I'm looking for a truly minimal usable linux install: the only requirement for the install is that it be able to install a .deb file (that has no dependencies) from the local file-system. (I'm assuming that if I can do that, I can then use that to bootstrap to whatever I actually need).
An ideal distor for my needs would consists of a kernel and an initramfs with nothing but dpks and init. In reality, I expect I will have to settle for something between that and DSL.
Edit: I'm not looking for an installer per se, but rather something that could be booted via an ISO or via PXE. It doesn't even need to leave the system in a re-bootable state.
As Linker3000 pointed out, what I'm looking for may be closer to a embedded distro than anything else.
ar x foo.deb
producescontrol.tar.gz
which contains the scripts anddata.tar.gz
that contains the files (extract while in /). Trying to run the postinst script without dpkg (and debconf, debianutils, sed, grep, hostname, etc) will probably not work, you'll have to read through the script and execute equivalents by hand. Also note that the result won't be a "Debian system", it will just be a system with the contents of a debian package installed in it.