Re: LFS meets goals AND constraints?

On 04/18/2015 06:10 PM, Richard Owlett wrote:

> But I need a better understanding of how the pieces of a Linux system
> work together.

I found LFS to be a good way to learn exactly this. I didn't learn 
everything on the first try of course, but I sure learned a lot.


> 1. What version(s) of use SysVinit (systemd not wanted)?

Looks like the current stable is Sysvinit-2.88dsf according to:
http://linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/stable/chapter06/sysvinit.html

> 2. Will working through LFS give an understanding of dependencies?

This is covered pretty well in the text for the core system components.

It is also covered in BLFS for each additional package one may wish to 
install, but with various amounts of information, depending on the 
package. For instance, if you look at:

http://linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/stable/xfce/xfburn.html

You will see that Xfburn lists both required and optional dependencies, 
but I need to read about the dependent packages to understand what those 
other packages are and why they are required or optional.

> 3. I have a *PHYSICAL CONSTRAINT* - dial-up internet access.
>     A. Live-CD would seem appropriate. Though considered "dated", is it
> commercially
>        available somewhere? Does an image exist on the WEB (high speed
> internet
>         being available at local library)?

I guess that nearly any linux flavor that has a live CD can be used as a 
foundation for building an LFS system. This page will help to figure out 
if the LiveCD of your choice has what you need:

http://linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/stable/prologue/hostreqs.html

>     B. Are all source packages available as a single package?

Not as a single package, no. But you can easily download the whole set 
by piping the contents of this file to wget:

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/stable/wget-list

> 4. Are there important questions I haven't thought of?

Hundreds, I'm sure .... but there are always great people on IRC who can 
help, and IRC works fine even with dial-up.

I think persistence is the most important thing. For your first system, 
it is important to follow the book very closely. Even so, my first LFS 
build took several tries because I made many errors along the way. 
However, I learned a lot by doing it.

The text of the book gets better with every version, but still (if you 
are like me) I suspect you will find that there are sections which will 
seem "magical" and you may find yourself just typing in exactly what the 
book says without understanding much about /why/ you need to type the 
"magic" .... That's okay, over time, it's natural to learn more about 
the previous systems. If, like me, you decide to rebuild everything once 
every year or two, I expect you will find that more of it makes sense 
each time and less of it seems like "magic".

I hope this helps.

Cheers,
  -Eric


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