Remove packages

[itman007]

What is an easy way to remove all packages at once. I just need the ones I want installed. No Accessories, Education, Games, Graphics, Internet, Office, Programming, Sound, ect. I only want Konqueror and rdesktop? I am remastering a dvd and I want my Knoppix build to only have these. I want it as lightweight as possible. I want this for a student lab environment. Thanks greatly for all input.

[Capricorny]

First, if you haven't setup a 2+ GB persistent store, do it. You need several MB for the updated package database, which resided in the cloop image, but now will be completely rewritten.

Second, do a dpkg-query variant to get the package lists. There are several possible versions, you can grab good examples from the remastering notes in the wiki here.
Don't trust the package list published with Knoppix, take your actual packages.

Third, prepare a purge-list to feed into aptitude purge from the package list. You may want to make sections, and because removing some key components will prompt the removal of a whole series of packages, you may want to make an updated package list after having purged for a while.

Fourth, don't be afraid if some of your to keep-components are suggested for removal. You just reinstall them afterwards.

Fifth, don't try to remove too much of system components, even if you think you don't need them. Concentrate on userspace packages.

Sixth, you can check your remastering with qemu-kvm. One simple way, if you use grub, is adding a grub entry for the remastered version, for example copied to a pendrive, and run qemu /dev/sda &. You get the ordinary grub startup screen in a window, and choose the new alternative. You can even do quite a bit of basic functionality checking this way, provided you have kvm running. Qemu complains if it can't get it to run.

Seventh, only attempt CD remastering after thorough testing of the new cloop image.

Good luck!

[itman007]

Thanks greatly for you reply. I tried to remaster but the guide I followed seemed outdated and ended up not working.

[Capricorny]

Outdated directions: Sorry, I didn't mention that. I thought you had that under control.

Look in the recent forum thread about remastering for Forester's script for simple remastering without chroot etc. I'm using a variant of that, and it works really well - and predictable.