Linux From Scratch
Gerard Beekmans
Version 2.2, April 3rd, 2000
This document describes the process of creating your own Linux system
from scratch from an already installed Linux distribution, using noth-
ing but the source code of software that we need
______________________________________________________________________
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1 What's this all about?
1.2 New versions
1.3 Version history
1.4 Mailinglists
1.4.1 Subscribing
1.4.2 Unsubscribing
1.5 Contact info
2. Conventions used in this document
2.1 About $LFS
2.2 How to download the software
2.3 How to install the software
3. Packages you need to download
3.1 Mandatory software
3.2 Optional software
4. Preparing the new system
4.1 How we are going to do things
4.2 Creating a new partition
4.3 Creating an ext2 file system on the new partition
4.4 Mounting the new partition
4.5 Creating directories
4.6 Copying the /dev directory
5. Making the LFS system bootable
5.1 Installing Sysvinit
5.2 Configuring Sysvinit
5.3 Creating passwd & group files
5.4 Installing the Bash shell
5.5 Adding an entry to LILO
5.6 Testing the system
6. Installing a kernel
6.1 Note on ftp.kernel.org
6.2 Configuring the kernel
6.3 Updating LILO
6.4 Testing the system
7. Installing basic system software
7.1 About debugging symbols
7.2 Preparing LFS system for installing basic system software
7.2.1 Installing Binutils
7.2.2 Installing Bzip2
7.2.3 Install Diffutils
7.2.4 Installing Fileutils
7.2.5 Installing GCC on the normal system if necessary
7.2.6 Installing GCC on the LFS system
7.2.6.1 Creating necessary symlinks
7.2.7 Installing Glibc
7.2.7.1 Copying old NSS Library files
7.2.8 Installing grep
7.2.9 Installing gzip
7.2.10 Installing Make
7.2.11 Installing Sed
7.2.12 Installing Sh-utils
7.2.13 Installing Tar
7.2.14 Installing Textutils
7.2.15 Installing Util-linux
7.3 Installing basic systsem software
7.3.1 Remounting partition and activating swap
7.3.2 Installing GCC
7.3.3 Installing Bison
7.3.4 Installing Mawk
7.3.5 Installing Findutils
7.3.6 Installing Termcap
7.3.7 Installing Ncurses
7.3.8 Installing Less
7.3.9 Installing Perl
7.3.10 Installing M4
7.3.11 Installing Texinfo
7.3.12 Installing Autoconf
7.3.13 Installing Automake
7.3.14 Installing Bash
7.3.15 Installing Flex
7.3.16 Installing Binutils
7.3.17 Installing Bzip2
7.3.18 Installing Diffutils
7.3.19 Installing E2fsprogs
7.3.20 Installing File
7.3.21 Installing Fileutils
7.3.22 Installing Grep
7.3.23 Installing Groff
7.3.24 Installing Gzip
7.3.25 Installing Ld.so
7.3.26 Installing Libtool
7.3.27 Installing Linux86
7.3.28 Installing Lilo
7.3.29 Installing Make
7.3.30 Instaling Sh-Utils
7.3.31 Installing Shadow Password Suite
7.3.32 Installing Man
7.3.33 Installing Modutils
7.3.34 Installing Procinfo
7.3.35 Installing Procps
7.3.36 Installing Psmisc
7.3.37 Installing Sed
7.3.38 Installing start-stop-daemon
7.3.39 Installing Sysklogd
7.3.40 Installing Sysvinit
7.3.41 Install Tar
7.3.42 Installing Textutils
7.3.43 Installing Vim
7.3.44 Installing Util-linux
7.4 Removing old NSS Library files
7.5 Configuring the software
7.5.1 Configuring Glib
7.5.2 Configuring LILO
7.5.3 Configuring Sysklogd
7.5.4 Configuring Shadow Password Suite
7.5.5 Configuring Sysvinit
7.5.6 Creating /var/run/utmp file
8. Creating system boot scripts
8.1 Preparing the directories and master files
8.2 Creating the reboot script
8.3 Creating the halt script
8.4 Creating the mountfs script
8.5 Creating the umountfs script
8.6 Creating the sendsignals script
8.7 Creating the checkroot bootscript
8.8 Creating the Sysklogd bootscript
8.9 Setting up symlinks and permissions
8.10 Creating the /etc/fstab file
9. Setting up basic networking
9.1 Installing Netkit-base
9.2 Installing Net-tools
9.2.1 Creating the /etc/init.d/localnet bootscript
9.2.2 Setting up permissions and symlink
9.2.3 Creating the /etc/hostname file
9.2.4 Creating the /etc/hosts file
9.2.5 Creating the /etc/init.d/ethnet file
9.2.6 Setting up permissions and symlink for /etc/init.d/ethnet
9.2.7 Testing the network setup
9.3 Testing the system
10. Installing Network Daemons
10.1 Setting up SMTP
10.1.1 Creating groups and user
10.1.2 Creating directory
10.1.3 Installing Sendmail
10.1.4 Configuring Sendmail
10.1.5 Installing Procmail
10.1.6 Creating /etc/init.d/sendmail bootscript
10.1.7 Setting up permissions and symlinks
10.2 Setting up FTP
10.2.1 Creating groups and users
10.2.2 Installing Proftpd
10.2.3 Creating the /etc/init.d/proftpd bootscript
10.2.4 Setting up permissions and symlinks
10.3 Setting up HTTP
10.3.1 Installing Apache
10.3.2 Configuring Apache
10.3.3 Creating /etc/init.d/apache bootscript
10.3.4 Setting up permissions and symlinks
10.4 Setting up Telnet
10.4.1 Installing telnet daemon + client
10.4.2 Creating the /etc/inetd.conf configuration file
10.4.3 Creating the /etc/init.d/inetd bootscript
10.4.4 Setting up permissions and symlinks
10.5 Setting up PPP
10.5.1 Configuring the Kernel
10.5.2 Creating group
10.5.3 Installing PPP
10.5.4 Creating /etc/resolv.conf
10.5.5 Creating /etc/ppp/peers/provider
10.5.6 Creating /etc/chatscripts/provider
10.5.7 Note on password authentication
11. Installing Network Clients
11.1 Installing Email clients
11.1.1 Installing Mailx
11.1.2 Installing Mutt
11.1.3 Installing Fetchmail
11.1.4 Testing the email system
11.2 Installing FTP client
11.2.1 Installing Netkit-ftp
11.2.2 Testing FTP system
11.3 Installing HTTP client
11.3.1 Installing Zlib
11.3.2 Installing Lynx
11.3.3 Testing HTTP system
11.4 Installing Telnet client
11.4.1 Testing Telnet system
11.5 Installing PPP clients
11.5.1 Creating the connect script
11.5.2 Creating the disconnect script
11.5.3 Testing PPP system
12. Installing X Window System
12.1 Installing X
12.2 Creating /etc/ld.so.conf
12.3 Creating the /usr/include/X11 symlink
12.4 Creating the /usr/X11 symlink
12.5 Adding /usr/X11/bin to the $PATH environment variable
12.6 Configuring X
12.7 Testing X
12.8 Installing Window Maker
12.9 Preparing the system for the Window Maker installation
12.9.1 Installing libPropList
12.9.2 Installing libXpm
12.9.3 Installing libpng
12.9.4 Installing libtiff
12.9.5 Installing libjpeg
12.9.6 Installing libungif
12.9.7 Installing WindowMaker
12.10 Updating dynamic loader cache
12.11 Configuring WindowMaker
12.12 Testing WindowMaker
13. Resources
13.1 Books
13.2 HOWTOs
13.3 Other
14. The End
15. Copyright & Licensing Information
______________________________________________________________________
1. Introduction
1.1. What's this all about?
Having used a number of different Linux distributions, I was never
fully satisfied with either of those. I didn't like the way the
bootscripts were arranged, or I didn't like the way certain programs
were configured by default and more of those things. I came to realize
that when I want to be totally satisfied with a Linux system, I have
to build my own Linux system from scratch. Ideally only using the
source code. No pre-compiled packages of any kind. No help from some
sort of cdrom or bootdisk that would install some basic utilities.
You would use your current Linux system and use that one to build your
own.
This, at one time, wild idea seemed very difficult and at times almost
impossible. The reason for most problems were due to my lack of
knowledge about certain programs and procedures. After sorted out all
kinds of dependency problems, compilation problems, etcetera, a
manually Linux system was created and fully operational. I called this
system and LFS system which stands for LinuxFromScratch.
1.2. New versions
The latest version of the document can always be found at
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org
1.3. Version history
2.1.5 - March 26th, 2000
This is not a full list of modified things. Because v2.0 is a major
release, only the major changes are mentioned and not the minor ones.
o Directory structure modified - LFS is FHS compliant now. Perhaps
not 100%, but getting there.
o New Glibc installation method
o New GCC installation method
o Eliminated the need for the pre-compiled Debian packages.
o Totally revised software installation method - eliminated the need
of all the statically linked packages in former chapter 6.1.
o Various bugs fixed in software installation
o Installed a few more programs from the util-linux package
o Added the installation of the Bzip2 program
o Explained in greater detail what the $LFS is all about - how to and
how not to use it.
o Simplified installation procedures for all packages in chapters 5
through 9.1
o Moved the installation of Glibc and GCC to chapter 7 in stead of
having their own chapters which isn't necessary.
o Modified Internet servers chapter: separated into Network Daemons
and Network Clients chapter. Internet chapter has merged with these
two new chapters.
o Switched chapters 13 and 14 (X and Internet) and merged the
chapters about X and Window Maker into chapter 14.
o We're using a new Man program. This one is easier to use and
configure than the man-db one we previously used. Both versions
perform nearly the same jobs.
o Added new chapter 13: Resources. This chapter contains a number of
books and HOWTOs you'll find useful to read during or after
building an LFS system.
o Chapter 3: Fixed bzip2 link
o Chapter 7.2.42: Simplified Util-Linux installation method
o Chapter 3.1: Changed procps location
o Chapter 7.2: Switched installation of Vim and Util-Linux (as we
need an editor to install Util-Linux)
o Chapter 7.3.33: Fixed procps installation.
o Chapter 5.2: stripped inittab file so it won't complain about
missing files at boot time.
o Chapter 6: Rewrote kernel installation
o Chapter 10.3: Fixed Apache bootscript
o Chapter 10.3.2: Removed section about modifying the httpd.conf
file. No longer necessary. Added the addition of /usr/apache/man to
the /usr/share/misc/man.conf file
o Chapter 11.1: Provided a fixed mailx package with a working
Makefile file to simplify the installation procedure
o Chapter 11.3.1: Added the --shared switch to configure so that Zlib
is installed as a dynamic library rather than a static one.
o Chapter 11.6: Have Lynx link against the Ncurses library in stead
of the Slang.
o Chapter 12: The newer man-db already has the X11/man directory in
it's man_db.config file
2.2 - April 3rd, 2000
o The linuxfromscratch.org and linuxfromscratch.com domains are now
operational. All former links to huizen.dds.nl/~glb and
tts.ookhoi.dds.nl have been replaced by the appropriate links on
www.linuxfromscratch.org
o After the reboot in chapter 7.3, the swap partition is made active
before we start compiling software.
