On 06/25/2021 04:06 PM, Andrew M.A. Cater wrote:
On Fri, Jun 25, 2021 at 08:48:47AM -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
One paragraph of "Debian GNU/Linux Installation Guide"[1] causes me grief.
It is part of "6.3.5. Installing the Base System"[2].
That paragraph states:
When packages are installed using the package management system, it will
by default also install packages that are recommended by those packages.
Recommended packages are not strictly required for the core functionality
of the selected software, but they do enhance that software and should,
in the view of the package maintainers, normally be installed together with
that software.
I like the MATE Desktop. If the package mate-desktop-environment is in
stalled *WITHOUT* "recommended" packages I get my desired skeletal Debian
system.
I believe changing one screen of the standard would give me what I want and
likely satisfy the maintainers mentioned above. In the screen titled
"Software selection", change the first line from "Debian desktop
environment" to "Install the desktop selected below with all recommended
utilities". If that option and the Gnome option are selected by default the
effect would be the same as the current installer. If I deselect the first
line and select MATE, I get my desired system.
Everything you need is already in the Debian installer: use an expert
instaLL and text mode to install it.
I've been doing that for years. In fact I got so accustomed to expert
mode that when I switched from purchasing install DVDs I got disoriented
by the vendor's concealment of expert mode.
Do not select Debian desktop environment: select only Mate - job done.
No it is *NOT*. All the excess baggage I wish to avoid is installed,
e.g. LibreOffice, Firefox etc. etc.
I'll have to leave this sub-thread for a while.
While looking for a related thread on my machine I discovered a >3yr old
post that suggests a round-about way to deal with my problem that
installing from flash media is experientially *NOT* the same as
installing from DVD.
Later.
Use what's already there: you may have noted that
I often give the advice on -user for a minimal install to start out with a
text mode expert install and sort out _exactly_ what you want.
Start with a text mode only - command line environment - then add
mate-desktop-environment. Optionally, you can configure apt to ignore
recommends.
Does such an installer already exist?
TIA
[1] https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/index.en.html
[2] https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/ch06s03.en.html
All best, as ever,
Andy Cater
