Re: Building a GUI - where to start?

On 2/26/26 20:58, Stephan Hunker ([email protected] via
blfs-support Mailing List) wrote:
 > Hi folks. I have endeavoured to build a GUI of some sort for my LFS
 > build. I tried this once before and became quite confused trying to
 > install xorg and KDE/plasma, what with all the dependencies, I must
 > have messed something up so I started over.
 >
 > This time, I'd like to try installing the absolute simplest, most
 > bare bones GUI, just to get something working. The problem is that
 > the desktop environment/window manager/display manager/graphical
 > environment language confuses me. It's not clear if I HAVE to install
 > Xorg as a desktop environment to use a window manager or GUI of some
 > sort. I’ve read the book introductions to the desktop environment and
 > window manager sections several times but the way things are worded
 > makes it unclear to me if these sections are intended to be done as
 > in LFS, just keep proceeding in order until everything is installed,
 > or if there are areas where I have to make a choice.

Should start by saying that "24. Graphical Environments" is a chapter
that is meant to be followed linearly. However, some parts can be
omitted. It depends on the environment you want. The chapter is mainly
aimed to get you a simple X setup with little else: Xorg itself, an X
window manager, a clock, a terminal emulator, and a way to start the
window manager.

You could forego luit, xclock, xterm, and twm if you know you are going
for something else, like DWM (you'll also need a terminal emulator).
If you're sure you're going to be on X11, you can skip Xwayland as
well.

Xorg Legacy in a lot of cases can be skipped and is only necessary for
stuff like Motif which isn't in BLFS.

If you want to go the Wayland route, it depends whether you can skip
any Xorg component. But a lot of the time, you're going to pull in
various Xorg components anyway. Thus, I recommend following all of the
chapter except luit, Xorg-Server, Xorg Input Drivers, twm, xterm,
xclock, xinit, and Xorg Legacy.

Why that chapter is needed is because many packages are still Xorg-only
at the heart of their code and many will probably never adapt, thus
requiring Xwayland, which requires Xorg Applications, which requires
most of the Xorg stack.

For Wayland, also make sure to install wayland and wayland-protocols.

For simple Wayland compositors, you can find some here:
https://linuxfromscratch.org/slfs/view/dev/wm/wm.html.
MangoWC and Wayfire are especially lightweight but you will need
Wlroots which has linked instructions for both compositors.

 > For instance: "Wayland is developed. It is a simpler replacement for
 > X" and "This chapter provides the basic components of the X Window
 > System and Wayland." But how am I to know which components need to be
 > installed for which? Or is it meant to say that ALL components in
 > chapter 24 must be installed to use Wayland and X?

I addressed which components you should install and skip for most
cases. However, knowing what to choose is sort of up to you. The quick
and easy route is installing most of the chapter except Xorg Legacy,
then run startx. I find it very rudamentary, and Wayland works better
for me, but I like lightweight setups, so I'd opt for MangoWC in this
case. But usually I use Hyprland which pulls in a lot more
dependencies. I can't recommend it.

For terminal emulators, I use foot which is for Wayland. You can also
use Alacritty which needs Rust. rxvt-unicode is also another option.

 > Sorry for probably seeming dense, but I'm quite confused on where to
 > start.

Stuff like this can be a pretty difficult topic, and I think there
could potentially be better counsel regarding what to install for a
graphical environment. After LFS-13.0 releases (around or on the 1st of
March), I plan to add wlroots and Wayfire to BLFS and adjust some
things. I took me a year or two to find out exactly what I need, what
to skip and what to install.

Hopefully this email helped you. I can also touch on some more stuff if
you have questions. Good luck, happy compiling!

- Zeckma­

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