Hi,

I've been playing with LFS and was wondering if anybody knows of a howto which explains how to manually install a system.

Say I boot up using a live disk, then make certain partitions, then copy the appropriate packages and edit specific files. Maybe rewrite the MBR. Take the disk out and reboot.

Anything?

Cheers!



Oh, not sure if this is the right forum, it's something i'm new to doing...

Do you mean a how-to for LFS, right? Check http://tldp.org/LDP/lfs/LFS-BOOK-6.1.1-NOCHUNKS.html

If you've been playing with LFS: What *else* exactly are you looking for? The LFS live CD offers a) a complete description on how to hand-tailor a GNU/Linux system (that's what I think LFS basically *is* - a book about how to set up a GNU/Linux system "from scratch", exactly matching your wishes) and b) a means to actually do it (the system, the tools, the environment). Gentoo offers comparable ways of hands-on work; a first-time install of Slackware or even Debian (if you choose the classical, now deemed "old", way) offers plenty of opportunities to learn about the inner workings of a GNU/Linux system. Why not just do something like that (i.e. install a GNU/Linux system on some box you can spare)?

If it's not that you're looking for, take a look at Finnix - there's a very straightforward way to put that system on a hard drive, and you get a very capable, yet very, very basic GNU/Linux system. Similar things can be done with grml, but the system's considerably bigger (which, if you look for a complete system, comes in handy).

Another very interesting project is Tiny Core, but I didn't have time to fully test that yet.

But anyhow, as I indicated, I think I don't really get what you're at... could you please clarify?

M.

It's true LFS does cover what I want (i'm currently eating my tea and half way through CH6, even though i've read ahead a little).

But what I was looking for was a howto style document which used packages from a repository, something which in the end is easier to update and use a package manager.

Ideally at some point i'd like to write an install app (just for fun).


At the end of the day I just want to understand a bit more...


Thanks for any help, comments, suggestions and ideas!

Not fully read it but this is something like, but to make live cd.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...73&postcount=1

If you like to have a package system that's consistent and easy to use, try something that's Debian based (I'm definitely biased in that respect - actually, you should also try other distros/distro families; specifically, for learning, everything Slackware is worth looking into - which includes Zenwalk, Wolvix etc.). If learning and experimenting are the main purposes, I stick to my recommendations of Finnix (mainly as a bare-bones live CD that is useful in a lot of standard cases but can also be installed) or grml (a distro for CLI lovers with loads of tools that also sports a minimal X environment); if you want a good installer, use Debian proper or sidux (the latter provides a usable version of bleeding edge Debian Sid (unstable) and doubles as a great live CD) and uses sophisticated CLI tools that give you a lot of insight about the system).

IMHO, package management via dpkg/apt-get is the main reason for sticking to Debian based systems; you can either install a minimal Debian and work from there or use something like grml (with powerful CLI tools) or sidux (bleeding edge, clever use of bare-nuckles technology) to get to know the system. Both grml and sidux come as fully usable live CDs, Debian provides a live CD via the Debian live project.

M.