Hi, i was just wondering how long it takes to make a LFS distribution, and the processes it takes to complete it all? and also how hard is it to make a installation program for it?

Hi,

This depends on your system specs, the errors you encounter (if any) and your level of experience with the various parts that LFS cover (compiling from source, hardware familiarity etc etc).

To give you a bit of a framework:

On my laptop (2.6 Intel 4 with 256 Mb ram) it takes aprox. 12 hours to install LFS.
I did not encounter any problems I had to solve (= time 'lost'). With this I mean laptop related errors, the errors encountered by using Knoppix as base are all solved beforehand.

I hope this questions relates to BLFS. If so:
The main difference between LFS and BLFS is that all LFS packets should be done to get a working base system, BLFS is 'just' a document with possible programs to install.
So it's kinda hard to tell you how long this takes (for example: compiling KDE takes a long(!!) time.).

This depends on experience and what you actually mean by 'an installation program'. If you want to build an install program that works on every possible PC/PPC configuration out there it's kinda hard. If it's an installer for a generic type of PC configuration it becomes easier. And last if it's for one specific PC it's 'easy' (all depending on experience with scripting/programming).

I used shell scripting to automate the LFS (and a few basic BLFS programs) install for a generic group of pc's (non SCSI, non PPC). It works, the hardest part was to take care of the errors that can be produced and the actions that need to be taken. I need to be honest here: I don't have a solutions build in for all the possible errors, but the install will be able to continue from the point it stopped (one step back actually) after 'a human' fixes the error.

Hope this gives you a general idea, if you have any specific questions: Just ask.

neh, i think ill just go for gentoo at the time being, i need a hard-to-use distro with a good package manager tho, do u select what package manager u can use for lfs?

Hi,

I don't use a package manager with (B)LFS. All is done from source.

But ,there are 'hints' that tell how to install a package manager under (B)LFS:
LPM - Linux from scratch Package Manager
Paco - source code package manager
The RPM package

The 2 package manager that generally seem to be used most:

- RPM (red hat based)
- apt-get / dpkg

Hope this helps.

these generally don't go together. gentoo is really pretty user friendly, people make it out to be a hell of a lot harder than what it really is. Read the docs on portage and learn the setup and gentoo is just as easy as anything else

You could also try Automated LFS which does it all for you. On my P3 clocked at 1.5ghz, 196mb ram, a complete LFS install takes about 8 hours to do. Which doesn't seem right compared to druuna's time but there are obviously many variables involved.

oh yeah lol i forgot its compiled from source!