1.4. Mailinglists
There are two mailing lists 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 document.
The latter is an open moderated list. Anybody can subscribe to it, but
you cannot post messages to it (only the moderator(s) can do this).
This list is primarily used for announcements of new versions of this
document.
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.
1.4.1. 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.
1.4.2. 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
1.5. Contact info
Direct all your questions preferably to the mailing list. If you need
to reach me personally, send an email to
[email protected]
2. Conventions used in this document
2.1. About $LFS
Please read the following carefully: throughout this document you will
frequently see the variable name $LFS. $LFS must at all times be
replaced by the directory where the partition that contains the LFS
system is mounted. How to create and where to mount the partition will
be explained later on in full detail in chapter 4. In my case the LFS
partition is mounted on /mnt/hda5. If I read this document myself and
I see $LFS somewhere, I will pretend that I read /mnt/hda5. If I read
that I have to run this command: cp inittab $LFS/etc I actually will
run this: cp inittab /mnt/hda5/etc
It's important that you do this no matter where you read it; be it in
commands you enter on the prompt, or in some file you edit or create.
If you want, you can set the environment variable LFS. This way you
can literally enter $LFS in stead of replacing it by something like
/mnt/hda5. This is accomplished by running: export LFS=/mnt/hda5
If I read cp inittab $LFS/etc, I literally can type cp inittab
$LFS/etc and the shell will replace this command by cp inittab
/mnt/hda5/etc automatically.
Do not forget to set the LFS variable at all times. If you haven't set
the variable and you use it in a command, $LFS will be ignored and
whatever is left will be executed. The command cp inittab $LFS/etc
without the LFS variable set, will result in copying the inittab file
to the /etc directory which will overwrite your system's inittab. A
file like inittab isn't that big a problem as it can easily be
restored, but if you would make this mistake during the installation
of the C Library, you can break your system badly and might have to
reinstall it if you don't know how to repair it. So that's why I
strongly advise against using the LFS variable. You better replace
$LFS yourself by something like /mnt/hda5. If you make a typo while
entering /mnt/hda5, the worst thing that can happen is that you'll get
an error saying "no such file or directory" but it won't break your
system. Don't say I didn't warn you ;)
2.2. How to download the software
Throughout this document I will assume that you have stored all the
packages you have downloaded in a subdirectory under $LFS/usr/src.
I myself have use the convention of having a $LFS/usr/src/sources
directory. Under sources you'll find the directory 0-9 and the
directories a through z. A package as sysvinit-2.78.tar.gz is stored
under $LFS/usr/src/sources/s/ A package as bash-3.02.tar.gz is stored
under $LFS/usr/src/sources/b/ and so forth. You don't have to follow
this convention of course, I was just giving an example. It's better
to keep the packages out of $LFS/usr/src and move them to a
subdirectory, so we'll have a clean $LFS/usr/src directory in which we
will unpack the packages and work with them.
The next chapter contains the list of all the packages you need to
download, but the partition that is going to contain our LFS system
isn't created yet. Therefore store the files temporarily somewhere
where you want and remember to copy them to
$LFS/usr/src/<somesubdirectory> when you have finished chapter 4.
2.3. How to install the software
Before you can actually start doing something with a package, you need
to unpack it first. Often you will find the package files being tar'ed
and gzip'ed (you can see this from a .tar.gz or .tgz extension). I'm
not going to write down every time how to ungzip and how to untar an
archive. I will tell you how to that once, in this paragraph. There is
also the possibility that you have the possibility of downloading a
.tar.bz2 file. Such a file is tar'ed and compressed with the bzip2
program. Bzip2 achieves a better compression than the commonly used
gzip does. In order to use bz2 archives you need to have the bzip2
program installed. Most if not every distribution comes with this
program so chances are high it is already installed on your system. If
not, install it using your distribution's installation tool.
o Start by copying the package from wherever you have stored it to
the $LFS/usr/src directory
o When you have a file that is tar'ed and gzip'ed, you unpack it by
running: tar xvfz filename.tar.gz; rm filename.tar.gz or tar xvfz
filename.tgz; rm filename.tgz
o When you have a file that is tar'ed and bzip'ed, you unpack it by
running: tar --use-compress-prog=bzip2 -xvf filename.tar.bz2; rm
filename.tar.bz2
o When you have a file that is only tar'ed, you unpack it by running
tar xvf filename.tar; rm filename.tar
Note that immediately after we have unpacked the archive, we delete
the package file as we don't need it anymore. That's why you have to
copy the file and not move it. If you move it and then delete it, you
will need to re-download it when you need it again.
When the archive is unpacked a new directory will be created under the
current directory (and this document assumes that you unpack the
archives under the $LFS/usr/src directory). You have to enter that new
directory before you continue with the installation instructions. All
the above will be summarized as 'Unpack the xxx archive'. So, when you
read it, you copy the package to $LFS/usr/src, you run the tar program
to ungzip/unbzip and untar it, then you enter the directory that was
created and then you read the next line of the installation
instructions.
After you have installed a package you can do two things with it. You
can either delete the directory that contains the sources or you can
keep it. If you decide to keep it, that's fine by me. But if you need
the same package again in a later chapter (all software up to chapter
7.2 will be re-installed in chapter 7.3) you need to delete the
directory first before using it again. If you don't do this, you
might end up in trouble because old settings will be used (settings
that apply to your normal Linux system but which don't apply anymore
when you have restarted your computer into the LFS system). Doing a
simple make clean does not always guarantee a totally clean source
tree. The configure script also has files lying around in various
subdirectories which are rarely removed by the make clean process.
3. Packages you need to download
Below is a list of all the software that you need to download for use
in this document. I display the sites and directories where you can
download the software, but it is up to you to make sure you download
the source archive and the latest version. The version numbers
correspondent to versions of the software that is known to work and
which this document is going to be based on. If you experience
problems which you can't solve yourself, download the version that is
assumed in this document (in case you download a newer version).
3.1. Mandatory software
Sysvinit (2.78) :
ftp://ftp.cistron.nl/pub/people/miquels/sysvinit/
Bash (2.03) :
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bash/
Linux Kernel (2.2.14) :
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/
Binutils (2.9.1) :
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/binutils/
Bzip2 (0.9.5d) :
http://sourceware.cygnus.com/bzip2/
Diff Utils (2.7) :
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/diffutils/
File Utils (4.0) :
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/fileutils/
GCC (2.95.2) :
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/
Glibc (2.1.3) :
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/glibc/
Glibc-crypt (2.1.2) :
ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/glibc/
Glibc-linuxthreads (2.1.3) :
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/glibc/
Grep (2.4) :
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/grep/
Gzip (1.2.4) :
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gzip/
Make (3.78.1) :
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/
Sed (3.02) :
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/sed/
Shell Utils (2.0) :
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/sh-utils/
Tar (1.13) :
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/tar/
Text Utils (2.0) :
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/textutils/
Util Linux (2.10f) :
ftp://ftp.win.tue.nl/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/
Bison (1.28) :
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bison/
Mawk (1.3.3) :
ftp://ftp.whidbey.net/pub/brennan/
Find Utils (4.1) :
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/findutils/
Ncurses (5.0) :
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/
Less (340) :
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/less/
Perl (5.005_03) :
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/perl/
M4 (1.4) :
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/m4/
Texinfo (4.0) :
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/texinfo/
Autoconf (2.13) :
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/autoconf/
Automake (1.4) :
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/automake/
Flex (2.5.4a) :
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/flex/
E2fsprogs (1.18) :
ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/packages/ext2fs/
File (3.26) :
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/download/file-3.26-lfs.tar.gz
Groff (1.15) :
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/groff/
Ld.so (1.9.9) :
ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/packages/GCC/
Libtool (1.3.4) :
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/libtool/
Linux86 (0.14.3) :
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/download/linux86-0.14.3-lfs.tar.gz
Lilo (21) :
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/boot/lilo/
Shadow Password Suite (19990827) :
ftp://piast.t19.ds.pwr.wroc.pl/pub/linux/shadow/
Man (1.5h1) :
ftp://ftp.win.tue.nl/pub/linux-local/utils/man/
Modutils (2.3.9) :
ftp://ftp.ocs.com.au/pub/modutils/
Termcap (1.3) :
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/termcap/
Procinfo (17) :
ftp://ftp.cistron.nl/pub/people/svm/
Procps (2.0.6) :
ftp://people.redhat.com/johnsonm/procps/
Psmisc (19) :
ftp://lrcftp.epfl.ch/pub/linux/local/psmisc/
Start-stop-daemon (0.4.1) :
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/download/ssd-0.4.1-lfs.tar.gz
Sysklogd (1.3.31) :
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/daemons/
Vim (5.6) :
ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/editors/vim/unix/
3.2. Optional software
All software below is used in sections 13 and above and are not
strictly necessary. You have to determine for yourself if you want to
install certain packages. If, for example, you don't intend to go
online with the LFS system, you might not want to install the email,
telnet, ftp, www, etc. utilities.
