> >that you can do successfully complete a graphical DVD default
package
> >install with 512MB of RAM, or a text network default package install. I
> >believe a text install may even work in 384MB, though I don't absolutely
> >remember, and you may have to pass the parameter that disable's
> >anaconda's RAM check to try it. Graphical network installs require more
> >than 512MB - network installs need extra RAM before swap space comes
> >online, as they go out and get package lists. Actually you could
> >probably do an ugly hack around that by passing an intentionally invalid
> >repo=, going through the storage spoke, and *then* setting the correct
> >repo interactively, but that'd be hideous.
>
> I tried doing an F20 live install on a 512 MB machine and wasn't able to get it
> to work. There was no swap drive available though. The install configuration
> was extremely slow and seemed to have some of the subparts terminate. I never
> got to the part where I could start the install transaction. At some point
> I might try using an install image on the machine and see if that works
> better.
The above was written with the assumption some swap space would be
available, yeah. Once anaconda gets into package installation, memory
consumption increases notably, but at that point, swap space is
available if any has been configured during partitioning, so effective
available memory is also greater.
Last time I ran the numbers - which are on my blog somewhere - overall
peak memory consumption (RAM plus swap) during a typical DVD install
was, IIRC, somewhere around 750MB.
From memory the peak was when the selinux policies were being
applied/installed and those numbers are about right from my memory of
the peak but I believe there's been work to reduce the high water mark
although, like you, I have no idea what the current figures are.
Peter