Minimal X client install for container

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dalepres
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Joined: 2016/05/27 19:31:55

Minimal X client install for container

Post by dalepres » 2018/03/13 18:22:46

I'm working on how to use Chrome or other GUI apps, such as Eclipse, etc., from Docker containers using Docker for Windows 18.3. I have Chrome going - typing on Chrome in a Centos-based container now. The problem is, adding yum groupinstall 'X Window System' adds about a gigabyte to my image. Surely not all of that is required.

I'm trying to figure out what's the minimum required to get X client running on Centos so I can remove most of that bloat. I've been googling for a couple hours with no real luck. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Dale

Jalical
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Joined: 2018/03/05 17:39:40

Re: Minimal X client install for container

Post by Jalical » 2018/03/15 15:55:54

Been in the same boat for the past year. Centos / RHEL really doesn't do a 'real' absolute minimum GUI well.

I have not found a better method then groupinstalling "X Window" plus other packages on top of that.

For reference, here's the method for others in the thread.
viewtopic.php?t=47088

If you wish to go further, there's 50+ packages you can remove from core install and still do GUI boot just fine. My lowest size is ~800MB, although I keep a number of extraneous things like yum and extra kernels installed.

dalepres
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Re: Minimal X client install for container

Post by dalepres » 2018/03/16 06:10:53

Thanks, Jalical. I will check that out.

scottro
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Re: Minimal X client install for container

Post by scottro » 2018/03/16 12:57:41

I have a somewhat dated page on minimal desktop.

http://srobb.net/minimaldesktop.html

A bit dated. If it's not a laptop, you don't need synaptics. (In later Fedora, but I don't think it's true yet for CentOS, all you need for keyboard and mouse is xorg-x11-libinput).

After that, choose your window manager. I use openbox which pulls in several other things, but is still small. I think fluxbox is even smaller.
The dwm tiling manager is even smaller.
New users should check the FAQ and Read Me First pages

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jlehtone
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Re: Minimal X client install for container

Post by jlehtone » 2018/03/16 13:14:02

"X client"? xorg-x11-xauth and whatever libs the client package pulls in.

That, however, really means X client and that the X server runs somewhere else. SSH tunnels X11, if you have the xorg-x11-xauth. Your "somewhere else" is MS Windows, which does not boast with native X server.

Jalical
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Re: Minimal X client install for container

Post by Jalical » 2018/03/19 17:34:06

jlehtone wrote:"X client"? xorg-x11-xauth and whatever libs the client package pulls in.

That, however, really means X client and that the X server runs somewhere else. SSH tunnels X11, if you have the xorg-x11-xauth. Your "somewhere else" is MS Windows, which does not boast with native X server.

Correct.

If you begin to have to experiment, I recommend first guessing at what can be removed via dependency checks, then --- create a kickstart script, loading it into a virtual drive called OEMDRV, and starting the representative machine, remove possible items from the kickstart using - and see if it's still stable. Using this approach, you should be able to do what you need to, clear old yum logs, and clear yum itself. Then be able to go back, update, etc via your kickstart script.

So many things have dependencies. Centos-logos is an example which should be removable but instead bricks a system.

If you use a ramdrive to do this, it's also far faster.

dalepres
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Re: Minimal X client install for container

Post by dalepres » 2018/03/27 21:46:57

Thanks guys. It will take a bit for me to try these things but I will get back to this and provide my results when I can.

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