Netkit-base (0.17) :
ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/linux/Networking/netkit-devel/
Net-tools (1.54) :
http://www.tazenda.demon.co.uk/phil/net-tools/
Procmail (3.14) :
ftp://ftp.procmail.org/pub/procmail/
Sendmail (8.9.3) :
ftp://ftp.sendmail.org/pub/sendmail/
Mailx (8.1.1) :
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/download/mailx-8.1.1-fixed.tar.gz
Mutt (1.0i) :
ftp://ftp.mutt.org/pub/mutt/
Fetchmail (5.2.0) :
http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/fetchmail/
Netkit-telnet (0.17) :
ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/linux/Networking/netkit-devel/
Proftpd (1.2.0pre9) :
ftp://ftp.tos.net/pub/proftpd/
Netkit-ftp (0.17) :
ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/linux/Networking/netkit-devel/
Apache (1.3.11) :
http://www.apache.org/dist/
Zlib Library (1.1.3) :
http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/zlib/
Lynx (2.8.2) :
http://www.slcc.edu/lynx/release/
PPP (2.3.11) :
ftp://cs.anu.edu.au/pub/software/ppp/
Xfree86 (3.3.5) :
ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/
libPropList (0.9.1) :
ftp://ftp.windowmaker.org/pub/libs/
libXpm (4.7) :
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/libs/X/
libpng (1.0.3) :
http://www.cdrom.com/pub/png/
libtiff (3.4) :
ftp://ftp.sgi.com/graphics/tiff/
libjpeg (6b) :
http://www.ijg.org/
libungif (4.1.0) :
ftp://prtr-13.ucsc.edu/pub/libungif/
WindowMaker (0.61.1) :
ftp://ftp.windowmaker.org/pub/release/
4. Preparing the new system
4.1. How we are going to do things
We are going to build the LFS system using an already installed Linux
distribution such as Debian, SuSe, Slackware, Mandrake, RedHat, etc.
You don't need to have any kind of bootdisk. We will use an existing
Linux system as the base (since we need a compiler, linker, text
editor and other tools).
If you don't have Linux installed yet, you won't be able to put this
document to use right away. I suggest you first install a Linux
distribution. It really doesn't matter which one you install. It also
doesn't need to be the latest version, though it shouldn't be a too
old one. If it is about a year old or newer it'll do just fine. You
will safe yourself a lot of trouble if your normal system uses
glibc-2.0 or newer. Libc5 can cause some problems and is not supported
in this document as I don't have access to such a machine anymore.
4.2. Creating a new partition
Before we can build our new Linux system, we need to have an empty
Linux partition on which we can build our new system. I recommend a
partition size of at least 5 00 MB. You can get away with around 250MB
for a bare system with no extra whistles and bells (such as software
for emailing, networking, Internet, X Window System and such). If you
already have a Linux Native partition available, you can skip this
subsection.
Start the fdisk program (or some other fdisk program if you prefer)
with the appropriate hard disk as the option (like /dev/hda if you
want to create a new partition on the primary master IDE disk). Create
a Linux Native partition, write the partition table and exit the fdisk
program. If you get the message that you need to reboot your system to
ensure that that partition table is updated, then please reboot your
system now before continuing. Remember what your new partition's
designation is. It could be something like hda5 (as it is in my case).
This newly created partition will be referred to as the LFS partition
in this document.
4.3. Creating an ext2 file system on the new partition
Once the partition is created, we have to create a new ext2 file
system on that partition. To create a new ext2 file system we use the
mke2fs command. Enter the new partition as the only option and the
file system will be created. If your partition was hda5, you would
run the command as mke2fs /dev/hda5
4.4. Mounting the new partition
Once we have created the ext2 file system, it is ready for use. All we
have to do to be able to access it (as in reading from and writing
date to it) is mounting it. If you mount it under /mnt/hda5, you can
access this partition by going to the /mnt/hda5 directory and then do
whatever you need to do. This document will assume that you have
mounted the partition on a subdirectory under /mnt. It doesn't matter
which subdirectory you choose (or you can use just the /mnt directory
as the mounting point), but a good practice is to create a directory
with the same name as the partition's designation. In my case the LFS
partition is called hda5 and therefore I mount it on /mnt/hda5
o Create the /mnt directory if it doesn't exist yet
o Create the /mnt/xxx directory where xxx is to be replaced by your
LFS partition's designation.
o Mount the LFS partition by running: mount /dev/xxx /mnt/xxx and
replace xxx by your LFS partition's designation.
This directory (/mnt/xxx) is the $LFS you have read about earlier. So
if you read somewhere to "cp inittab $LFS/etc" you actually will type
"cp inittab /mnt/xxx/etc" where xxx is replaced by your partition's
designation.
4.5. Creating directories
Let's create the directory tree on the LFS partition according to the
FHS standard which can be found at
http://www.pathname.com/fhs/.
Issuing the following commands will create the necessary directories.
cd $LFS
mkdir bin boot dev etc home lib mnt proc root sbin tmp usr var
cd $LFS/usr
mkdir bin include lib sbin share src
ln -s share/man man
ln -s share/doc doc
ln -s . local
ln -s ../etc etc
ln -s ../var var
cd $LFS/usr/share
mkdir dict doc info locale man nls misc terminfo zoneinfo
cd $LFS/usr/share/man
mkdir man1 man2 man3 man4 man5 man6 man7 man8
cd $LFS/var
mkdir lock log run spool tmp
Now that the directories are created, copy the source files you have
downloaded in chapter 3 to some subdirectory under $LFS/usr/src (you
will need to create this subdirectory yourself).
4.6. Copying the /dev directory
We can create every single file that we need to be in the $LFS/dev
directory using the mknod command, but that just takes up a lot of
time. I choose to just simply copy the current /dev directory to the
$LFS partition. Use this command to copy the entire directory while
preserving original rights, symlinks and ownerships:
cp -av /dev $LFS
chown root.root $LFS/dev/*
5. Making the LFS system bootable
5.1. Installing Sysvinit
Under normal circumstances, after the kernel is done loading and
initializing various system components, it attempts to load a program
called init which will finalize the system boot process. The package
found on most if not every single Linux system is called Sysvinit and
that's the program we're going to install on our LFS system.
o Unpack the Sysvinit archive
o Enter the src directory
o Edit the Makefile file
o Somewhere in this file, but before the rule all: put this line:
ROOT = $LFS
o Precede every /dev on the last four lines in this file by $(ROOT)
After applying the $(ROOT) parts to the last four lines, they should
look like this:
@if [! -p $(ROOT)/dev/initctl ]; then \
echo "Creating $(ROOT)/dev/initctl"; \
rm -f $(ROOT)/dev/initctl; \
mknod -m 600 $(ROOT)/dev/initctl p; fi
o Install the package by running:
make -e LDFLAGS=-static; make install
5.2. Configuring Sysvinit
In order for Sysvinit to work, we need to create it's configuration
file. Create the $LFS/etc/inittab file containing the following:
# Begin /etc/inittab
id:2:initdefault:
ca:12345:ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t1 -a -r now
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/sulogin
# End /etc/inittab
5.3. Creating passwd & group files
As you can see from the inittab file, when we boot the system, init
will start the sulogin program and sulogin will ask you for user
root's password. This means we need to have at least a passwd file
present on the LFS system.
o Create the $LFS/etc/passwd file containing the following:
root:s394ul1Bkvmq2:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
o Create the $LFS/etc/group file containing the following: root::0:
The encoded password string above is: lfs123
When you logon to your LFS system, enter lfs123 when asked to enter
user root's password.
5.4. Installing the Bash shell
When sulogin asks you for the root password and you've entered the
password, a shell needs to be started. Usually this is the bash shell.
Since there are no libraries installed yet, we need to link bash
statically, just like we did with Sysvinit.
o Unpack the Bash archive
o Install Bash by running:
./configure --enable-static-link
make; make -e prefix=$LFS/usr install
mv $LFS/usr/bin/bash $LFS/bin
cd $LFS/bin; ln -s bash sh
5.5. Adding an entry to LILO
In order to being able to boot from this partition, we need to update
our /etc/lilo.conf file. Add the following lines to lilo.conf:
image=<currently used image>
label=<label>
root=$LFS
read-only
Replace <currently used image> by the kernel image file that you are
using to boot your normal Linux system. <label> can be anything you
want it to be. I named the label "lfs" What you enter as <label> is
what you enter at the LILO-prompt when you choose with system to boot.
Now run the lilo program to update the boot loader.
5.6. Testing the system
After you've completed this section, we can test the system by
rebooting into LFS and see if we can log on to it. When you reboot and
are at the LILO prompt, enter the label you have entered in the
lilo.conf file to start the LFS system. Then enter root's password and
you should be on the bash-prompt now. You won't be able to shutdown
the system with a program like shutdown. Although the program is
present, it will give you the following error: "You don't exist. Go
away." when you try to use the program. The meaning of this error is
that the system isn't able to locate the password file. Although the
shutdown program is statically linked against the libraries it needs,
it still depends on the NSS Library (Name Server Switch) which is part
of the GNU C Library, which will be installed in a later chapter. This
NSS library passes on information where (in this case) the passwd file
can be found.
For now you can reboot the system using the reboot -f command. This
will bypass shutting down the system using the shutdown program and
reboot immediately. Since the file system is mounted read-only this
will not harm our system in any way (though you might get a warning
next time you try to mount the system that it wasn't unmounted cleanly
the last time and that you should run e2fsck to make sure the file
system is still intact).
6. Installing a kernel
6.1. Note on ftp.kernel.org
In section 2 above I mentioned you can download a new kernel from
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/ However, this site is often too busy to get
through and the maintainers of this site encourage you to download the
kernel from a location near you. You can access a mirror site by going
to
ftp://ftp.<country code>.kernel.org/ (like ftp.ca.kernel.org).
6.2. Configuring the kernel
o Rename the current /usr/src/linux directory to something else
(/usr/src/linux can be a symlink rather than an actual directory.
