The Ubuntu net install is actually not only interesting for servers, but can also be used as the base for a slim system.

It is also interesting for you in the following cases

• you want to install a newer version but only have an old CD
• you have the wrong install CD for your desired DE
• there is no install CD with your desired DE (Fluxbox, E17)
• you want to only have the things installed you really need
• you want to download only as much as needed

Lets go

You will need the mini CD image order to do the net install, which you can get here. It is even more minimalistic than an ordinary alternate server install. When you boot from the CD, you will be thrown at the console, where you have to enter “cli” in order to start the installation, which is pretty much guided.

Note that there is no pppoeconf on the CD, so if you are connected directly over DSL without a router, you are out of luck.

But at the end you will be thrown at the console instead of a nice GUI desktop.

Next we have to alter the /etc/apt/sources.list and enable the universe and multiverse branches in order to gain access to additional packages like gnome-core, which we will need later.

If you need additional repositories, like you will if you want to install E17, you can do it now too.

For Hardy it should look something like that:

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/  jaunty          main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/  jaunty-updates  main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty-security main restricted universe

Now the local package list has to be updated, which can be achieved by

# apt-get update

If you are using an older CD-image than the version you want to install you also have to run

# apt-get dist-upgrade

Installing a desktop

In order to get any graphical output, you need to install a X-server first.

Since X.org is the only one in Ubuntu, which can run standalone, the choice is an easy one:

# apt-get install xfonts-base xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-video-vesa

You most probably also install a specific driver for your graphics card, since the vesa driver offers no hardware accelleration.

For ati it would be xserver-xorg-video-ati respectivley for nvidia xserver-xorg-video-nv.

You can get a list of all avaible drivers with

$ apt-cache search xserver-xorg-video-*

Now you have got the core for graphical output, which you can test by running startx, but we have no GNOME yet – so it is what we will install next

# apt-get install gnome-core gdm

If you dont want to have GNOME, you can as well choose a different desktop now.

Alternative Desktops

Instead of doing a minimal Install of Ubuntu, you can also just install a different Desktop.

XFCE

Full Xubuntu install

# apt-get install xubuntu-desktop

if you only want to have the minimal System with XFCE:

# apt-get install xfce4 gdm

KDE

full Kubuntu install:

# apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

minimal system with KDE

# apt-get install kde-core kdm

Enlightenment DR17

Since Enlightenment DR17 is not stable yet, it is neither in the official ubuntu repositories.
But if you want to try it anyway add the following line to your sources.list

deb http://e17.dunnewind.net/ubuntu hardy e17

Note that this is a development version, so that you have to bargain for instabilites and bugs.
Now you are ready to apt-get enlightenment

# apt-get install enlightenment

Note

The system is really bare now, so if you are not that familiar with the console, you might want to also install the following packages (for GNOME)

# apt-get install synaptic gnome-system-tools file-roller