Installation speed

[Cinquero]

Hello!

I always found it quite annoying that each Linux installer re-creates a few hundred thousand files upon each installation, because it takes a hell lot of time.

Solution 1: put a system partition image onto the installer DVD that includes the complete installation. Upon installation, copy it to the target partition und resize it to fit the partition size.
Solution 2: mount the system partition image from DVD in read-only mode. The installation process (up to the point where the user can start working) would not copy any files -- except for /boot,/etc. When the system is started after the installation has been finished (by mounting the image via loopback device(s)), the files in the system partition image on the DVD would be copied to the disk in the background.

I tend to prefer the first solution because it is a great simplification and would speed up installation up to quite some factor.

[thread]

The problem with Option 1 is that sabayon offers choices of what to install to the HDD in the installer. If you include a system partition, you would lose this functionality (apart from copying the image across and then deleting unneeded files, which I would imaging gets a bit tricky, and also problematic for those with limited HDD space).

[Cinquero]

"Too much installed" and "too few diskspace" aren't options worth considering in general.

Dont do the same nonsense like the Gentoo community tends to do and concentrate on whats useful. If you have a small-sized system, you surely wont install a Gentoo-clone... and I also didnt say that it should be the only installation method available.

Just wanted to give some hints beyond redoing stuff that everyone else did for ages.

[thread]

Admittedly people with limited disk space probably should be isntalling a different distro, but if Sabayon is to continue to be a distro that offers a large amount of software, there is perceivable benefit in being able to choose what of it you want to install. And given that the disc is already struggling for space, it's difficult to find room for more than one disc image on it.

However, it indeed would be nice if the core install (or equivalent) could be done in such a fashion, and all the additional stuff is added onto this core item. I don't know how possible this is. i agree with you however that the 1st is more desirable than the second, if only just for its simplicity.