Either way, rename it) by running mv /usr/src/linux /usr/src/linux-
old
o Remove /usr/include/linux and /usr/include/asm by running rm -r
/usr/include/linux /usr/include/asm
o Unpack the Kernel archive in the /usr/src/ directory (this will
create a new /usr/src/linux directory)
o Create the /usr/include/linux and /usr/include/asm symlinks by
running:
cd /usr/include
ln -s ../src/linux/include/linux linux
ln -s ../src/linux/include/asm-<cpu> asm
Look in the /usr/src/linux/include directory and see which asm-*
directories are present. Choose the correct one for your platform. If
you're on an Intel platform, you'd run ln -s ../src/linux/include/asm-
i386 asm
o Choose a method to configure the kernel (see the README file for
more details on configuration methods) and make sure you don't
configure anything as modules at this point. This is because we
won't have the necessary software available to load kernel modules
for a while.
o After you're done with your kernel configuration, run make dep
o Compile the kernel by running make bzImage
o Copy the arch/<cpu>/boot/bzImage file to the /boot directory (or
some place else if your Linux system uses a different convention
where kernel images and the like are stored)
o Optionally you can rename the /boot/bzImage file to something like
/boot/lfskernel
o Copy the entire kernel source tree to the LFS partition by running:
cp -av /usr/src/linux $LFS/usr/src
o Create the $LFS/usr/include/linux and $LFS/usr/include/asm symlinks
by running:
cd $LFS/usr/include
ln -s ../src/linux/include/linux linux
ln -s ../src/linux/include/asm asm
6.3. Updating LILO
o Edit the /etc/lilo.conf file and go to the LFS section
o Change the image name to lfskernel (or whatever you've named the
originally called bzImage file)
o Run lilo to update the boot loader.
6.4. Testing the system
Reboot your system and start your LFS system. Verify that the newly
installed kernel doesn't perform out-of-the-ordinary actions (such as
crashing).
7. Installing basic system software
In this chapter we will install all the software that belongs to a
basic Linux system. After you're done with this chapter you have a
fully working Linux system. The remaining chapters deals with optional
issues such as setting up networking, Internet servers + clients
(telnet, ftp, http, email), setting up Internet itself and the X
Window System. You can skip chapters at your own discretion. If you
don't plan on going online with the LFS system there's little use to
setup Internet for example.
There are a number of packages that need to be already installed
before we can start installing all the basic system software. A
typical configure scripts needs programs like rm, grep, sed, mv, cat,
cp, diff. You need to be able to ungzip and untar archives, you need
to link programs after you have compiled the objects files. All these
(and a few more) programs needs to be available before we can install
anything else. These programs are going to be linked statically. The
reasoning behind this is that your normal Linux system may have a
different C Library version than the LFS system is going to have. The
programs you install in this section will be linked against the C
Library of your normal Linux system. This may cause library conflicts
if you run those programs on the LFS system. Therefore we have to link
those programs statically. During the installation of the basic
system software set, we will re-install the statically linked software
so that they are linked dynamically against the C library on the LFS
system.
7.1. About debugging symbols
Every program and library is default compiled with debugging symbols.
This means you can run a program or library through a debugger and the
debugger's output will be more user friendly. These debugging symbols
also enlarge the program or binary significantly. This document will
not install software without debugging symbols (as I don't know if the
majority of readers do or don't debug software). In stead, you can
remove those symbols manually if you want with the strip program.
To remove debugging symbols from a binary (must be an a.out or ELF
binary) run strip --strip-debug filename You can use wild cards if you
need to strip debugging symbols from multiple files (use something
like strip --strip-debug $LFS/usr/bin/*).
Before you wonder if these debugging symbols would make a big
difference, here are some statistics:
o A static Bash binary with debugging symbols: 2.3MB
o A static Bash binary without debugging symbols: 645KB
o A dynamic Bash binary with debugging symbols: 1.2MB
o A dynamic Bash binary without debugging symbols: 478KB
o $LFS/usr/lib (glibc and gcc files) with debugging symbols: 87MB
o $LFS/usr/lib (glibc and gcc files) without debugging symbols: 16MB
Sizes may vary depending on which compiler has been used and which C
library version is used to link dynamic programs against, but your
results will be very similar if you compare programs with and without
debugging symbols. After I was done with this chapter and stripped all
debugging symbols from all LFS binaries and libraries I regained a
little over 102 MB of disk space. Quite the difference. The difference
would be even greater when I would do this at the end of this document
when everything is installed.
7.2. Preparing LFS system for installing basic system software
7.2.1. Installing Binutils
o Unpack the binutils archive
o Install the package by running:
./configure
make -e LDFLAGS=-all-static
make -e prefix=$LFS/usr install
7.2.2. Installing Bzip2
o Unpack the Bzip2 archive
o Edit the Makefile file in a text editor
o Find the lines that start with : $(CC) $(CFLAGS) -o
o Replace those parts with: $(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS) -o
o Install the package by running:
make -e LDFLAGS=-static
make -e PREFIX=$LFS/usr install
cd $LFS/usr/bin
mv bunzip2 bzip2 $LFS/bin
7.2.3. Install Diffutils
o Unpack the diffutils archive
o Install the package by running:
./configure
make -e LDFLAGS=-static
make -e prefix=$LFS/usr install
This package is known to cause static linking problems on certain
platforms. If you're having trouble compiling this package as well,
you can download a fixed package from
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/download/diffutils-2.7-fixed.tar.gz
7.2.4. Installing Fileutils
o Unpack the fileutils archive
o Install the package by running:
./configure --disable-nls
make -e LDFLAGS=-static
make -e prefix=$LFS/usr install
cd $LFS/usr/bin
mv chgrp chmod chown cp dd df ln ls mkdir mknod mv rm rmdir sync $LFS/bin
7.2.5. Installing GCC on the normal system if necessary
In order to compile Glibc-2.1.3 you need to have gcc-2.95.2 installed.
Any version from 2.8 and up would do, but 2.95.2 is recommended. Many
glibc-2.0 based systems have gcc-2.7.2.3 installed and you can't
compile glibc-2.1 with that compiler. Therefore we will install
gcc-2.95.2. also on the normal system, but without overwriting the
existing compiler. Before you install gcc on your normal system, make
sure whether you need it or not. Run gcc --version and check if the
version number it reports equals or is higher than 2.8. If not, you
need to install gcc-2.95.2. If you experience difficulties compiling
glibc later on, you might want to install gcc-2.95.2 anyways.
o Unpack the GCC archive
o Install the package by running:
mkdir $LFS/usr/src/gcc-build; cd $LFS/usr/src/gcc-build
../gcc-2.95.2/configure --prefix=/usr/gcc2952 \
--with-local-prefix=/usr/gcc2952 --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/gcc2952/include/g++ \
--enable-shared --enable-languages=c,c++
make bootstrap; make install
7.2.6. Installing GCC on the LFS system
o Unpack the GCC archive
o Install the package by running:
mkdir $LFS/usr/src/gcc-build;cd $LFS/usr/src/gcc-build
../gcc-2.95.2/configure --enable-languages=c --disable-nls
make -e LDFLAGS=-static bootstrap
make -e prefix=$LFS/usr local_prefix=$LFS/usr install
7.2.6.1. Creating necessary symlinks
The system needs a few symlinks to ensure every program is able to
find the compiler and the pre-processor. Some programs run the cc
program, others run the gcc program, some programs expect the cpp
program to be in /lib (which is /usr/lib on the LFS system) and others
expect to find it in /usr/bin.
o Create those symlinks by running:
cd $LFS/lib; ln -s ../usr/lib/gcc-lib/<host>/2.95.2/cpp cpp
cd $LFS/usr/lib; ln -s gcc-lib/<host>/2.95.2/cpp cpp
cd $LFS/usr/bin; ln -s gcc cc
Replace <host> with the directory where the gcc-2.95.2 files were
installed (i686-unknown-linux in my case). You will most likely find
two different directories.
7.2.7. Installing Glibc
A note on the glibc-crypt package:
-*-*-*-*-*-
The add-on is not included in the main distribution of the GNU
C library because some governments, mostly notable those of
France, Russia and the US, have very restrictive rules
governing the distribution and use of encryption software.
Please read the node "Legal Problems" in the manual for more
details.
In particular, the US does not allow export of this software
without a license, including via the Internet. So please do not
download it from the main FSF FTP site at ftp.gnu.org if you
are outside of the US. This software was completely developed
outside the US.
-*-*-*-*-*-
"This software" refers to the glibc-crypt package at
ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/glibc/. This law only affects people who
don't live in the US. It's not prohibited to import DES software, so
if you live in the US you can import it from that German site.
o Unpack the Glibc archive
o Copy the glibc-crypt and glibc-linuxthreads archives into the
unpacked glibc directory
o Unpack the glibc-crypt and glibc-linuxthreads there, but don't
enter these directories. Just ungzip and untar them.
