After having used Xubuntu minimal installations from the netboot (mini.iso) image in multiple previous versions of Ubuntu, I noticed that the netboot installer is no longer actively supported. I would like to know what the "official" way is now to get a Xubuntu 20.04 minimal installation in a virtual machine (since Xubuntu is the only official flavor without a "minimal installation" option in its installer). I am aware of the following options with their respective shortcomings:
The Xubuntu Core description on the Xubuntu
Website still
refers to the mini.iso which is not officially supported for >18.04. There is a mini.iso for 20.04 as described in this
post,
albeit not officially supported anymore. It could disappear any
moment or be discontinued completely for future versions >20.04. For
now, this image allows me to install a minimal version of Xubuntu.
The Xubuntu Core image cannot be
installed as the installer crashes (I tried this multiple times
since the release and with different versions of VirtualBox):
Installing the
xubuntu-core
package viaapt
on Ubuntu live server, which is listed as
the recommended replacement for the mini.iso, yields >4 GB of used
disk space and thus seems to differ significantly from the minimal
installation performed by the 20.04 mini.iso as well as the 18.04 mini.iso.
Ubuntu Core is not an option for me as it requires creating and
linking it to a user account. I have not tried it so far because of
this restriction. I would just like to install Xubuntu in a VM and
use it offline.
Ubuntu Base is too minimal and requires a very high number of
preparatory steps. I would just like to install Xubuntu.
Given these options, is there anything that I missed which would give me a Xubuntu 20.04 minimal installation in a way that is officially supported and will likely be supported in future versions?