Image size?

[jonesmz]

I notice that the image size is very large compared to the amount of data on the system after installation.

I think you've mentioned in other issues that right now part of the image creation process is manual-by-hand.

Have you considered trying to poke holes in the filesystem, e.g. write all zeros, so that the resulting image is compressed more?

[sakaki-]

Hello,

zerofree is used on the rootfs, and the swap file overwritten with zeros etc., prior to image capture and compression. Unfortunately a compressed filesystem image will never be as efficient as e.g. a compressed tar of the filesystem contents - you can see this by comparing with e.g. the PINN bootfs + rootfs for the same image (about a 10% penalty), which is mechanically constructed from the filesystem via this script. But it is more convenient for most users.

[jonesmz]

Hrmm.

What do you think about an approach where the root filesystem is shrunk to the left before creating the image file, and then first-boot expands it to the right to fill all available space?

[sakaki-]

30 Oct 2020: sadly, due legal obligations arising from a recent change in my 'real world' job, I must announce I am standing down as maintainer of this project with immediate effect. For the meantime, I will leave the repo up (for historical interest, and since the images may be of use still in certain applications); however, there will be no further updates to the underlying binhost etc., nor will I be accepting / actioning further pull requests or bug reports from this point. Email requests for support will also have to be politely declined, so, please treat this as an effective EOL notice.

For further details, please see my post here.

Many thanks for your interest in this project!

With sincere apologies, sakaki ><