o Create a new file configparms containing:
# Begin configparms
slibdir=/lib
sysconfdir=/etc
# End configparms
o If your normal system already had a gcc version suitable to compile
glibc with, install the package by running:
mkdir $LFS/usr/src/glibc-build;cd $LFS/usr/src/glibc-build
../glibc-2.1.3/configure --enable-add-ons
make; make install_root=$LFS install
o If your normal didn't had a suitable gcc version and you installed
gcc-2.95.2 on your normal system, install the package by running:
mkdir $LFS/usr/src/glibc-build; cd $LFS/usr/src/glibc-build
CC=/usr/gcc2952/bin/gcc ../glibc-2.1.3/configure --enable-add-ons
make; make install_root=$LFS install
7.2.7.1. Copying old NSS Library files
If your normal Linux system runs libc-2.0.x, you need to copy the NSS
library files to the LFS partition. Certain statically linked programs
still depend on the NSS library, especially programs that need to
lookup usernames, userid's and groupid's. You can check which C
Library version your normal Linux system uses by running: ls -l
libc.so.*
Your system uses glibc-2.0 if the output looks like: /lib/libc.so.6 ->
libc-2.0.7.so
Your system uses glibc-2.1 is the output looks like: /lib/libc.so.6 ->
libc-2.1.2.so
If your have a libc-2.0.x.so file (where x is the micro version number
such as 7) copy the NSS Library files by running: cp -av /lib/*nss*
$LFS/lib
7.2.8. Installing grep
o Unpack the grep archive
o Install the package by running:
./configure --disable-nls
make -e LDFLAGS=-static
make -e prefix=$LFS/usr install
This package is known to cause static linking problems on certain
platforms. If you're having trouble compiling this package as well,
you can download a fixed package from
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/download/grep-2.4-fixed.tar.gz
7.2.9. Installing gzip
o Unpack the gzip archive
o Install the package by running:
./configure
make -e LDFLAGS=-static
make -e prefix=$LFS/usr install
cd $LFS/usr/bin
mv gunzip gzip $LFS/bin
This package is known to cause compilation problems on certain
platforms. If you're having trouble compiling this package as well,
you can download a fixed package from
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/download/gzip-1.2.4-fixed.tar.gz
7.2.10. Installing Make
o Unpack the Make archive
o Install the package by running:
./configure
make -e LDFLAGS=-static
make -e prefix=$LFS/usr install
7.2.11. Installing Sed
o Unpack the sed archive
o Install the package by running:
./configure
make -e LDFLAGS=-static
make -e prefix=$LFS/usr install
mv $LFS/usr/bin/sed $LFS/bin
This package is known to cause static linking problems on certain
platforms. If you're having trouble compiling this package as well,
you can download a fixed package from
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/download/sed-3.02-fixed.tar.gz
7.2.12. Installing Sh-utils
o Unpack the sh-utils archive
o Install the package by running:
./configure --disable-nls
make -e LDFLAGS=-static
make -e prefix=$LFS/usr install
cd $LFS/usr/bin
mv date echo false pwd stty su true uname hostname $LFS/bin
7.2.13. Installing Tar
o Unpack the tar archive
o Install the package by running:
./configure --disable-nls
make -e LDFLAGS=-static
make -e prefix=$LFS/usr install
mv $LFS/usr/bin/tar $LFS/bin
7.2.14. Installing Textutils
o Unpack the textutils archive
o Install the package by running:
./configure --disable-nls
make -e LDFLAGS=-static
make -e prefix=$LFS/usr install
mv $LFS/usr/bin/cat $LFS/bin
7.2.15. Installing Util-linux
o Unpack the util-linux archive
o Install the package by running:
./configure
cd lib;make
cd ../mount;make -e LDFLAGS=-static
cp mount umount $LFS/bin
cp swapon $LFS/sbin
7.3. Installing basic systsem software
The installation of all the software is pretty straightforward and
you'll think it's so much easier and shorter to give the generic
installation instructions for each package and only explain how to
install something if a certain package requires an alternate
installation method. Although I agree with you on this aspect, I,
however, choose to give the full instructions for each and every
package. This is simply to avoid any possible confusion and errors.
Before you continue with this document you have to restart your system
and boot into the LFS system. But before you do that, you need to
determine which partition is used as your swap partition. This
information can usually be found in the /etc/fstab file. Check this
file for a line similar to this one: /dev/hda6 none swap sw 0 0
The 4th field in a line must contain 'sw'. That line represents a swap
partition. All you need to remember is it's designation (which is
/dev/hda6 in my case but this will probably be different on your
system). When you have determined which partition is the swap
partition, you can reboot your computer now and continue from here.
7.3.1. Remounting partition and activating swap
Before the software can be installed we need to remount the partition
in read-write mode. Also, we need to activate the swap partition so
that we won't risk running out of memory during large compilation
processes (such as compiling gcc):
mount -o remount,rw / /
/sbin/swapon <swap device>
7.3.2. Installing GCC
o Unpack the GCC archive and install it by running:
mkdir $LFS/usr/src/gcc-build;cd $LFS/usr/src/gcc-build
../gcc-2.95.2/configure --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/g++ \
--enable-shared --enable-languages=c,c++
make bootstrap; make install
7.3.3. Installing Bison
o Unpack the bison archive and install it by running:
./configure --datadir=/usr/share/bison
make; make install
7.3.4. Installing Mawk
o Unpack the mawk archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
cd /usr/bin; ln -s mawk awk
7.3.5. Installing Findutils
o Unpack the findutils archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
This package is known to cause compilation problems. If you're having
trouble compiling this package as well, you can download a fixed
package from
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/download/findutils-4.1-fixed.tar.gz
7.3.6. Installing Termcap
o Unpack the Termcap archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
7.3.7. Installing Ncurses
o Unpack the ncurses archive and install it by running:
./configure --with-shared
make; make install
7.3.8. Installing Less
o Unpack the Less archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
mv /usr/bin/less /bin
7.3.9. Installing Perl
o Unpack the Perl archive and install it by running:
./Configure
make; make install
Note that we skip the 'make test' step. This is because at this moment
the system isn't ready yet for running the perl test. At this time
we'll trust that perl compiled fine.
7.3.10. Installing M4
o Unpack the M4 archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
7.3.11. Installing Texinfo
o Unpack the Texinfo archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
7.3.12. Installing Autoconf
o Unpack the Autoconf archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
7.3.13. Installing Automake
o Unpack the Automake archive and install it by running:
./configure
make install
7.3.14. Installing Bash
o Unpack the Bash archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
mv /usr/bin/bash /bin
7.3.15. Installing Flex
o Unpack the Flex archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
7.3.16. Installing Binutils
o Unpack the Binutils archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
7.3.17. Installing Bzip2
o Unpack the Bzip2 archive and install it by running:
make; make install
cd /usr/bin; mv bunzip2 bzip2 /bin
7.3.18. Installing Diffutils
o Unpack the Diffutils archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
7.3.19. Installing E2fsprogs
o Unpack the E2fsprogs archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
mv /usr/sbin/mklost+found /sbin
7.3.20. Installing File
o Unpack the File archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
7.3.21. Installing Fileutils
o Unpack the Fileutils archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
cd /usr/bin
mv chgrp chmod chown cp dd df ln ls mkdir mknod mv rm rmdir sync /bin
7.3.22. Installing Grep
o Unpack the Grep archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
7.3.23. Installing Groff
o Unpack the Groff archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
7.3.24. Installing Gzip
o Unpack the Gzip archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
cd /usr/bin; mv z* gunzip gzip /bin
7.3.25. Installing Ld.so
o Unpack the Ld.so archive and install it by running:
cd util; make ldd ldconfig
cp ldd /bin; cp ldconfig /sbin
rm /usr/bin/ldd
7.3.26. Installing Libtool
o Unpack the Libtool archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
7.3.27. Installing Linux86
o Unpack the Linux86 archive and install it by running:
cd as
make; make install
cd ../ld
make ld86; make install
7.3.28. Installing Lilo
o Unpack the Lilo archive and install it by running:
make; make install
7.3.29. Installing Make
o Unpack the Make archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
7.3.30. Instaling Sh-Utils
o Unpack the Sh-utils archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
cd /usr/bin
mv date echo false pwd stty su true uname hostname /bin
7.3.31. Installing Shadow Password Suite
o Unpack the Shadow archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
cd etc
cp limits login.access login.defs.linux shells suauth /etc
mv /etc/login.defs.linux /etc/login.defs
cd /usr/sbin
mv chpasswd dpasswd groupadd groupdel groupmod logoutd mkpasswd \
newusers useradd userdel usermod grpck pwck vipw grpconv grpunconv \
pwconv pwunconv /sbin
7.3.32. Installing Man
o Unpack the Man archive and install it by running:
./configure -default
make all; make install
7.3.33. Installing Modutils
o Unpack the Modutils archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
7.3.34. Installing Procinfo
o Unpack the Procinfo archive and install it by running:
make; make install
7.3.35. Installing Procps
o Unpack the Procps archive and install it by running:
gcc -O3 -Wall -Wno-unused -c watch.c
make; make -e XSCPT="" install
mv /usr/bin/kill /bin
7.3.36. Installing Psmisc
o Unpack the Psmisc archive and install it by running:
make; make install
7.3.37. Installing Sed
o Unpack the Sed archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
mv /usr/bin/sed /bin
7.3.38. Installing start-stop-daemon
o Unpack the start-stop-daemon archive and install it by running:
make start-stop-daemon
cp start-stop-daemon /sbin
cp start-stop-daemon.8 /usr/share/man/man8
7.3.39. Installing Sysklogd
o Unpack the Sysklogd archive and install it by running:
make; make install
7.3.40. Installing Sysvinit
o Unpack the Sysvinit archive and install it by running:
cd src
make; make install
7.3.41. Install Tar
o Unpack the Tar archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
mv /usr/bin/tar /bin
7.3.42. Installing Textutils
o Unpack the Textutils archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
mv /usr/bin/cat /bin
7.3.43. Installing Vim
o Unpack the Vim-rt and Vim-src archives and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
7.3.44. Installing Util-linux
o Unpack the Util-linux package
o Edit the MCONFIG file, find and modify the following variables as
follows:
HAVE_PASSWD=yes
HAVE_SLN=yes
HAVE_TSORT=yes
o Install the package by running:
groupadd -g 5 tty
./configure
make; make install
7.4. Removing old NSS Library files
If you have copied the NSS Library files from your normal Linux system
to the LFS system (because your normal system runs glibc-2.0) it's
time to remove them now by running:
rm /lib/libnss*.so.1 /lib/libnss*2.0*
7.5. Configuring the software
Now that all software is installed, all that we need to do to get a
few programs running properly is to create their configuration files.
7.5.1. Configuring Glib
We need to create the /etc/nsswitch.conf file. Although glibc should
provide defaults when this file is missing or corrupt, it's defaults
don't work work well with networking which will be dealt with in a
later chapter. Also, our timezone needs to be setup.
o Create a new file /etc/nsswitch.conf containing:
# Begin /etc/nsswitch.conf
passwd: files
group: files
shadow: files
hosts: files dns
networks: files
protocols: db files
services: db files
ethers: db files
rpc: db files
netgroup: db files
# End /etc/nsswitch.conf
o Run the tzselect script and answer the questions regarding your
timezone
o When you're done, the program will give you the file location you
need.
o Create the localtime symlink by running: ln -s
/usr/share/zoneinfo/<tzselect's output> /etc/localtime
tzselect's output can be something like "EST5EDT" or "Canada/Eastern".
