[Tfug] List of packages required to make a good Debian Desktop system

[Claude Rubinson]

On Thu, Jul 05, 2007 at 04:39:19PM -0700, Glen Pfeiffer wrote:
> 
> > aptitude -F '%p' search '~i !~M'
> >
> 
> I tried a similar search but I had no idea that the terms needed 
> to be placed within single quotes. So my search never worked 
> correctly. I have read the man pages for aptitude, and I was 
> disappointed as it appeared to be geared toward using the GUI, 
> which I strongly dislike. For search patterns, the man page 
> references the aptitude manual. I read most of the search 
> patterns section in the manual yet never learned about the single 
> quotes. Is there a better reference? Maybe I didn't read enough 
> of it.

I don't recall where I learned the syntax but I believe that it was
the manual.  Aptitude is really powerful but, as you say, they've
geared the documentation toward the GUI which I also don't like.  (To
be honest, I've only entered the aptitude GUI a handful of times and I
find it pretty non-intuitive.)


> 
> 
> > Dump the results to a text file which you can pipe to 
> > apt-get/aptitude to recreate/install your system.
> >
> 
> In addition to the list of packages I also included information 
> on how to make Sun's Java the default JVM, and where to get media 
> codecs, links to websites with more information, etc. 
> 
> I have considered scripting the install which would modify 
> sources.list, perform an update, and then install all the 
> packages. I could use your idea for the last step. On the other 
> hand, most of the boxes I work on only use a subset of the 
> packages. For example only three will have the children's games 
> installed.

It sounds like what you're really talking about is coming up with your
own installer.  I wonder how difficult it might be to modify the
standard Debian installer (the new one) to include, for example, just
your preferred packages, permit people to install just a handful of
custom defined tasks (are they still called tasks?  you know, the
larger collections of packages, e.g., "kid's games" or whatever).

So you're not creating yet another Debian-derivative distribution,
just simplifying the installation process.

Just more food for thought,

Claude