On 17 Apr 1996, Mark Eichin wrote: > Then again, I get 2.2M for XF86_VGA16, but that's from > xserver-3.1.2-3... still, strip+gzip gets it down to 960K, which > might be enough (we're talking about installing from floppy, not > running from floppy, anyway... running from two floppies is just as > unlikely as running from 7 :-)
The Debian X servers are quite large because they have extensions like XIE, PEX and so on compiled in. This doesn't matter on normal systems, because file size isn't much of a consideration and the bits of the server that don't get used don't get loaded. A small version could be produced if necessary. > Note that if we want small, and we've already got perl, we can drop > xrdb, since I've got a minimal perl Xlib (raw perl, no libraries) that > can do an xrdb directly. Then again, we can drop xrdb anyway -- > anything local can read ~/.Xresources, and if you've got remote > clients, then you can install xrdb from the net too. A perl Xlib? That's interesting. I wonder why it was written. > However, this is just for a *minimal* installation. You'd really want > to install a *real* X installation (from CDROM of course - you can get > CDROM drives as low as $80 these days[2].) Even cheaper, maybe - they have been available for as low as 30 pounds occasionally in Britain. I think CD is the only really sensibly way to distribute software, unless you have a decent (>64kbps, probably) net connection. Did I mention in my previous message the way I thought an X-based installation would work? Install the base packages as normal, and boot the new system. The new system will then install enough X packages to run the graphical installation system (using XF86_VGA and a 640x480 VESA mode, which should work on just about every system). Steve Early [EMAIL PROTECTED]