The symlink you would create with that information would be ln -s
/usr/share/zoneinfo/EST5EDT /etc/localtime or ln -s
/usr/share/zoneinfo/Canada/Eastern /etc/localtime
7.5.2. Configuring LILO
We're not going to create lilo's configuration file from scratch, but
we'll use the file from your normal Linux system. This file is
different on every machine and thus I can't create it here. Since you
would want to have the same options regarding lilo as you have when
you're using your normal Linux system you would create the file
exactly as it is on the normal system.
o Create the /mnt/original directory
o Mount your normal Linux system on this mount point by running mount
/dev/xxx /mnt/original (replace /dev/xxx with your normal
partition's designation).
o Copy the lilo configuration file and kernel images that lilo uses
by running:
cp /mnt/original/etc/lilo.conf /etc
cp /mnt/original/boot/* /boot
If your normal Linux system does not have (all of) it's kernel images
in /mnt/original/boot, then check your /etc/lilo.conf file for the
location of those files and copy those as well to the location where
/etc/lilo.conf expects them to be. Or you can copy them to /boot
regardless and modify the /etc/lilo.conf file so it contains the new
paths for the images as you have them on the LFS system. Either way
works fine, it's up to you how you want to do it.
7.5.3. Configuring Sysklogd
o Create the /var/log directory by running: mkdir /var/log
o Create the /etc/syslog.conf file containing the following:
# Begin /etc/syslog.conf
auth,authpriv.* -/var/log/auth.log
*.*;auth,authpriv.none -/var/log/sys.log
daemon.* -/var/log/daemon.log
kern.* -/var/log/kern.log
mail.* -/var/log/mail.log
user.* -/var/log/user.log
*.emerg *
# End /etc/syslog.conf
7.5.4. Configuring Shadow Password Suite
This package contains the utilities to modify user's passwords, add
new users/groups, delete users/groups and more. I'm not going to
explain to you what 'password shadowing' means. You can read all about
that in the doc/HOWTO file. There's one thing you should keep in mind,
if you decide to use shadow support, that programs that need to verify
passwords (examples are xdm, ftp daemons, pop3d, etc) need to be
'shadow-compliant', eg. they need to be able to work with shadowed
passwords.
If you decide you don't want to use shadowed passwords (after you're
read the doc/HOWTO document), you still use this archive since the
utilities in this archive are also used on system which have shadowed
passwords disabled. You can read all about this in the HOWTO. Also
note that you can switch between shadow and non-shadow at any point
you want.
Now is a very good moment to read section #5 of the doc/HOWTO file.
You can read how you can test if shadowing works and if not, how to
disable it. If it doesn't work and you haven't tested it, you'll end
up with an unusable system after you logout of all your consoles,
since you won't be able to login anymore. You can easily fix this by
passing the init=/sbin/sulogin parameter to the kernel, unpack the
util-linux archive, go to the login-utils directory, build the login
program and replace the /bin/login by the one in the util-linux
package. Things are never hopelessly messed up (at least not under
Linux), but you can avoid a hassle by testing properly and reading
manuals ;)
7.5.5. Configuring Sysvinit
After you have made the following modification to the /etc/inittab
file, you will be able to logon to it as you are used to (using the
agetty and login programs). Sulogin won't be used anymore for normal
logins.
o Edit the /etc/inittab file and modify it so it contains the
following:
# Begin /etc/inittab
id:2:initdefault:
si::sysinit:/etc/init.d/rcS
su:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin
l0:0:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 0
l1:1:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 1
l2:2:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 2
l3:3:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 3
l4:4:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 4
l5:5:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 5
l6:6:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 6
ft:6:respawn:/sbin/sulogin
ca:12345:ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t1 -a -r now
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty /dev/tty1 9600
2:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty /dev/tty2 9600
3:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty /dev/tty3 9600
4:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty /dev/tty4 9600
5:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty /dev/tty5 9600
6:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty /dev/tty6 9600
# End /etc/inittab
7.5.6. Creating /var/run/utmp file
Programs like login, shutdown and others want to write to the
/var/run/utmp file. This file contains information about who is
currently logged in. It also contains information on when the computer
was last shutdown.
o Create the /var/run/utmp file by running: touch /var/run/utmp
o Give it the proper file permissions by running: chmod 644
/var/run/utmp
8. Creating system boot scripts
These bootscripts are started at system boot time. The scripts are
responsible for mounting the root file system in read-write mode,
activating swap, setting up some system settings and starting the
various daemons that our system needs.
8.1. Preparing the directories and master files
You need the Sysvinit package again for this section.
o Create the necessary directories by running:
cd /etc
mkdir rc0.d rc1.d rc2.d rc3.d rc4.d rc5.d rc6.d init.d rcS.d
o Go to the unpacked Sysvinit source directory
o Copy the Debian/etc/init.d/rc file to: /etc/init.d
o Go to the /etc/init.d directory
o Create a new file rcS containing the following:
#!/bin/sh
# Begin /etc/init.d/rcS
runlevel=S
prevlevel=N
umask 022
export runlevel prevlevel
trap ":" INT QUIT TSTP
for i in /etc/rcS.d/S??*
do
[ ! -f "$i" ] && continue;
$i start
done
# End /etc/init.d/rcS
8.2. Creating the reboot script
o Create a new file reboot containing the following:
#!/bin/sh
# Begin /etc/init.d/reboot
echo -n "System reboot in progress..."
/sbin/reboot -d -f -i
# End /etc/init.d/reboot
8.3. Creating the halt script
o Create a new file halt containing the following:
#!/bin/sh
# Begin /etc/init.d/halt
/sbin/halt -d -f -i -p
# End /etc/init.d/halt
8.4. Creating the mountfs script
o Create a new file mountfs containing the following:
#!/bin/sh
# Begin /etc/init.d/mountfs
check_status()
{
if [ $? = 0 ]
then
echo "OK"
else
echo "FAILED"
fi
}
echo -n "Remounting root file system in read-write mode..."
/bin/mount -n -o remount,rw /
check_status
> /etc/mtab
/bin/mount -f -o remount,rw /
echo -n "Mounting proc file system..."
/bin/mount proc
check_status
# End /etc/init.d/mountfs
8.5. Creating the umountfs script
o Create a new file umountfs containing the following:
#!/bin/sh
# Begin /etc/init.d/umountfs
check_status()
{
if [ $? = 0 ]
then
echo "OK"
else
echo "FAILED"
fi
}
echo "Deactivating swap..."
/bin/swapoff -av
check_status
echo -n "Unmounting file systems..."
/bin/umount -a -r
check_status
# End /etc/init.d/umountfs
8.6. Creating the sendsignals script
o Create a new file sendsignals containing the following:
#!/bin/sh
# Begin /etc/init.d/sendsignals
check_status()
{
if [ $? = 0 ]
then
echo "OK"
else
echo "FAILED"
fi
}
echo -n "Sending all processes the TERM signal..."
/sbin/killall5 -15
check_status
echo -n "Sending all processes the KILL signal..."
/sbin/killall5 -9
check_status
8.7. Creating the checkroot bootscript
o Create a file /etc/init.d/checkroot containing the following:
#!/bin/sh
# Begin /etc/init.d/checkroot
echo "Activating swap..."
/sbin/swapon -av
if [ -f /fastboot ]
then
echo "Fast boot, no file system check"
else
/bin/mount -n -o remount,ro /
if [ $? = 0 ]
then
if [ -f /forcecheck ]
then
force="-f"
else
force=""
fi
echo "Checking root file system..."
/sbin/fsck $force -a /
if [ $? -gt 1 ]
then
echo
echo "fsck failed. Please repair your file system manually by"
echo "running fsck without the -a option"
echo "Please note that the file system is currently mounted in"
echo "read-only mode."
echo
echo "I will start sulogin now. CTRL+D will reboot your system."
/sbin/sulogin
/reboot -f
fi
else
echo "Cannot check root file system because it is not mounted in"
echo "read-only mode."
fi
fi
# End /etc/init.d/checkroot
8.8. Creating the Sysklogd bootscript
o Create a new file /etc/init.d/sysklogd containing the following:
#!/bin/sh
# Begin /etc/init.d/sysklogd
check_status()
{
if [ $? = 0 ]
then
echo "OK"
else
echo "FAILED"
fi
}
case "$1" in
start)
echo -n "Starting system log daemon..."
start-stop-daemon -S -q -o -x /usr/sbin/syslogd -- -m 0
check_status
echo -n "Starting kernel log daemon..."
start-stop-daemon -S -q -o -x /usr/sbin/klogd
check_status
;;
stop)
echo -n "Stopping kernel log daemon..."
start-stop-daemon -K -q -o -p /var/run/klogd.pid
check_status
echo -n "Stopping system log daemon..."
start-stop-daemon -K -q -o -p /var/run/syslogd.pid
check_status
;;
reload)
echo -n "Reloading system load daemon configuration file..."
start-stop-daemon -K -q -o -s 1 -p /var/run/syslogd.pid
check_status
;;
restart)
echo -n "Stopping kernel log daemon..."
start-stop-daemon -K -q -o -p /var/run/klogd.pid
check_status
echo -n "Stopping system log daemon..."
start-stop-daemon -K -q -o -p /var/run/syslogd.pid
check_status
sleep 1
echo -n "Starting system log daemon..."
start-stop-daemon -S -q -o -x /usr/sbin/syslogd -- -m 0
check_status
echo -n "Starting kernel log daemon..."
