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Beyond Linux from Scratch

linuxfromscratch.org

114 pointsswatson74117 comments

I followed LFS and BLFS instructions verbatim when I was a kid with so much time on my hands. Enormously informative and also empowering to get from source code to a complex usable system and to be aware of every package.

Even just skimming the passages about security and other bits now, this is still an epic resource to get real grounded knowledge about pieces of the complex systems I can merely use nowadays.

This and doing stage 0 Gentoo install, which subsequently broke in interesting ways on running emerge. Fixing that was probably what got me enough 'real world' skill to be able to do it for a living.. 20 years later, here we are. Still grateful for the ricing :)

Gentoo was what finally make me understand what LILO was doing, and how GRUB worked, and why it was better.

Same here. But looking back, it also shows the limitations of a modern desktop OS: there's too many big, complex components, all with intricate interactions, to set it up manually. Because -let's be honest- (B)LFS is a great learning resource, but a totally impractical way to get an OS up & running.

Automation is key here. Check dependencies, download archive(s), unpack, apply config options, compile, run tests, (optionally) build binary package, install: it all has to be automated or it quickly becomes unworkable.

I'd love to see more built-from-scratch OSes that include development tools, do something useful on modern hardware, but are small(er) to the point that it's easier to wrap one's head around the whole. Think Forth-based with a simple GUI, Oberon, Plan 9, Inferno or similar.

For those who prefer init.d over systemd, there is also this version:

https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/stable/

What I'd find interesting would be a musl+llvm+openrc version of LFS.

Consider forking it and experimenting with it. The Linux kernel compiles just fine with clang / llvm. There are plenty of userland tools that compile and work just fine with musl. This should be possible to implement as an experiment.

If you get it working, lfs may consider making it an experimental flavor, like they did with the RPi version.

You can follow the Gentoo wiki for this: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/OpenRC

I've done LFS a few times over the years. I highly recommend it to anyone who "knows Linux" but wants to get into the nuts-and-bolts of why each component is needed, what it does, and how it communicates with other aspects of the environment.

With a two-week vacation coming up, I am greatly looking forward to jump into this for the first time! Any tips for someone on their first go-around? (I've already got 'Be Patient' memorized)

A lot of the middle part is busywork imo. Extract from tar, make, rinse and repeat. Like it's all necessary but it can get repetitive. You gotta push through it though.

What I need is a Windows 11 From Scratch.

I can’t tell if you’re joking.

If you’re not, are you wanting a small, simple Windows install, or are you wanting to know more about how Windows is designed and works?

https://reactos.org/wiki/Building_ReactOS ? I'm kind of being cheeky because they are only targeting NT+ but may still get at some of the experience you're after

This is probably the closest we can get: Installing Windows the Arch Linux Way https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtxedkuUCas

I think it would be useful to include a direct link to what has changed between now and the previous version of LFS.

This is an addition to the LFS documentation, not a new version. It is clearly stated in the first paragraph.

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