LFS (Linux From Scratch). What's your opinion?

[eclaria]

As I'm new to Linux, and I really want to learn it from the very start, I've found through Distrowatch a book (not properly a distro) about how to build Linux from nothing. I started reading it, but I found that it requires a lot of time (which certainly I don't have). I would appreciate the opinions of those who had read it and who had followed it. I hope they help me decide whether to invest the time in learning from that book (if the opinions are good) or to look for another way of learning Linux from the beginning. Thanks in advance to everyone.

[Juan Pablo]

I have followed it, and surely it requiere lots of time on your hands but it's a very satisfying success when you finally build it but I wouldn't stick with it really, the instructions (the commands I mean) are pretty cryptic sometimes and may confuse a lot of people, especially newbies.

If I would want a source-based distro, totally customizable I would use Gentoo instead of LFS which in my opinion is a great distro.

If you are new, LFS is maybe not the best way to approach Linux, maybe something like Slackware if you are techy inclined or Ubuntu if not. In my opinion the best way to learn Linux is gradually, a quick list for me would be

1. Ubuntu
2. Fedora
3. Slackware
4. Debian
5. Arch
6. Gentoo
7. For the brave, LFS

[Freston]

I've followed part of the book, but I wasn't ready then. I believe somewhere in the preface it says that knowing how to compile a kernel is sort a prerequisite.

So yes, LFS is a very good distro to learn the inner workings of a system. Time consuming, but there is no way to learn something complicated fast. See LFS as the 'Master Class' of Gnu/Linux distro's. You need some basic knowledge.

As I'm new to Linux, and I really want to learn it from the very start

Try something like Slackware. IMHO it's the best fit for what you want. Although in the end of the day it comes down to taste, and nothing else. So you might want to try Debian and Gentoo to. Find out what suits you. Get a feel for those distro's, and the differences between them.

Ubuntu is more for people who want a working system within half an hour. I'm running it right now to see what it's like, and it certainly has it's appeal. Ubuntu is the first distro that I feel comfortable recommending to people I know. But then, people I know don't ask how they can learn Gnu/Linux from the ground up... let alone ask if they should install LFS.

[eclaria]

Thanks to both of you for your opinions. I'll tell you, the first distro I installed was Fedora Core 6 a few months ago, and it had some bugs that (if I was someone who gives up easily) I couldn't have used it... for example, when I installesd it, for some strange reason, it didn't install GRUB, so I had to do it manually. Then I had problems with some "Kernel panic" or something like that. So I tried Ubuntu. I realised that it was way to simple and I didn't liked it. So now I'm looking. I tried Ubuntu, but I had a problem compiling the kernel. It seems that I've missed to compile it with the sata_nv, and now it won't recognise my disks. Unfortunately, the college didn't allow me to try it again, so I thought that a book may be useful, but it seems that I have to learn how to compile a kernel first. Could you give me some recomendations of books or something? I've looked in the web but didn't find anything that satisfies me. There are guides for specific cases, but not something general about Linux. Thanks for your time.

[MikeTbob]

Here is a Kubuntu Kernel guide, give it a shot.
https://wiki.kubuntu.org/KernelCustomBuild

[Freston]

Although the link MikeTbob gave is an excellent way to get you started compiling kernels, I'm taking a guess and think that's not what you need to be doing right now. Keep it in memory though, those days will come.

You want to start learning Gnu/Linux from the ground up. I have to guess at the level of knowledge you already have. So I assume you know how to maneuver a file system, change user, mount, partition and such from the shell.

Because you've said you're new, I'm also gonna assume you'll have some difficulty with changing permissions, editing files, redirecting output, change runlevels, use scripts and aliases.

And you'll probably have no idea about hardware addresses, ports, C, servers, and all the other things I don't know either I'm guessing here of course. I could be way off.

But you want to learn. The hard way. OK. Think Slackware. It may not be the last distro you'll ever need, but it's likable. Transparent, fast, stable. I think building a Slackbox to your satisfaction teaches you the things you want to learn. It's very 'hands on', user defined. You get to go under the hood. Which is where you want to be if you want to learn from the ground up.

And later of course you try Debian and the others. See what you like best.

Now for some reading:
Unix
Bash
Firewall
Slack packages
Scripting

Good luck