start-stop-daemon -S -q -o -x /usr/sbin/klogd
check_status
;;
*)
echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|reload|restart}"
exit 1
;;
esac
# End /etc/init.d/sysklogd
8.9. Setting up symlinks and permissions
o Set the proper file permissions and symlinks by running:
chmod 755 rcS reboot halt mountfs umountfs sendsignals checkroot sysklogd
cd ../rc0.d
ln -s ../init.d/sysklogd K90sysklogd
ln -s ../init.d/sendsignals S80sendsignals
ln -s ../init.d/umountfs S90umountfs
ln -s ../init.d/halt S99halt
cd ../rc6.d
ln -s ../init.d/sysklogd K90sysklogd
ln -s ../init.d/sendsignals S80sendsignals
ln -s ../init.d/umountfs S90umountfs
ln -s ../init.d/reboot S99reboot
cd ../rcS.d
ln -s ../init.d/checkroot S05checkroot
ln -s ../init.d/mountfs S10mountfs
cd /etc/rc2.d
ln -s ../init.d/sysklogd S03sysklogd
8.10. Creating the /etc/fstab file
o Create a file /etc/fstab containing the following:
/dev/<LFS-partition designation> / ext2 defaults 0 1
/dev/<swap-partition designation> none swap sw 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
9. Setting up basic networking
9.1. Installing Netkit-base
o Unpack the Netkit-base archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
cd etc.sample; cp services protocols /etc
mv /usr/bin/ping /bin
9.2. Installing Net-tools
o Unpack the Net-tools archive and install it by running:
make; make install
mv /usr/bin/netstat /bin
cd /usr/sbin; mv ifconfig route /sbin
9.2.1. Creating the /etc/init.d/localnet bootscript
o Create a new file /etc/init.d/localnet containing the following:
#!/bin/sh
# Begin /etc/init.d/localnet
check_status()
{
if [ $? = 0 ]
then
echo "OK"
else
echo "FAILED"
fi
}
echo -n "Setting up loopback device..."
/sbin/ifconfig lo 127.0.0.1
check_status
echo -n "Setting up hostname..."
/bin/hostname --file /etc/hostname
check_status
# End /etc/init.d/localnet
9.2.2. Setting up permissions and symlink
o Set the proper permissions by running chmod 755
/etc/init.d/localnet
o Create the proper symlinks by running cd /etc/rcS.d; ln -s
../init.d/localnet S03localnet
9.2.3. Creating the /etc/hostname file
Create a new file /etc/hostname and put the hostname in it. This is
not the FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name). This is the name you wish
to call your computer in a network.
9.2.4. Creating the /etc/hosts file
If you want to configure a network card, you have to decide on the IP-
address, FQDN and possible aliases for use in the /etc/hosts file. An
example is:
<myip> myhost.mydomain.org aliases
Make sure the IP-address is in the private network IP-address range.
Valid ranges are:
Class Networks
A 10.0.0.0
B 172.16.0.0 through 172.31.0.0
C 192.168.0.0 through 192.168.255.0
A valid IP address could be 192.168.1.1. A valid FQDN for this IP
could be me.linuxfromscratch.org
If you're not going to use a network card, you still need to come up
with a FQDN. This is necessary for programs like Sendmail to operate
correctly (in fact; Sendmail won't run when it can't determine the
FQDN).
Here's the /etc/hosts file if you don't configure a network card:
# Begin /etc/hosts (no network card version)
127.0.0.1 me.lfs.org <contents of /etc/hostname> localhost
# End /etc/hosts (no network card version)
Here's the /etc/hosts file if you do configure a network card:
# Begin /etc/hosts (network card version)
127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.1.1 me.lfs.org <contents of /etc/hostname>
# End /etc/hosts (network card version)
Of course, change the 192.168.1.1 and me.lfs.org to your own liking
(or requirements if you are assigned an IP-address by a network/system
administrator and you plan on connecting this machine to that
network).
9.2.5. Creating the /etc/init.d/ethnet file
This sub section only applies if you are going to configure a network
card. If not, skip this sub section and read on.
Create a new file /etc/init.d/ethnet containing the following:
#!/bin/sh
# Begin /etc/init.d/ethnet
check_status()
{
if [ $? = 0 ]
then
echo "OK"
else
echo "FAILED"
fi
}
/sbin/ifconfig eth0 <ipaddress>
check_status
# End /etc/init.d/ethnet
9.2.6. Setting up permissions and symlink for /etc/init.d/ethnet
o Set the proper permissions by running chmod 755 ethnet
o Create the proper symlinks by running cd ../rc2.d; ln -s
../init.d/ethnet S10ethnet
9.2.7. Testing the network setup
o Start the just created localnet script by running
/etc/init.d/localnet
o Start the just created ethnet script if you have one by running
/etc/init.d/ethnet
o Test if /etc/hosts is properly setup by running:
ping <your FQDN>
ping <what you choose for hostname>
ping localhost
ping 127.0.0.1
ping 192.168.1.1 (only when you configured your network card)
All these five ping command's should work without failures. If so, the
basic network is working.
9.3. Testing the system
Now that all software has been installed, bootscripts have been
written and the local network is setup, it's time for you to reboot
your computer and test these new scripts to verify that they actually
work. You first want to execute them manually from the /etc/init.d
directory so you can fix the most obvious problems (typos, wrong paths
and such). When those scripts seem to work just fine manually they
should also work during a system start or shutdown. There's only one
way to test that. Shutdown your system with shutdown -r now and reboot
into LFS. After the reboot you will have a normal login prompt like
you have on your normal Linux system (unless you use XDM or some sort
of other Display Manger (like KDM - KDE's version of XDM).
At this point your basic LFS system is ready for use. Everything else
that follows now is optional, so you can skip packages at your own
discretion. But do keep in mind that if you skip packages (especially
libraries) you can break dependencies of other packages. For example,
when the Lynx browser is installed, the zlib library is installed as
well. You can decide to skip the zlib library, but this library isn't
used by Lynx alone. Other packages require this library too. The same
may apply to other libraries and programs.
10. Installing Network Daemons
10.1. Setting up SMTP
10.1.1. Creating groups and user
Create the groups needed by Sendmail by running:
groupadd -g 1 bin
groupadd -g 2 kmem
groupadd -g 3 mail
useradd -u 1 -g bin -d /bin -s /bin/sh bin
10.1.2. Creating directory
Outgoing mail processed by Sendmail is put in the /var/spool/mqueue
directory. Incoming mail is forwarded to Procmail by Sendmail so we
need to have an incoming mail directory as well which is /var/mail.
We'll create these directories and give them the proper permissions:
mkdir /var/spool
mkdir /var/mail
cd /var/spool; ln -s ../mail mail
chmod 700 /var/spool/mqueue
chmod 775 /var/mail
chgrp mail /var/mail
chmod 1777 /tmp
10.1.3. Installing Sendmail
o Unpack the Sendmail archive and install it by running:
cd src
./Build; ./Build install
10.1.4. Configuring Sendmail
Configuring Sendmail isn't as easily said as done. There are a lot of
things you need to consider while configuring Sendmail and I can't
take everything into account. That's why at this time we'll create a
very basic and standard setup. If you want to tweak Sendmail to your
own liking, go right ahead, but this is not the right article. You
could always use your existing /etc/sendmail.cf (or
/etc/mail/sendmail.cf) file if you need to use certain features.
o Go to the cf directory
o Create a new file cf/lfs.mc containing the following:
OSTYPE(LFS)
FEATURE(nouucp)
define(`LOCAL_MAILER_PATH', /usr/bin/procmail)
MAILER(local)
MAILER(smtp)
o Create an empty file ostype/LFS.m4 by running touch ostype/LFS.m4
o Compile the lfs.mc file by running m4 m4/cf.m4 cf/lfs.mc >
cf/lfs.cf
o Copy the cf/lfs.cf to /etc/sendmail.cf
o Create an empty /etc/aliases file by running touch /etc/aliases
o Initialize this (empty) alias database by running sendmail -v -bi
10.1.5. Installing Procmail
o Unpack the Procmail archive and install it by running:
make; make install; make install-suid
10.1.6. Creating /etc/init.d/sendmail bootscript
o Create a new file /etc/init.d/sendmail containing the following:
#!/bin/sh
# Begin /etc/init.d/sendmail
check_status()
{
if [ $? = 0 ]
then
echo "OK"
else
echo "FAILED"
fi
}
case "$1" in
start)
echo -n "Starting Sendmail..."
start-stop-daemon -S -q -o -x /usr/sbin/sendmail -- -bd
check_status
;;
stop)
echo -n "Stopping Sendmail..."
start-stop-daemon -K -q -o -p /var/run/sendmail.pid
check_status
;;
reload)
echo -n "Reloading Sendmail configuration file..."
start-stop-daemon -K -q -s 1 -p /var/run/sendmail.pid
check_status
;;
restart)
echo -n "Stopping Sendmail..."
start-stop-daemon -K -q -o -p /var/run/sendmail.pid
check_status
sleep 1
echo -n "Starting Sendmail..."
start-stop-daemon -S -q -o -x /usr/sbin/sendmail -- -bd
check_status
;;
*)
echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|reload|restart}"
exit 1
;;
esac
# End /etc/init.d/sendmail
10.1.7. Setting up permissions and symlinks
o Set the proper permissions by running chmod 755
/etc/init.d/sendmail
o Create the proper symlinks by running:
cd /etc/init.d/rc2.d; ln -s ../init.d/sendmail S20sendmail
cd ../rc0.d; ln -s ../init.d/sendmail K20sendmail
cd ../rc6.d; ln -s ../init.d/sendmail K20sendmail
10.2. Setting up FTP
10.2.1. Creating groups and users
o Create the necessary groups by running:
groupadd -g 65534 nogroup
groupadd -g 4 ftp
o Create the necessary users by running:
useradd -u 65534 -g nogroup -d /home nobody
useradd -u 4 -g ftp -s /bin/sh -m ftp
10.2.2. Installing Proftpd
o Unpack the Proftpd archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
10.2.3. Creating the /etc/init.d/proftpd bootscript
o Create a new file /etc/init.d/proftpd containing the following:
#!/bin/sh
# Begin /etc/init.d/proftpd
check_status()
{
if [ $? = 0 ]
then
echo "OK"
else
echo "FAILED"
fi
}
case "$1" in
start)
echo -n "Starting Pro FTP daemon..."
