So, I've got a spare machine, and I'm thinking of building a LFS system, but I'm not sure what to expect from it.
what I'm thinking of mostly, is, how long should I expect to be working on it?
and, what level of experience should I have with linux before building a LFS system becomes really feasible?

I love slackware, but this seemed like a fun project and a good way to learn more about what my computers are actually up to.

Hi,

Slackware isn't considered to be a "newbie" friendly distro. If you feel comfortable using Slackware then I guess your level should be considered to be good enough to start (and understand) building a LFS system. The two aren't set up the same way so you will see new stuff.

With experience you can build LFS in one (long!) day, but I guess several days (3/4?) would be more in the line of expectation. You do need to start at the very first page and work through everything otherwise it will just be a copy-paste routine and you'll end up encountering lots of problems.

- Read the book once before you begin, then build up to and including chapter 5 and make a backup. This would take 1 long day, 2 if you split reading and actually building.

- One day (hopefully) to build all of chapter 6. I don't like to stop in the middle of chapter 6, things could go wrong if you try to re-enter the correct environment, last time I tried went OK though.

- The rest of the book: Probably a few hours or a day. Building a good kernel could take some time if you haven't got the experience.

Everything is explained in the book so experience isn't actually required, but a basic understanding how linux works and some CLI experience will come in very handy.

One tip: Use the LFS liveCD as host so you can focus immediately on LFS (No changes to the host are required this way).

Hope this helps.

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Okay, well I need to work it in around classes and such so I doubt I'll get a full day to work on it any time soon, from your post a week or two looks more realistic.

I burned the live CD already, is there any place to get a hard-copy of the LFS book? I can't find a hard-copy on the website, just PDF/HTML/etc. downloads.

Hi,

Current stable LFS books

All packages (tarball's and individual)

Thanks, but, I already found those... I was looking for a place to find a hard-copy (as in, ink and paper) of the book.

Hi,

You could by the book, but I think they stopped that service (How to Contribute, near the bottom of the page).

You could ask on one of the irc channels or mailing lists.