Debian Base Install

Pros

• Very well-established
• Known for stability
• Large software repositories
• Many people familiar with Debian or a derivative such as Ubuntu, Knoppix, MEPIS

Cons

• Not always the latest technology

You can follow instructions here and here.

NOTE: The above links are great guides, but
the process described below adds a few tweaks and provides
you with a more-compact base


Simple Instructions:

• Download, install and set up VirtualBox or VMWare (or use a real PC if you prefer)
• Download the Debian business card CD installer (32 MB) http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/debian-installer/
• Start the normal install process and proceed all the way to where it asks if you want to use a network mirror
• Select NO for network mirror and complete the install. Your base install should take up 269 MB.
• edit the sources.list
  

nano /etc/apt/sources.list

add your own local mirror for speedy downloads + updates

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian etch main contrib
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian etch main contrib

Then make sure to comment out the line with the CD in it with a #. Close and save the file.

• Start installing items you want:

apt-get update

The base that we have is missing a few small tools that I prefer in my distros. apt-get install the
following packages, leave out any that you don't want:

• localepurge
  INSTALL THIS FIRST! It will then purge locales from any packages installed after it. SPACE SAVER
  
• deborphan
  Good for finding orphaned packages when cleaning up the distro for packaging.
  
• psmisc
  Provides killall and process handling tools
  
• less
  Who could possibly live without less?
  
• sudo
  Always a good idea to use sudo instead of root
  
  

To get a small X-Server base system to work, install the following packages using apt-get install:
xserver-xorg-video-vesa
xserver-xorg-video-vga
xserver-xorg-video-vmware
xserver-xorg-input-mouse
xserver-xorg-input-kbd
xserver-xorg-input-synaptics
xserver-xorg-core
xfonts-base
xfonts-scalable

The main reason behind not doing a full apt-get install xserver-xorg is that xserver-xorg is modular
and pulls down xserver drivers that we do not need. By specifying exactly what we want we can save a lot of
space (you can always add something later if you need to).

NOTE: I have also intentionally left out non-free from the sources list. I personally believe there is no
need for it. If others need non-free they can add it later.