[lug] There must be a better way

[Dave Anselmi]

James Alan Brown wrote:

[...]


> I have looked at "The Linux from Scratch"
> method and boy that seems a bum way to go
> in order to obtain a fully compiled system.
>
> It seems you need Linux installed before
> you even start building.
>
> I cant help but wonder if it would be
> possible to make up a bootable CD with
> its root mounted containing a formatter,
> /bin/bash, file utils, all the include
> headers  and C compilers needed to format
> a clean hard drive and install the base
> linux system then un-tar each required
> package and compile it up as you go?

LFS is headed this way.  In chapter 5 you build a bare minimum system
that you use to build the final system in chapter 6.  Used to be that
the chapter 6 files overwrote those built in chapter 5, but there is
work to put them in a separate place so they don't get overwritten.
That directory tree will be most of what you need on a CD to build the
rest of it.

If you look through the LFS archives, you'll find several discussions of
bootable CDs.  Most likely one of those is close enough to what you
want.  I think the list you'll want is BLFS-support.

There is also a distro out called gentoo.  I have not used it, but it
uses a package management system similar to portage from *BSD.  I agree
with your frustration over multiple, incompatible (for whatever reason)
packaging systems.  gentoo might fit your needs as well as LFS.  (If
you've never done an LFS system, do one up to the point it is usable for
your daily work.  Doing that and following the LFS lists for a little
while will teach you boat loads about Linux).

Dave