Hi there,

Very interested in the idea of creating my own OS from scratch!

I have a laptop and I don't mind how long it takes to do this as I can use damnsmalllinux to access the net and e-mail whilst using the LFS book.

Considering I am fairly new to Linux, but am comfortable with the CL (prefer it infact) how long will the LFS process take?

I will be looking at it as a great learning experience and won't be impatient .

personally, i wouldn't recommend LFS from, well...scratch. Start with an existing distro, then slowly replace each package with the source built equivalent. that's what i did anyway.

You actually have to have an existing distro to build LFS so I guess your getting the best of both worlds.

LFS is great to start off with to learn more about the Linux OS. I recommend it to anyone who already has a distro installed, can read and follow directions and wants to learn more.

Regards.

That's cool,

I am running RH8 at the moment but I also have slackware 9.1 which I have tried,and liked .

Duncan

True. But doing it strictly the LFS-way is only practical if you have a spare machine. The existing distro is useful for creating the "1st stage" build environment. When you start working on the actual system, and if you're working on your "primary" machine, you'll be using a semi-cripped machine with only the most basic tools for the rest of the build.

One more thing, a good part (IMO) of learning how to fit together a Linux OS is to understand how the init process and startup scripts work. You might want to go thru your existing distro's initscripts to get an idea of what's going on first before attempting LFS.

I don't necessarily agree in the practical way for LFS is to have a spare machine. There are plenty of people who dual boot for many reasons, have multiple distro's installed, etc.

Some do LFS to learn more about Linux, some do it to create their own distro for special needs or projects and then others do it just to have their own distro how they see fit instead of installing a cluttered existing distro that installs a bunch of packages they will never use.

Oh well.. my two cents.

Actually, you don't have to have a linux distro installed already. This is how I'm doing it as we speak, using a Gentoo x86 Basic CD.... Which reminds me, I came here cause I have a problem... :-) I get sidetracked easy...

Jon

Tricky is right, everyone should make an LFS at least once, even if you don't use/keep it on your main box, do it from start to finish and keep notes on what you learned.........
easy peasy........

Well I installed LFS using a knoppix cd and two blank HD's of course you also have to have two cd-roms. one for knoppix and one for the sources, Took me about 4 days to get the LFS system up. Great learning experience(frustrating as all hell at points though). But sadly when i was done i had to install red hat 9 cuz of work, being as that you have to go through BLFS in order to get a X system up and running and i just didnt have the time. But even if you dont finish the system its a great project just to see how things work.

I dual-boot Windows XP and LFS.

I had toyed with other distros before but decided that I couldn't stand them. Felt like I had no control. So, as a Linux n00b I downloaded an LFS Boot CD and went to town. I've learned more about Linux than ever, and everyday the learning continues.

I have X installed, along with Fluxbox, Opera, the Gimp, KDE (for software requiring it), the ZSnes emu, Xmms, etc... I'll soon be installing Gnome (or at least the parts needed for Gnome based software) and Open Office and even more.

In my opinion LFS makes a great usable permanent distro. It's not for everyone, but it's great for me.

Back on topic... If I remember right it took me (from start to complete system using X) around a week, but my memory could easily be failing me.

I don't like the idea of using a previous distro to create this.....is there any "minimal" way to do this "from scratch?"

If you look around on their website you can find a boot CD that you can build it from.

DuncanM,
If you are serious about LFS then I'd recommend learning to build your own kernel on another distro first. I think this might help take some of the pain away when you build LFS.

LFS is absolutely great. It took me, if I remember correctly, about a week or two. But I had slight problems installing awk(it didn't link statically).

Now I've got KDE working