Is there a true good order for when following BLFS. Last time I started from the top and worked my way down. I found my self skipping around and getting confused. One package might need one thing but that package might need another. It just gets confusing. Plus, Bonus quesiton: Anyone know a good name for a linux distro?

I agree BrandonJ, I dont thihk there is any 1 way. I have found myself doing the same, The only way I thought of, was to find the goal you wanted to reach then check all dependencies 1st and get them, before any install, But it still means back and forth through the book, Experiance would I,m sure be a great advantage.
A good name is as good as your imagination lets you go, I named mine "Planet spike" because thats where my missus sayes i,m living while doing it.

Hi,

My advise: Before you actually start building (parts of) BLFS take the time to write down which major components you want to install. Once you have those use the book to find out which required (and possibly optional) dependencies need to be installed.

If, for example you want OpenSSH and ProFTPD you end up with the following list (parts in italic are just comments):If you do this for all the major components you want to install you'll end up with a long ordered list which can be used top down. This does take time and can be a bit of a puzzle, but it is worth it in the end. I would advise to make 2 lists: One that is CLI related and one that is X related.

Experience, as already mentioned by spiky0011, does come in handy

Hope this helps.

i have finished LFS on 3 different boxes now and am working on BLFS on one of them. I don't have alot of other computer experience so have been learning as I go. I wish someone had mad Druuna's suggestion to me when I started BLFS. On my next machine I will definitely be writing out a map to my goal with dependency lsts.

This time I just read through and built towards what I wanted by adding them on a page by page basis. Its works but its definitely caused some headaches in tracking things.

Good luck and thanks for the idea.

I suggest that during the blfs install process you make a record of every package you install, together with a date/time stamp. I use an excel spreadsheet for this, col 1 is the package name/version, col 2 is the date time (in excel CTRL ; space CTRL SHIFT ; ) and col 3 for comments. Make frequent backups, again recording them in the spreadsheet. This way you know what was installed since the last backup (I always do a reboot and check all is ok before a backup) and also you can see what order you installed packages. I am now on my third LFS install, using the SVN and have blfs with X windows on the two previous ones.