Hi,
I'm busy working on grml-live¹, a framework (based on FAI²) which provides the possbility to build a grml-ISO with 1(!) single command (oh and live-initramfs has been integrated into grml basically as well already). Creating your very own grml version is pretty easy now.
http://grml.supersized.org/archives/263-grml-live-create-your-own-grml-ISO.h...
This framework might be the system behind grml 1.1, grml64 0.2 and grml-small 0.5 already and I think it's time to discuss the ISO-size limit of grml-small now. :)
Some history:
grml-small 0.1 started with 49MB total ISO-size, grml-small 0.2 had 56MB, grml-small 0.3 had 58MB and grml-small 0.4 has 60MB now.
So it's definitely growing (due to the new features of kernel and userland in every single release).
The main problem for the grml team so far was, to keep the ISO size of grml-small as small as possible but nevertheless provide all the software people wanted to see included. Another important drawback is the separate kernel version, which had to be maintained *additionally* to the main (non-small) grml-kernel.
Using grml-live we are able to build grml-small with one single command now. The resulting ISO for grml-small has a size of 133MB currently - though the ISO still provides some more software than grml-small 0.4 did (like python, aptitude,...) and even a full featured /usr/share/doc (24MB) plus the current grml-kernel (2.6.22-grml). So the 133MB ISO could be stripped down a little bit further (maybe to something like 125MB) without losing toooo much.
My suggestion therefore is to raise the ISO-size of grml-small to something like <=128MB (so it still fits on 128MB USB pens).
Pros:
* some more software could be included (and /usr/share/doc could be shipped as well maybe)
* as maintainenance for the grml-team is much easier, we would provide up2date grml-small versions always together with a new release of (full) grml
* use of same kernel version as with full grml -> installing additional Debian kernel packages not being available on the ISO yet (due to lack of space) is no problem furthermore
Cons:
* "grml toram" will last a little bit longer
* 64MB USB pens as well as the really small CDs aren't support anymore (though I recommend to use fast >=1GB USB pens for booting anyway nowadays ;-))
As grml-live will be available to the public soon and everyone might build his own grml-version ;-), everyone could build his own grml-small version anyway.
So what's *your* opinion about "grml-small grows to ~125MB"? I highly appreciate any feedback.
¹ http://grml.org/grml-live/ ² http://www.informatik.uni-koeln.de/fai/
regards, -mika-