full CD installer, non netinst

[Joseph]

Hello,
I'm looking for the smallest full installer possible with just xfce (CD
installer for example < 700MB), that works without internet, non netinst.
I know this existed for 10.4, I still have:

"debian-10.4.0-amd64-xfce-CD-1.iso" which is 640 MB

I'm looking for the same thing for 11.0, but when searching on:

https://get.debian.org/images/
https://get.debian.org/images/release/current/amd64/iso-cd/

there are only "netinst" vesions, such as debian-11.0.0-amd64-netinst.iso.

Question: does

"debian-11.0.0-amd64-xfce-CD-1.iso" < 700 MB

exist?

Thanks in advance
Jo

[Steve McIntyre]

Hi Joseph!

Post by Joseph
I'm looking for the smallest full installer possible with just xfce (CD
installer for example < 700MB), that works without internet, non netinst.
    "debian-10.4.0-amd64-xfce-CD-1.iso"  which is 640 MB
https://get.debian.org/images/
https://get.debian.org/images/release/current/amd64/iso-cd/
there are only "netinst" vesions, such as debian-11.0.0-amd64-netinst.iso.
Question: does 
    "debian-11.0.0-amd64-xfce-CD-1.iso"    <  700 MB
exist?

I'm afraid not, no. We found that it's been getting harder and harder
to make a sensible desktop fit onto small media, even with something
simpler like xfce. So I took the decision to stop producing the xfce
CD image during the 11.x (Bullseye) development cycle.

[Andrew M.A. Cater]

Post by Joseph
Hello,
I'm looking for the smallest full installer possible with just xfce (CD
installer for example < 700MB), that works without internet, non netinst.
"debian-10.4.0-amd64-xfce-CD-1.iso" which is 640 MB
https://get.debian.org/images/
https://get.debian.org/images/release/current/amd64/iso-cd/
there are only "netinst" vesions, such as debian-11.0.0-amd64-netinst.iso.
Question: does
"debian-11.0.0-amd64-xfce-CD-1.iso" < 700 MB
exist?
Thanks in advance
Jo

Hi Jo,

No, I'm sorry, it no longer does. The XFCE single CD got too large to fit
on a single 640/700 CD dnd the team that releases the CD/DVD etc. images
took the decision to drop it. Essentially, the process was to squeeze as
many packages as possible onto one CD to make a desktop environment. XFCE
was the smallest - when that ceased to fit, there was no straightforward
way forward. The number of people using genuine physical CD media is also
smaller than it was (but non-zero).

At the same time, the number of DVDs was also reduced for Debian 11. Whereas
for Buster we made the first three .iso images, for Bullseye there is one:
the others can be built using jigdo. Again, the numbers of people wanting
physical DVD images is smaller (but non-zero). if you really want DVDs
for archival purposes, they're available to make - but they're necessarily
out of date almost immediately on the day of release as security updates etc.
happen.

The netinst will work well to install any desktop: if you happen to be
disconnected from any network, DVD1 should well work (though you might
conceivably need DVD2 or DVD3 for some packages.) If that's still
inconvenient, get someone with jigdo to produce the 16G image meant
for USB sticks or the Blu-Ray sizes which can also be written directly
to USB and will boot.

Hope this helps. With every good wish, as ever

Andy Cater

[Part of the images team on release days though not directly triggering the
releases.]

[Linux-Fan]

Post by Andrew M.A. Cater

Post by Joseph
Hello,
I'm looking for the smallest full installer possible with just xfce (CD
installer for example < 700MB), that works without internet, non netinst.
"debian-10.4.0-amd64-xfce-CD-1.iso" which is 640 MB

[...]

Post by Andrew M.A. Cater
No, I'm sorry, it no longer does. The XFCE single CD got too large to fit
on a single 640/700 CD dnd the team that releases the CD/DVD etc. images

[...]

Post by Andrew M.A. Cater
The netinst will work well to install any desktop: if you happen to be
disconnected from any network, DVD1 should well work (though you might
conceivably need DVD2 or DVD3 for some packages.) If that's still
inconvenient, get someone with jigdo to produce the 16G image meant
for USB sticks or the Blu-Ray sizes which can also be written directly
to USB and will boot.

[...]

I am not sure if it qualifies for a "full installer", but the live images
allow the installation of Debian with specified Desktop environment. For
XFCE, the image would be as follows:

https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current-live/amd64/iso-hybrid/debian-live-11.0.0-amd64-xfce.iso

With 2.3G it is, however, much larger than a single CD although it still
fits a cheap 4G USB pendrive. It might thus be easier to use than a 16G
image or handling multiple installation DVDs.

HTH
Linux-Fan

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