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Build yourself a Linux

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Re: Build yourself a Linux

#51

Post by JdeBP »

djsumdog wrote: post #38
vbezhenar wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did exactly the same in 2005. I even wrote my own init scripts, so I really understood a lot what's going on at startup time. Linux was quite simple at that time. I could write my own init, if I wanted. Unfortunately now this knowledge is obsolete. Systemd is a complex beast which uses a lot of arcane techniques, I'm hardly understanding it. chroot was a really simple concept, but nowadays people use containers, an…

I've had to learn apparmour, which isn't too bad and a lot easier than SELinux (maybe not as powerful). Systemd is a religious argument at this point, but if you want simplicity check out Void. It uses runit and I love it. It's incredibly simple. Startup files are often less than 4 lines. I don't really like systemd either, but I will admit, as a package maintainer, it does make packaging a lot easier/universal. It'd…

The nosh toolset can of course import systemd socket, service, and target units into its native daemontools-encore-superset form; which can then be used on a BSD, on things like UbuntuBSD or Debian kFreeBSD, or (in theory) on Debian Hurd; as well as on Linux operating systems.

* http://jdebp.eu./Softwares/nosh/worked-example.html

Re: Build yourself a Linux

#52

Post by smcl »

sq_ wrote: post #43
Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've made several compromises so far. I've been making a note of them with the expectation (or hope) that I'll get to them, or a bright eyed new contributor might (I have some of those :D).

Do you have a Github repo or something similar for the distro? I'd love to see it if you do.

Or even a blog post or something talking about it. I understand that sharing your experiences with the rest of the world might not be top priority while you're hammering away at sorting out these packages so I don't expect you to stop what you're doing purely to satisfy us on HN! But if you've already got something I'd love to see it :-)

Re: Build yourself a Linux

#53

Post by qb45 »

duncan_bayne wrote: post #49
asciimo wrote: post #45

This is almost as complicated as building a Javascript web application.

Except that the recommended tools don't change every few months ;)

Yeah, pmount, hal, ivman, udisks, consolekit, consolekit2, policykit, upstart, systemd, oss, alsa, pulseaudio, xfree, xorg, wayland, mir, kms, gtk, gtk2, gtk3, qt9, motif, unity, loadlin, lilo, grub, grub2, ghtml, webkit, qtwebkit, webkitgtk, webkitgtk2...

I guess you're right, they change only every few years :)

Re: Build yourself a Linux

#55

Post by albertzeyer »

ddevault wrote: post #33

Building a Linux distro from scratch has been one of the most tasking projects I've attempted. There are two phases: the frustration phase, and the tedious phase. Bootstrapping it is an incredibly frustrating process - I restarted from scratch 5 times before any attempt ever got to the tedious phase. The tedious phase never ends. You have to make hundreds of packages to get to a usable desktop system. I've made 407 p…

I'm just curious: In what way is it rewarding? Just for educational purpose? Or anything else? Or is it just a hobby? I mean, you are probably investing a lot of time into this. This time you could spend on other things instead.

I see the educational purpose. Although you probably get similar experience/understanding/education if you use something like Gentoo and you would have to invest much less time because all the nasty corner cases are already taken care of.

Re: Build yourself a Linux

#56

Post by jonathanstrange »

I have a question related to this article, though not directly. If building completely from scratch turns out too cumbersome and time-consuming, what would be the easiest way of building a minimal, fast starting distro with graphical user interface and networking whose only purpose is to run one application on x86 hardware in kiosk mode?

Is there a distro builder for dummies?

Re: Build yourself a Linux

#57

Post by duncan_bayne »

qb45 wrote: post #53
duncan_bayne wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that the recommended tools don't change every few months ;)

Yeah, pmount, hal, ivman, udisks, consolekit, consolekit2, policykit, upstart, systemd, oss, alsa, pulseaudio, xfree, xorg, wayland, mir, kms, gtk, gtk2, gtk3, qt9, motif, unity, loadlin, lilo, grub, grub2, ghtml, webkit, qtwebkit, webkitgtk, webkitgtk2... I guess you're right, they change only every few years :)

He did say almost as complicated ;)

(Also: QuickBASIC 4.5 forever! Assuming that's the meaning of your nick).

Re: Build yourself a Linux

#58

Post by rijoja »

jonathanstrange wrote: post #56

I have a question related to this article, though not directly. If building completely from scratch turns out too cumbersome and time-consuming, what would be the easiest way of building a minimal, fast starting distro with graphical user interface and networking whose only purpose is to run one application on x86 hardware in kiosk mode? Is there a distro builder for dummies?

Sure there is LFS. I suppose arch could give you a fairly minimal installation. Really when you think of it harddisc usage is hardly the problem here so even though it might seem silly having a 10GB installation, it will cost you nothing and save you time.

But if you want it quick install debian or arch or whatever and simply start only X11 and whatever application you want to run. If there is no window manager or an extremely limited mode, you got kiosk mode.

Re: Build yourself a Linux

#59

Post by agumonkey »

apeacox wrote: post #2

Well, I'd use http://linuxfromscratch.org/ for that matter...

LFS is infinitely more involved and am not sure for good reasons. I don't like to say it because it's someone else project but I feel important parts are missing, format is wrong, and without BLFS the goal is only half realized.

Re: Build yourself a Linux

#60

Post by agumonkey »

exDM69 wrote: post #48
fizixer wrote: post #25

Have you even looked at the LFS project[1]? And what does your guide provide that LFS doesn't? [1] http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

This uses BusyBox instead of GNU userland tools. You can complete this in an afternoon, but you can't get LFS done in that time.

except by skipping through ALFS :p
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