What happens downstream?: Scott Mattoon's blog

OpenSolaris is widely know as a state of the art and feature rich server operating system. So, it's a little surprising to many users trying it for the first time when they find that it is also a full fledged desktop environment.

But what if you don't want all that Gnome-Firefox-VNC-Xorg goodness in your base installation?

Well, you could pick through all the packages on the system looking for the desktop tools, examine them for dependencies, and build a manifest for removal. Or, if you're on OpenSolaris 200906, then you could just use Glenn's minimization script that comes in the samples with Immutable Service Containers (ISC) Construction Kit for OpenSolaris. To get it, grab a copy of the ISC project:

	$ hg clone https://kenai.com/hg/isc~source  isc

Then run the script:

	$ pfexec isc/opt/samples/minimization.ksh

The script will remove 237 packages and disable 11 services that are non-essential to running OpenSolaris strictly as a server. The project page on Kenai gives a little more background on the minimization script. Note: this minimization is separate from the hardening that the core ISC installation will perform on the systems. While you're at it, you might also try ISC itself, or install the pre-configured OpenSolaris ISC image, which is available in OVF format. Instructions are on the Immutable Service Containers Construction Kit page.