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I Built Linux from Scratch

thesloth.me

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Re: I Built Linux from Scratch

#21

Post by Daegalus »

I did LFS back when I was a pre-teen/teen. So late 90s, early 00s. And while I agree to an extent that it doesn't give you much day-to-day stuff, it really makes you more comfortable with operating systems and linux especially.

Nowadays, I am a devops/infrastructure engineer, and I can say LFS is a core foundational experience that has let me be better at my job. I know deeper inner workings of a Linux distro and that strong foundation helps. Yes there is so much more to learn but having LFS in your back pocket of lifetime experiences is great.

I also think its a 1 and done kind of thing. I don't see a huge benefit of doing it again. Maybe for fun, in a VM while waiting for other things to finish. It is also much faster nowadays. Back when I did it, I had a 1ghz, 256gb ram machine, it took me days. I could probably go through it in a day casually with modern computing, and especially since I have a threadripper machine, sending 64 threads at the make commands im sure will get my 1 BU to be a very small number.

If you have a child that is interested in computers, tech, programming, etc. I highly encourage this activity. Could be a fun bonding activity too.

Re: I Built Linux from Scratch

#22

Post by qorrect »

wheelerof4te wrote: post #6

If you need something more practical, but still challenging, try Slackware. Use the advanced install feature and only select the packages you need. Build the other software yourself. You can choose your own difficulty this way. You can also follow the distro's way of packaging up software (build scripts), or build it the software developer's way. The main advantages of building software yourself are: 1. You are a dev…

Came here to mention Slackware, my first distro and introduction to linux back in the late nineties. I thought they had abandoned it , glad to see it's still around.

IceWM gang anyone ?

Re: I Built Linux from Scratch

#23

Post by organsnyder »

Daegalus wrote: post #21

I did LFS back when I was a pre-teen/teen. So late 90s, early 00s. And while I agree to an extent that it doesn't give you much day-to-day stuff, it really makes you more comfortable with operating systems and linux especially. Nowadays, I am a devops/infrastructure engineer, and I can say LFS is a core foundational experience that has let me be better at my job. I know deeper inner workings of a Linux distro and tha…

I had the same experience around the same time (though I'm a bit older). LFS really helped me understand the relationship between the bootloader, kernel, init system, and all of the various daemons and tools that make up a complete system.

From there I moved to Gentoo, and then eventually to Ubuntu and other batteries-included distros. But the knowledge I gained from LFS is still a foundational part of my skillset, even though my roles have been more dev-focused than ops/infra.

Re: I Built Linux from Scratch

#24

Post by mewse-hn »

Xeamek wrote: post #15

After I finish the whole process, can I slap pacman on top my freshly build LTS and effectively transform it into Arch and daily drive it? Or is it only meant "for the journey" of building it, but can't realistically be used as a daily?

It's not really intended to be a daily driver once you've built it. There is "beyond linux from scratch" that extends the system but.. normal distros with normal package managers are just infinitely more usable than a LFS system. It really is just about the journey and learning how it works from zero.

Re: I Built Linux from Scratch

#25

Post by Koshkin »

wheelerof4te wrote: post #6

If you need something more practical, but still challenging, try Slackware. Use the advanced install feature and only select the packages you need. Build the other software yourself. You can choose your own difficulty this way. You can also follow the distro's way of packaging up software (build scripts), or build it the software developer's way. The main advantages of building software yourself are: 1. You are a dev…

The vanilla Slackware has been a perfect distro for me. No systemd; easy to keep up to date with slackpkg and sbopkg, without the dependency hell. It has been a daily driver for me both on a Thinkpad and an (oldish) Mac Mini for years now.

Re: I Built Linux from Scratch

#27

Post by itomato »

wheelerof4te wrote: post #6

If you need something more practical, but still challenging, try Slackware. Use the advanced install feature and only select the packages you need. Build the other software yourself. You can choose your own difficulty this way. You can also follow the distro's way of packaging up software (build scripts), or build it the software developer's way. The main advantages of building software yourself are: 1. You are a dev…

Even more practical; Buildroot

Re: I Built Linux from Scratch

#29

Post by mrweasel »

wheelerof4te wrote: post #6

If you need something more practical, but still challenging, try Slackware. Use the advanced install feature and only select the packages you need. Build the other software yourself. You can choose your own difficulty this way. You can also follow the distro's way of packaging up software (build scripts), or build it the software developer's way. The main advantages of building software yourself are: 1. You are a dev…

Looking back picking Slackware as my desktop OS 20+ years ago was such a great career building move. I ran Slackware plus an obscure and now defunct source based package manager for 10 years and the experience and mindset has stuck with me ever since, even if I don't use Slackware anymore and newer ran it in a professional setting.

Slackware doesn't try to hide anything from you, it takes the long way around, but it does so in order to do the correct thing, and in a way where it's clear to you why things function the way they do.

In some ways Slackware is hard to use, but it's also less frustrating and you don't hit exceedingly hard problems where you feel like the OS is fighting you.

Re: I Built Linux from Scratch

#30

Post by freedomben »

kitsunesoba wrote: post #28

For those who've been through LFS, would you say that it's a good first step for someone who wants to roll their own bistro at some point down the road?

> For those who've been through LFS, would you say that it's a good first step for someone who wants to roll their own bistro at some point down the road?

Yes definitely! If you want to roll a new distro, I would dare say LFS is an essential step. Now that said, if your new "distro" is just going to be Ubuntu with a couple tweaked settings, you won't get nearly as much from it. But any non-trivial distro rolling you can absolutely benefit.

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