[Grml-devel] 2013.09 feedback - size of small image

[Christoph Biedl]

Hi there,

At first, the mandatory though belated "Thank you" for 2013.09 -
there were no issues where I tested -rc1, and the release looks
good, too. So, as always, please keep the good work, much appreciated.


One thing remains. It might be a bit selfish but it's becoming a
problem for me.

Some background, at least four years ago I started placing both
grml-small images (or grml96 once it was established) in
/boot to have a rescue system available on every physical host in
both architectures.

However, in 2013.09 the grml96-small.iso image file grew by another
30 Mbyte[0] to a total of 362 Mbyte. Together with kernel images and
other stuff that lingers in /boot I now am getting close to the 512
MByte size limit my /boot partition usually has. Looking at the
trend, see table below, I can expect the next grml release to bring
me into trouble.


Here is how the sizes developed over time, I also added the older
{32,64} sizes for an increased history:

            size of
            grml96-small
            iso image
                            combined size of
                            grml{32,64}-small
                            iso images

2009.10:       n/a          217579520

2010.04:       n/a          227803136

2010.12:       n/a          243269632

2011.05:       n/a          240910336

2012.05:    295698432       307494912

2013.02:    331350016       344981504

2013.09:    361758720       374341632


This is an old game, I know it, you know it, I know you know it:
Applications grow fat, folks want more of them, and so the "small"
image will eventually even exceed the size of the former "medium"
flavour.

So my question is, would you consider paying attention to the small
image size, and putting a hard limit onto it, like 350 Mbyte? Of
course I could work around this on my end; but none of the options
look promising:

* resize /boot on all systems: A lot of work, especially if
  operating systems with an inferior boot loader are installed,
* install 32 or 64 bit flavour only: Huge drawback in usability,
* re-master grml for a smaller-than-small flavour (obviously,
  "grml-footnotesize" was the right name for this) with a reduced
  package set: Continuous work, and nobody else will benefit.

Mind to share your opinion on that?

    Christoph

[0] stating the obvious, that's SI units.