[PLUG] Linux From Scratch (LFS) anyone

[Derek Loree]

On Tue, 2003-10-28 at 13:03, Rogan Creswick wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 28, 2003 at 01:12:12PM -0800, Roderick A. Anderson wrote:
> >    Debian bothers me too much with what appears to be a slow release cycle
> > and that there looks like only two versions.  Stable, with older versions
> > of many applications, and unstable with a blood all over the place feel. 
> 
> Debian hosts three versions, Testing is the middle-ground you may be
> looking for (currently called Sarge).
> 
> In regards to LFS, I tried BYO Linux (the same idea as LFS) and my
> experiences mirrored Jeme's description of LFS.  Building a system
> from scratch was a great experience, but I wouldn't choose to do it
> again (<disclaimer about there always being exceptions>).

I've had to build a few boxes that basically required "from scratch"
builds of the major parts of the system.  You know, the whatchamacallit
that has to be custom compiled to connect to the doohickey, which has to
be custom compiled and patched so that the thingamabob can be called up
by the client's proprietary interface. 

Debian is a great place to start from.  The basic policies are followed
by most programmers, and the policy of NEVER stomping on a config file
without permission is a real godsend (I think to make it into stable,
this policy must be followed).  A basic Debian system will compile most
things that claim to have been compiled on some sort of linux box,
usually without any problem.  If there are problems, dselect will
usually find all of the dependent libraries.  After the compile, I can
put the config files (or sym links) in the usual Debian places (so I can
find them later) and not worry that they will be stomped on by another
program.

With a little tweaking, you can burn it into an ISO9660 file system and
boot it from your CD-ROM, this can make for a very full featured
firewall/router (Gibraltar).  With a little more tweaking, you can
compress it into an ISO9660 file system and boot an entire desktop
environment from your CD_ROM, some folks in Germany have done a great
job of that (Knoppix).

I guess my point is, the Debian distribution is very flexible and is
worth the effort of learning to install.

Derek Loree