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Home > Archive > Linux Debian support > April 2006 > Newbie: Irritated because of the huge packet management
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Newbie: Irritated because of the huge packet management
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| Andreas Weber 2006-04-01, 12:29 pm |
| Hello,
First of all, don't shoot me for asking such newbie questions...
At home I do some linux experiments for a few years, unfortunately with
SUSE linux which has a too easy management in my opinion. Almost all
tasks administrating a system can be done by menus (yast!), and this is
frustrating me because linux is more genius than it looks in the SUSE
distribution.
Scenario: Debian sarge as a server, running on a 1,7 GHz machine with
512 MB RAM, doing the following tasks:
- apache webserver (with PHP/mysql)
- squid proxy (only basic features)
- SSH (for tunnels from outside, i.e.)
- VMware (need a VM, running in background)
- digitemp (recording the outside temperature, my hobby)
My problem is, that I have really no idea which packets I need an which
are senseless. I've already removed everything that matches filters
concerning the X system, GIMP, ALSA (sound-things) and so on, but I'm
not sure what other things I need/don't need.
For example, I need PERL and the kernel header files in order to install
VMware, and as a newbie I've selected everything beyond the category
"perl" and now I have PERL extensions for multimedia applications and so
on....
What do you suggest for me as a newbie?
Please don't tell me to read the packet descriptions because I'm already
doing this but it takes me a unbelievable big amount of time reading all
that stuff and deciding wether to delete or not.
greets,
Andreas.
| |
| SINNER 2006-04-01, 12:29 pm |
| * Andreas Weber wrote in alt.os.linux.debian:
> What do you suggest for me as a newbie?
What are you trying to do?
--
David
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| Andreas Weber 2006-04-01, 12:29 pm |
| SINNER schrieb:
> * Andreas Weber wrote in alt.os.linux.debian:
>
>
> What are you trying to do?
Things go on well but there are too much packets I really don't need but
I do not know which of these can be removed without problems.
Regards,
Andreas.
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| Sumo Wrestler (or just ate too much) 2006-04-01, 12:29 pm |
| On Fri, 31 Mar 2006 22:38:46 +0200, Andreas Weber wrote:
> SINNER schrieb:
>
> Things go on well but there are too much packets I really don't need but
> I do not know which of these can be removed without problems.
>
That's what "aptitude" is for. Aptitude shows you what packages depend
upon what other packages.
$ man aptitude
$ aptitude
$ less /usr/share/doc/aptitude/README
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| Dan N 2006-04-01, 12:29 pm |
| On Fri, 31 Mar 2006 22:09:31 +0200, Andreas Weber wrote:
>
> My problem is, that I have really no idea which packets I need an which
> are senseless.
It's a difficult problem to overcome. If you're using someone else's
distribution so have to accept the fact that there will probably be
something there that you don't use. The alternative is to build your own
with something like linux-from-scratch where you know exactly what
everything does because you put it there.
Dan
| |
| Michael A. 2006-04-02, 7:01 pm |
| Andreas Weber wrote:
> My problem is, that I have really no idea which packets I need an which
> are senseless. I've already removed everything that matches filters
> concerning the X system, GIMP, ALSA (sound-things) and so on, but I'm
> not sure what other things I need/don't need.
Hi,
how about debfoster and deborphan?
- michael
$apt-cache show debfoster
...
This helps you to maintain a clean Debian install, without old
(mainly library) packages lying around that aren't used any more.
$apt-cache show deborphan
...
deborphan finds "orphaned" packages on your system.
It determines which packages have no other packages
depending on their installation, and shows you a list of
these packages. It is most useful when finding libraries,
but it can be used on packages in all sections.
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| s. keeling 2006-04-08, 7:12 pm |
| Andreas Weber <usenet@aw-home.net>:
>
> First of all, don't shoot me for asking such newbie questions...
First of all, there is no such thing as a stupid question, other than
not asking the question which should be asked. :-)
Also, there are rude people out there who may get annoyed at newbie
questions, but that's not your fault and there's nothing you can do
about it, so fsck 'em. :-P
> Scenario: Debian sarge as a server, running on a 1,7 GHz machine with
> 512 MB RAM, doing the following tasks:
> - apache webserver (with PHP/mysql)
> - squid proxy (only basic features)
> - SSH (for tunnels from outside, i.e.)
> - VMware (need a VM, running in background)
> - digitemp (recording the outside temperature, my hobby)
>
> My problem is, that I have really no idea which packets I need an which
> are senseless. I've already removed everything that matches filters
> concerning the X system, GIMP, ALSA (sound-things) and so on, but I'm
I'd suggest "dpkg -l > packages.txt", then go through and mark those
you think you don't need. Then "aptitude remove blah" where "blah" is
one of those packages. aptitude should tell you what's going to
happen, and insist you confirm (Y) before it does anything. If you
remove something that others rely on, it'll report those are being
removed as well and ask you to confirm.
--
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(*) http://www.spots.ab.ca/~keeling Linux Counter #80292
- - Spammers! http://www.spots.ab.ca/~keeling/emails.html
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt
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| Andreas Weber 2006-04-08, 7:12 pm |
| hi,
you wrote:
> First of all, there is no such thing as a stupid question, other than
> not asking the question which should be asked. :-)
>
> Also, there are rude people out there who may get annoyed at newbie
> questions, but that's not your fault and there's nothing you can do
> about it, so fsck 'em. :-P
Great, I would like to send you big thanks for your answer!
My skills are increasing, so things are getting better more and more.
Thanks for your help, I greatly appreciate that!
Greets,
Andreas.
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| Geico Caveman 2006-04-08, 7:12 pm |
| Andreas Weber wrote:
> Hello,
>
> First of all, don't shoot me for asking such newbie questions...
>
> At home I do some linux experiments for a few years, unfortunately with
> SUSE linux which has a too easy management in my opinion. Almost all
> tasks administrating a system can be done by menus (yast!), and this is
> frustrating me because linux is more genius than it looks in the SUSE
> distribution.
>
> Scenario: Debian sarge as a server, running on a 1,7 GHz machine with
> 512 MB RAM, doing the following tasks:
> - apache webserver (with PHP/mysql)
> - squid proxy (only basic features)
> - SSH (for tunnels from outside, i.e.)
> - VMware (need a VM, running in background)
> - digitemp (recording the outside temperature, my hobby)
>
> My problem is, that I have really no idea which packets I need an which
> are senseless. I've already removed everything that matches filters
> concerning the X system, GIMP, ALSA (sound-things) and so on, but I'm
> not sure what other things I need/don't need.
>
> For example, I need PERL and the kernel header files in order to install
> VMware, and as a newbie I've selected everything beyond the category
> "perl" and now I have PERL extensions for multimedia applications and so
> on....
>
> What do you suggest for me as a newbie?
> Please don't tell me to read the packet descriptions because I'm already
> doing this but it takes me a unbelievable big amount of time reading all
> that stuff and deciding wether to delete or not.
>
>
> greets,
> Andreas.
How about the following strategy ?
Install a minimal system (such as Debian installs in the first pass). Set up
networking. Add what you need - apache, openssh, digitemp.
From there on, use the following trick :
$apt-cache search "keyword" | grep "keyword"
where keyword describes in one word what you are trying to do. That should
narrow it down considerably.
After that apt-get install is your friend.
Kpackage can make your task a little easier if you are using KDE.
PS : "Packets" mean something very different - network packet filtering is a
subject in itself. I had to read your post twice to understand that you
meant "packages", not "packets"  It helps to use the correct terminology
in eliciting helpful responses.
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