Hi every one!
I've got this questions on packages info. How can i tell if a package is required, recommended or optional? While making a fresh install the installer tells me that info, but the thing is that i don't want to install every package of software on the CD's. I install the minimum (base system) and keep on adding the packages i want/need.
I want to install all the required packages and choose the recommended/optional. How can i do this?

Thanks in advance.

As far as I remember you can go through the list of packages during the installation and select the ones that you want. But I guess you really want some sort of one-click solution to this? You could consider one of the minimalist distributions out there (damn small linux, for example).

Slackware will install all the required packages for you but you're really the only one that can decide what is optional or recommended. The only way to do that is to go through them and read the descriptions.

What I do (on a fresh install) is to install everything and then remove what I don't want. You can spot many of them by their names (e.g. xchat). If something gets broken it's generally pretty easy to put it back in (you still have them on the CD's).

John

think you might find this tutorial usefull,

you can customize the Tagfiles to have it install exactly what you want.

the thing is:: it takes some time to prepare it.
if you do only 1 install it might be better to do it manuall selection during installation,
when you do several install's with the same setup then tagfiles are the way to go

http://www.start-linux.com/articles/article_64.php

Thanks, the tag file is the thing i need. Just have to spend some time building my own tag file.
Thanks once again jkobrien & Randall Slack

Maybe this is also useful:
http://www.slackbasics.org/html/pkgm...gmgmt-tagfiles

guess your painstakingly changing all the values to ADD or SKP in your tagfiles by now trying to figure out what every package is and if you really need it since you're planning on doing a minimal install in the beginning. this takes a lot of time, (at least i spend quit some time on it)
LFS can give you some idea about what you need for a minimal install
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/stable/

also i posted this about my file and print server, its not the complete minimal but it might be some starting point for you, hope its usefull.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...61#post1850761

Yep, you're correct, its a painful task but on the other hand i'm learning something new .
Thanks for the links, the LFS project seems something good to take a look at (the link is not correct but I went to www.linuxfromscratch.org and took it from there)

Thanks!!