Small Linux Distro for GnuCash

[Kevin Buckley]

On 8 February 2010 07:25, FireFly <fireflys_98 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Michael,
>
> While Ubuntu fits on a 1Gig Drive, for some reason I can't get
> GNUCash to install without getting "out disk space" issues,
> unfortunately my linux knowledge isn't good enough to figure
> out why (even if I remove a whole load of packages I STILL run
> into issues).
>


In terms of a package list you might try to "remove down to",

this might be helpful

http://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/wiki/GNOMEDevPlatform

though be aware it's back from 2006 - when it worked - and that
three/four years is a long time ago in this sphere of operation
and that I was building GnuCash from the sources.

Basically, I was looking to have GnuCash but did not want the
whole of GNOME, indeed GnuCash might have been my only
GNOME-centric application.

I got a lot of insightful help from the gnu-cash devel list as well
as the BLFS folk at the time.

It took a while to work out just how little (assuming that number
of packages equates to "little" for you) I was able to get away with
when compared to what BLFS at the time was saying was the
miniumum required for GNOME.

Having said all that:

It would not surprise me to find that that GNOME dependency list
has now  changed and ballooned in size - it's been a while since
I built a "Linux From Scratch" but I have experienced difficulties in
removing seemingly non-interdependent packages from recent
"GNOME systems".

It would also not surprise me to find that a GnuCash distro package
has a load of interdependencies that you don't have to have either,
but are there simply because that's the easiest route for the
packagers/builders.



Now I know you quote a lack of knowledge above but you obvioulsy
know enough to try binning packages.

So try coming from the other end, assuming the time is worth
spending on this - probably not for the business trip.

If all you want is GnuCash, bin everything, or install a base system,
and then just install GnuCash from whatever package form your distro
has it and see where you end up, making sure to use whatever
the "no dependiencies" flag/option is as you do.

It won't work striaght away - they rarely do.

Eventually, it will work - they always do -  despite not having
everything you thought you'ld need nor anything near close to
what the package system tells you you need - they always do
too - though you'll lack some of the functionality, probably not
a core functionality though.


If you're still over 1GB at that point - then wow !