Minimal distro to build openwrt image

I'm think about what could be the minimal distribution for virtualbox/vmware to build openwrt image. Ubuntu server ? Debian Server ? Or maybe it is possible to build image for router in x86 openwrt environment ?

I would install a minimal edition (definitively not "server") of any major distribution (Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, ...).

I think that Graphical interface is not needed. When you write minimal distro Debian or Ubuntu - it suggest minimal server.

Debian 9 without GUI builds OpenWrt just fine. All required packages (build essentials, gcc and other) are in standard repositories.

For the (newer) OpenWrt buildslaves we also use a base Debian 9 Docker image with the following packages:

RUN apt-get update && \
    apt-get install -y \
        pwgen \
        locales \
        buildbot-slave \
        build-essential \
        git-core \
	subversion \
        libncurses5-dev \
        gawk \
        unzip \
        wget \
	curl \
        ccache \
        rsync

This can be trimmed down some more since pwgen, buildbot-slave, ccache and rsync are not really required to build OpenWrt.

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This looks like Dockerfile to me, how about build the image in Docker container?

I can get a VirtualBox image running Debian in just a few minutes. I haven’t looked into redistribution restrictions though.

Personally, I’d retain ccache as it will speed subsequent builds on similar source greatly.