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I usually think about building LFS. Not only for learning purposes, I'd like to have something usable, lightweight, tightly controlled and with core packages co

I usually think about building LFS. Not only for learning purposes, I'd like to have something usable, lightweight, tightly controlled and with core packages coming directly from source without needing central repositories like other distros, even rolling-release ones like Arch or Gentoo. The only distro I could find similar to this was one called sourcemage. But it seems abandoned and unmaintained. I then started considering building LFS and installing guix and flatpak. Guix and flatpak are centralized, but they're, AFAIK, distro agnostic. This seems very interesting, it would allow me to have a "small" set of core packages built directly from source and recent versions of all the other software installed and updated from guix and flatpak, which are distro agnostic. One problem still remains: how to easily update the core packages? Anyone has experience using LFS continually and as something more than a learning exercise? I'd be curious to know how easy it is to automatically detect new releases and update LFS core packages. Having LFS to automatically detect new releases of and update its core packages would be the ultimate rolling release distro.

cyberge99 5y ago
I’ve built LFS 5. It took about a weekend but I learned a TON about linux in the process. Back in those days we had to compile kernels if we wanted anything more than the distro provided (depends on distro). I started with slackware and had to compile in support for cdrom. Good times.
- johnisgood 5y ago
  > Back in those days we had to compile kernels if we wanted anything more than the distro provided (depends on distro). > I started with slackware and had to compile in support for cdrom. > Good times. Damn, are we that old? :c I remember someone helping me install Gentoo through SSH when I was 14 or something. It took a weekend to compile OpenOffice.
t-3 5y ago
I would recommend using crux, arch, void, alpine, or any other system with a shell-based packaging system for LFS. Select the packages you require, modify or create the package files as necessary, compile and install. You will get a usable and maintainable system, learn just as much, and have less headaches in the long run. You can easily track core packages using rss or git and some scripts, but maintaining a small set by hand isn't really that hard, and it gives you a sense of perspective on what actually needs to be upgraded constantly.
gompertz 5y ago
You may want to look into Tinycore Linux. Lot of what you describe.

cyberge99 5y ago

I’ve built LFS 5. It took about a weekend but I learned a TON about linux in the process. Back in those days we had to compile kernels if we wanted anything more than the distro provided (depends on distro). I started with slackware and had to compile in support for cdrom. Good times.

johnisgood 5y ago
> Back in those days we had to compile kernels if we wanted anything more than the distro provided (depends on distro). > I started with slackware and had to compile in support for cdrom. > Good times. Damn, are we that old? :c I remember someone helping me install Gentoo through SSH when I was 14 or something. It took a weekend to compile OpenOffice.

t-3 5y ago

I would recommend using crux, arch, void, alpine, or any other system with a shell-based packaging system for LFS. Select the packages you require, modify or create the package files as necessary, compile and install. You will get a usable and maintainable system, learn just as much, and have less headaches in the long run. You can easily track core packages using rss or git and some scripts, but maintaining a small set by hand isn't really that hard, and it gives you a sense of perspective on what actually needs to be upgraded constantly.

gompertz 5y ago

You may want to look into Tinycore Linux. Lot of what you describe.