Does Anyone Not Use A Distribution?

[crohozen]

Does Anyone not use a Distribution ie: Red Hat or Slackware?

Kinda like Linux in its purist form

How do you do it?

[sno]

http://linuxfromscratch.com/

i believe is not a distro

might be wrong though

ryanharron@yahoo.com

[Shad]

There is Linux From Scratch, LFS, though you need an existing distro to create it. There are also micro distros like Peanut and Vector that put together some of the most common packages with no package manager.

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Just a Tuna in the Sea of Life

[crohozen]

Sweet!! Thanks I am a newbie but I think I would understand Linux soo much better If I could set everything up myself

[Strike]

Mine's a pretty heavily customized Debian. I've hand-edited most of the scripts they use. But, it is indeed a Debian system. I've started and stopped LFS a couple of times. I wasn't ready enough to learn what I was doing (though almost anyone with a little Linux experience could follow the instructions and produce a working system, it's just when you hit snags that you get into trouble).

[crohozen]

I figure that I can just work on it on the side. I have rh 7 on my laptop and desktop and I also have a FreeBSD box. But Im still a major newbie to all of those OSes.

So I figure this LFS could give me the tutorial on what exactly goes into the OS instead of Red Hat putting a bunch of Software on my Computer that I have no idea is even there http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif

[SubPar]

LFS is great and I heartily recommend it. I used to use Mandrake 7.0, but I was getting sick of all the stuff that wouldn't install/compile/work right unless I used Mandrake's packages.

An example: I tried compiling XMMS from source on my Mandrake box. Everything seemed to work right, until I tried to run it. Trying to run XMMS (as an unpriviledged user, no less) caused the screen to go black and the machine to lock up hard. I had to hit the reset button.

With LFS, everything works like it should. Everything I have installed is compiled from source, and it all works. I split my 2.2GB Mandrake partition into a 1.5gig for Mandrake and 750MB to start LFS, and after getting everything working right I converted the 1.5gig partition to /usr.

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Got Konq (http://www.konqueror.org/)?

[ph34r]

LFS or linux from scratch (www.linuxfromscratch.org - not .com) is a wonderful way to learn lots about linux. You do need a distro with a compiler installed to do it though.

LFS taught me a lot, but after I got it all working and could call it a working system, I hosed it and went to Slackware. I strongly recommend LFS as a learning tool, if not a "Distro of choice".

[crohozen]

Did it take a long time to download all the packages? I live in the boon docks and all I have is a 56k (connects @ 45k)connection.

[Tigger]

There is also another LFS-like thing out there called BYO Linux(Build Your Own). It is similar to LFS but seems to be a little more user friendly.

I have tried LFS and have been unable to complete it for various compiling errors that come up. I am not a programmer and nobody seemed to be able to help so I had to give up on it.

I plan to try BYO Linux in the near future. I think it is hosted on sourceforge.

Just remember that when you are finished, you may have difficulty with installing binaries that have dependency checking because the package database will not exist so you will have to ignore a lot of messages or you can just compile everything from source. Either way you will learn a great deal. I learned a whole bunch even though I was not successfull to the end.

Good Luck!

[Captain Beyond]

Slackware is pretty much DIY (do it yourself). You can make it as simple or as involved as you like. Choose from the base on up through various packages, and build on a pretty stable Foundation. If you are constrained for download time, try ZIPSLACK (non X-Windows) or BIGSLACK (in multi-part ZIP archives). And you will have a lot of help from the YEARS of experienced folks running it. Chow...

[crohozen]

Ive heard really good things about Slackware.
I just want to set my box up myself. Knowing exactly where everything is etc. I would really like to do it w/o another distro assisting initially but I suppose Life isnt exactly perfect http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif

[Mikenell]

Btw, if your gonna do a LFS you could use zipslack to do it then you have have two distros installed when your done.
Mikenell

[crohozen]

Would I be able to use Zipslack as the installing distro for LFS?

[This message has been edited by crohozen (edited 22 December 2000).]

[bobarian]

I downloaded the vector linux bzip image, created a new partition, and unpacked it into the partition. Easy as cake and extremely fast. I have since added progs I like and configured it. Very easy, IMHO. Far easier than LFS (Typing in all those commands takes FOREVER).

[Mikenell]

Yeah you could use zipslack.

[crohozen]

Ill look at the vector route as well.
I figure there is no way Ill be able to start this project until Sunday.