Re: LFS meets goals AND constraints?

Eric Herman wrote:
> 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.

Even if an install goes "perfectly", I'd likely learn that I 
could better specify my goal(s) for the installation.

>
>> 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.
>

I hadn't asked asked quite the "right" question ;/
A better question might have been "What makes a minimal system?" 
A definitive answer is unlikely. A comparison of packages that 
Debian labels as "Essential &/or required", Slackware tags as 
"A", the order in which Linux From Scratch builds will likely 
point in a valuable direction.


>> 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
>

You put a "sanity filter" on my question <GRIN>. If physical 
Live-CD's are
not available, I do specifically want an image of one. Apparently 
Oregon
State University has it available at
http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/lfs-livecd/lfslivecd-x86-6.3-r2145.iso .

>>     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
>

OSU apparently has tar files of 6.0 thru 7.7 available at
http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/lfs/lfs-packages/ .

>> 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.

Thank you.

>
> Cheers,
>   -Eric
>
>

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