ll try the CD on my 701 Eee PC
> and maybe later, when I have time, try the DVD on my 1000H Eee PC.
>
>
My concern is that you will not be happy with gnome on the 701, it will be
(most) probably so sluggish that it is near to unusable.
So please keep in mind if it does not work in a reasonable way that there
are also more lightweight solutions available (lxde, xfce, fluxbox, openbox
…).

dokterw · April 12, 2011, 2:03pm

I’m not too concerned. Already running Fedora 14 on it with GNOME 2.32. No sluggishness at all. And it’s a 701, it’s not like I do a lot of multitasking on it.

martin_helm · April 12, 2011, 3:28pm

I just wondered about the Xandros in easy mode which is based on icewm (the
default with which the system was originally delivered) and had some
thoughts that it might have a reason they use this.
But since you already tested Gnome forget about that.

dokterw · April 13, 2011, 9:10am

No worries. I never really tried the supplied Xandros distro. I think I booted it up once and wondered how they thought that would be useful. I’ve mainly used GNOME on it without any issues. Of course, Openbox is very slick on it, but I really didn’t notice that much difference. Even GNOME 3 from a LiveCD works pretty well on it too, which was kind of surprising.

Hopefully I will have some spare time this weekend to install openSUSE 11.4 on it and upgrade to Tumbleweed to give it a test. Because this is one off the reasons I’m switching from Fedora to opennSUSE, rolling release.