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1. Introduction

1.1 What's this all about?

I started this document around May 1999. I tried a few Linux distributions and came to the conclusion that there's wasn't a distribution I totally liked. Every distribution has it's own advantages and disadvantages, but I was never satisfied with what I had (although Debian comes very close to what I want), so I decided to explore the possibility of building my own Linux distribution using nothing but source code of programs. As I found out there's quite a bit of work involved, but it's also a lot of fun and you really learn a lot by doing it, since you need to configure every single aspect of the system. This forces you to read a lot of manuals on how to configure various software. It also gives you total control over your system (well, that's the idea). You know exactly what software is installed, how it is configured and where all the configuration files reside.

I started writing a series of articles for a Dutch/Belgium E-zine on this subject. Not soon after I got stuck getting a compiler to work. I decided to give this project a rest at that point, since a lot of things at that time needed my attention (I was about to move from The Netherlands to Canada to get married. There were a lot of things to arrange regarding the move abroad and a lot of immigration stuff to sort out).

A few months after my arrival in Canada and getting married, I decided to continue my work on this project. Pretty much starting all over again from scratch and following a different approach, I got things to work out finally. The end result is what you are reading right now.

1.2 New versions

The latest version of the document can always be found at http://huizen.dds.nl/~glb/

1.3 Version history

1.3 - February 11th, 2000

1.2 - January 9th, 2000

1.1 - December 20th, 1999

1.0 - December 16th, 1999

1.4 Current Projects

Projects related to this HOWTO that are currently underway.

1.5 TODO

Things that need to be done for future releases. If you feel you want to help out on one of these items, let me know first (in case you end up doing something somebody else is doing already or is already finished).

1.6 Mailinglists

There are two mailinglists you can subscribe to. The lfs-discuss and the lfs-announce list. The former is an open non-moderated list discussing anything that has got anything to do with this HOWTO (asking questions, inform about mistakes in this HOWTO and so on). The latter is an open moderated list. Anybody can subscribe to it, but you cannot post messages to it (only the moderator(s) can). This list is primarily used for announcements of new versions of the HOWTO.

If you're subscribed to the lfs-discuss list you don't need to be subscribed to the lfs-announce list as well. Everything that is sent over the lfs-announce list is also sent over the lfs-discuss list.

Subscribing

To subscribe to a list, send an email to [email protected] and type in the body either subscribe lfs-discuss or subscribe lfs-announce

Majordomo will send you a confirmation-request email. This email will contain an authentication code. Once you send this email back to Majordomo (instructions are provided in that email) you will be subscribed.

Unsubscribing

To unsubscribe from a list, send an email to [email protected] and type in the the body either unsubscribe lfs-discuss or unsubscribe lfs-announce

1.7 Contact info

You can reach me, Gerard Beekmans, at [email protected]


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