amvaron＠gmail.com wrote:
William Park wrote:
I'm trying to setup Debian/Ubuntu distro, small size, text-only, no desktop, in VirtualBox. So, I tried "Ubuntu Server 25.10", because website says 2.5GB should be enough. Well, fresh install takes up 7GB. The only optional thing I included is ssh server. Am I doing something wrong? What do you remember when you setup your Ubuntu Server? Use Debian Trixie netinst cd iso image (800MB ish size). Very minimal iso but needs internet to grab additional packages.
When installing, near the end is tasksel. deselect everything except "SSH Server" and "standard system utilities" and proceed with the install. You'll end up with 1GB of used space compared to Ubuntu Server which is 7GB as you mentioned.
My take, ubuntu=debian+"special sauce" just go for the real deal... Debian.
/Balrog
Replying to myself. Found that Ubuntu Server has 4GB of swap file on root (/swap.img). That's why it's 7GB in total. This swap size depends on your memory size where i have it at 4GB. Still, Ubuntu Server at 2-3GB size compared to Debian at 1GB. This is even less for Debian 6 (squeeze) at around 700MB years ago.