Ubuntu low-memory install for VMs
erratasec.blogspot.co.uk
erratasec.blogspot.co.uk
In other words: if you allocate 1GB of RAM to a system and 256MB to another, the first will appear to use more RAM. You're reducing memory usage and performance at the same time. Whether you want that or not depends on what you want to run.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD
It's a 28 Megabyte .iso, installing it gives you a server with around 20-30 MB of RAM usage. I use it for everything, and then install vim and htop and I'm good to go. I haven't noticed anything missing, so it's definitely my go-to install for low-RAM servers or VMs.
I guess the most notable difference between Arch and Unbuntu is Arch's quest for simplicity as a system, where Ubuntu tries to be simple for the "common man" by abstracting implementation details, adding to overall complexity of the system.
- Tried arch for some weeks, I liked it but had to reinstall twice after some pacman -Sy managed to break something and I couldnt't upgrade/install anything anymore ;
- I love the nice ubuntu fonts and aliasing/hinting ;
- I installed it again in the beginning of this year (netinstall) and although I was installing from the web I had no connection (not even eternet) upon rebooting even though I followed the wiki step-by-step (I tried it twice as well).
I wish there was some arch version that would have a debian like cycle release.
(I also dabbled with parabolla)
You can get the exact same font aliasing/hinting, you just need to change the hinting settings (if you're using gnome, install gnome-tweak-tool, if you're using xfce it's in the font settings menu, I don't know about other DEs).
Arch wouldn't really be arch if it had a release cycle. Part of the simplicity of it is that it's a rolling release.
I wasn't using any unstable or experimental repo., only the standard basic one. I read on HN some weeks ago that there had been problems last year and there were related to some changes in the system and that that year wasn't a good one to get started with arch but I didn't follow on that.
> You can get the exact same font aliasing/hinting, you just need to change the hinting settings (if you're using gnome, install gnome-tweak-tool, if you're using xfce it's in the font settings menu, I don't know about other DEs).
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Font_Configuration I have my doubts I just need to change the hinting :] Ubuntu's defaults are really good (for me).
I am using awesome. I don't see the point of using gnome or kde with a distro that has simplicity in mind (but that's my take on it).
561M - 487M(cached) - 23M(buffers) = 51M
vs.
50M - 21M(cached) - 6M(buffers) = 23M
2x difference (4M of which is vmtoolsd)
I think I may have been misreading the numbers, but I don't quite follow your recommended approach.
That's what the OS is supposed to do, fille a large portion of the unused and available memory with disk cache.
My ubuntu install uses almost 8 gigs in cache, what a pig!
BTW - if he installed open-vm-tools with the balloon driver it would recover all that disk cache ram as soon as the hypervisor was under any amount of memory pressure.
And given that a cache is a mirror of existing data (as opposed to buffers which are temporary storage space), the cache can be instantly flushed by the system if you need that ram for anything else.
This means that it's good if the memory resources the operating system needs to function are low, since it then has more memory for caching.
This flies in the face of the often heard comment -'it doesn't matter if operating system X is a ram hog, I want my memory to be used'.
I also want my memory to be used, but by the applications I run, not the base operating system. If the operating system is lean, the more memory is available to the applications you launch, aswell as the system being able to keep as much data as possible cached to prevent slow disk reads.
Very good tip though, I always overlooked the F4 modes and never knew there was a minimal mode.
Need Apache? you will need to install it. Need to send email? You will need to set that up. Need python? Ditto. And hope you like working at the command line because you have no X. Etc.
It's a nice way to get a system that does just what you need it to do and nothing more, but "minimal" installs are rarely useful all by themselves; they are a starting point.
It's a great starting place if you know exactly what you want to do with that VM and how to configure it; it's kind of a pain if you're using it as a general purpose server.
If that sounds like more work, that's because it is, but the next time something breaks, it's more immediately obvious that a an underlying package has changed.
Also, if you are a developer, do you really want to be a one man/woman IT show just to get your laptop up and running? Gentoo is a great learning distro that is slightly more abstracted away than Linux From Scratch, but that's where its usefulness ends. Doing a proper "compile newer version of GCC, then recompile GCC with it, then recompile GCC again" voodoo is just tiresome after the first time. Yes you may lose some performance, but chances are your time is worth way more than what the setup takes.
I agree the recompiles take time, but it's not like you are going to sit in front of the computer and stare at the console output window while emerge is running.
Also from my years of using Gentoo, you had to babysit a large portion of the initial installation.
Note that in Erratasec's case, they need to have a diversity of VMs for real hacking. Go check out the the Ubertooth One mentioned in the article, it's badass.
In my case, I was just going to be installing one in the next few days and was looking for ways to reduce drive space used on my SSD.
An installed system only needs enough memory for the kernel and whatever apps you need to run. Install it with a lot of memory, then reduce the memory footprint to fit your application.
vb.customize [ 'modifyvm', :id, '--name', node[:hostname], '--memory', node[:ram].to_s ] We use this to perform cluster testing locally with 4 to 6 128mb nodes. :)
I know there is a lot of "it depends" on this.