start-stop-daemon -S -q -o -x /usr/sbin/proftpd
check_status
;;
stop)
echo -n "Stopping Pro FTP daemon..."
start-stop-daemon -K -q -o -x /usr/sbin/proftpd
check_status
;;
restart)
echo -n "Stopping Pro FTP daemon..."
start-stop-daemon -K -q -o -x /usr/sbin/proftpd
check_status
sleep 1
echo -n "Starting Pro FTP daemon..."
start-stop-daemon -S -q -o -x /usr/sbin/proftpd
check_status
;;
*)
echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}"
;;
esac
# End /etc/init.d/proftpd
10.2.4. Setting up permissions and symlinks
o Set the proper permissions by running chmod 755 /etc/init.d/proftpd
o Create the necessary symlinks by running:
cd /etc/rc2.d; ln -s ../init.d/proftpd S40proftpd
cd ../rc0.d; ln -s ../init.d/proftpd K40proftpd
cd ../rc6.d; ln -s ../init.d/proftpd K40proftpd
10.3. Setting up HTTP
10.3.1. Installing Apache
o Unpack the Apache archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
10.3.2. Configuring Apache
There's not much that needs to be configured. The only thing we need
to do is to add the /usr/apache/man path to /usr/share/misc/man.conf
o Edit the /usr/share/misc/man.conf file
o Add this line underneath the other lines that start with MANPATH:
MANPATH /usr/apache/man
10.3.3. Creating /etc/init.d/apache bootscript
o Create a new file /etc/init.d/apache containing the following:
#!/bin/sh
# Begin /etc/init.d/apache
case "$1" in
start)
echo -n "Starting Apache HTTP daemon..."
/usr/apache/bin/apachectl start
;;
stop)
echo -n "Stopping Apache HTTP daemon..."
/usr/apache/bin/apachectl stop
;;
restart)
echo -n "Restarting Apache HTTP daemon..."
/usr/apache/bin/apachectl restart
;;
force-restart)
echo -n "Stopping Apache HTTP daemon..."
/usr/apache/bin/apachectl stop
sleep 1
echo -n "Starting Apache HTTP daemon..."
/usr/apache/bin/apachectl start
;;
*)
echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|force-restart}"
;;
esac
# End /etc/init.d/apache
10.3.4. Setting up permissions and symlinks
o Set the proper permissions by running chmod 755 /etc/init.d/apache
o Create the necessary symlinks by running:
cd /etc/rc2.d; ln -s ../init.d/apache S50apache
cd ../rc0.d; ln -s ../init.d/apache K50apache
cd ../rc6.d; ln -s ../init.d/apache K50apache
10.4. Setting up Telnet
10.4.1. Installing telnet daemon + client
o Unpack the Netkit-telnet archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
10.4.2. Creating the /etc/inetd.conf configuration file
o Create a new file /etc/inetd.conf containing the following:
# Begin /etc/inetd.conf
telnet stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/in.telnetd
# End /etc/inetd.conf
10.4.3. Creating the /etc/init.d/inetd bootscript
o Create a new file /etc/init.d/inetd containing the following:
#!/bin/sh
# Begin /etc/init.d/inetd
check_status()
{
if [ $? = 0 ]
then
echo "OK"
else
echo "FAILED"
fi
}
case "$1" in
start)
echo -n "Starting Internet Server daemon..."
start-stop-daemon -S -q -o -x /usr/sbin/inetd
check_status
;;
stop)
echo -n "Stopping Internet Server daemon..."
start-stop-daemon -K -q -o -p /var/run/inetd.pid
check_status
;;
reload)
echo -n "Reloading Internet Server configuration file..."
start-stop-daemon -K -q -s 1 -p /var/run/inetd.pid
check_status
;;
restart)
echo -n "Stopping Internet Server daemon..."
start-stop-daemon -K -q -o -p /var/run/inetd.pid
check_status
sleep 1
echo -n "Starting Internet Server daemon..."
start-stop-daemon -S -q -o -x /usr/sbin/inetd
check_status
;;
*)
echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|reload|restart}"
;;
esac
# End /etc/init.d/inetd
10.4.4. Setting up permissions and symlinks
o Set the proper permissions by running chmod 755 /etc/init.d/inetd
o Create the necessary symlinks by running
cd /etc/rc2.d; ln -s ../init.d/inetd S30inetd
cd ../rc0.d; ln -s ../init.d/inetd K30inetd
cd ../rc6.d; ln -s ../init.d/inetd K30 inetd
10.5. Setting up PPP
10.5.1. Configuring the Kernel
Before you can logon to the Internet, the kernel must be ppp-aware.
You can accomplish this by compiling ppp-support directly into the
kernel, or compiling the ppp drivers are modules which you load when
you need them. Whatever you prefer, do it now by re-configuring the
kernel if necessary. If your LFS kernel is already ppp-aware than you
don't have to re-configure the kernel.
10.5.2. Creating group
o Create the daemon group by running groupadd -g7 daemon
10.5.3. Installing PPP
o Unpack the PPP archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
10.5.4. Creating /etc/resolv.conf
o Create a new file /etc/resolv.conf containing the following:
# Begin /etc/resolv.conf
nameserver <IP address of your ISP's primary DNS server>
nameserver <IP address of your ISP's secundary DNS server>
# End /etc/resolv.conf
10.5.5. Creating /etc/ppp/peers/provider
o Create the /etc/ppp/peers directory
o Create a new file /etc/ppp/peers/provider containing the following:
# Begin /etc/ppp/peers/provider
noauth
connect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/chatscripts/provider"
/dev/ttyS1
115200
defaultroute
noipdefault
# End /etc/ppp/peers/provider
10.5.6. Creating /etc/chatscripts/provider
o Create the /etc/chatscripts directory
o Create a new file /etc/chatscripts/provider containing the
following:
# Begin /etc/chatscripts/provider
ABORT BUSY
ABORT "NO CARRIER"
ABORT VOICE
ABORT "NO DIALTONE"
ABORT "NO ANSWER"
"" ATZ
OK ATDT <ISP's phonenumber>
TIMEOUT 35
CONNECT ''
TIMEOUT 10
ogin: \q<username>
TIMEOUT 10
assword: \q<mysecretpassword>
# End /etc/chatscripts/provider
10.5.7. Note on password authentication
As you see from the sample scripts (these are the actual scripts I use
when I'm not using X) above I logon to my ISP using this chatscripts
in stead of authenticating via pap or chap. Though my ISP supports
pap, I choose to do it this slightly different way which has it's
disadvantages and advantages. In my case the advantages outweigh the
disadvantages. This way I have more control over my logon procedure
and I can see closer what is happening when.
For example most times when I connect I have a window running tail -f
/var/log/syslog so I can keep an eye on when (with my provider it's
mostly 'if') things like the username and password are sent.
11. Installing Network Clients
11.1. Installing Email clients
11.1.1. Installing Mailx
o Unpack the Mailx archive and install it by running
make; make install
11.1.2. Installing Mutt
My favorite email client is Mutt, so that's why we're installing this
one. Feel free to skip the installation of Mutt and install your own
favorite client. After all, this is going to be your system. Not
mine.
If your favorite client is an X Window client (such as Netscape Mail)
then you'll have to sit tight a little while till we've installed X.
o Unpack the Mutt archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
11.1.3. Installing Fetchmail
o Unpack the Fetchmail archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
11.1.4. Testing the email system
It's time to test the email system now.
o Start Sendmail by running /usr/sbin/sendmail -bd (you need to start
sendmail using the full path. If you don't, you can't let sendmail
reload the sendmail.cf by running kill -1 <sendmail pid>).
o Send yourself an email by running echo "this is an email test" |
mail -s test root
o Start the mail program and you should see your email there.
o Create a new user by running useradd -m testuser; passwd testuser
o Send an email to testuser by running echo "test mail to testuser" |
mail -s test testuser
o Login as testuser, try to obtain that email (using the mail
program) and send an email to root in the same way as you send an
email to testuser.
If this all worked just fine, you have a working email system for
local email. It's not necessarily ready for Internet yet. You can
remove the testuser by running userdel -r testuser
11.2. Installing FTP client
11.2.1. Installing Netkit-ftp
o Unpack the Netkit-ftp archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
11.2.2. Testing FTP system
o Start the Pro ftp daemon by running /etc/init.d/proftpd start
o Start a ftp session to localhost by running ftp localhost
o Login as user anonymous and logout again.
11.3. Installing HTTP client
11.3.1. Installing Zlib
Zlib is a compression library, used by programs like PKware's zip and
unzip utilities. Lynx can use this library to compress certain files.
o Unpack the Zlib archive and install it by running:
./configure --shared
make; make install
11.3.2. Installing Lynx
o Unpack the Lynx archive and install it by running:
./configure --libdir=/etc --with-zlib
make; make install
make install-help; make install-doc
11.3.3. Testing HTTP system
o Start the Apache http daemon by running /etc/init.d/apache start
o Start a http session to localhost by running lynx
http://localhost
o Exit lynx.
11.4. Installing Telnet client
The Telnet client has already been installed when we installed the
Telnet daemon in the previous chapter.
11.4.1. Testing Telnet system
o Start the Internet Server daemon (and with it telnetd) by running
/etc/init.d/inetd start
o Start a telnet session to localhost by running telnet localhost
o Login and logout again.
11.5. Installing PPP clients
11.5.1. Creating the connect script
o Create a new file /usr/bin/pon file containing the following:
#!/bin/sh
# Begin /usr/bin/pon
/usr/sbin/pppd call provider
# End /usr/bin/pon
11.5.2. Creating the disconnect script
o Create a new file /usr/bin/poff file containing the following:
#!/bin/sh
# Begin /usr/bin/poff
set -- `cat /var/run/ppp*.pid`
case $# in
0)
kill -15 `ps axw|grep "pppd call [[allnum:]]+"|grep -v grep|awk '{print $1}'`
exit 0
;;
1)
kill -15 $1
exit 0
;;
esac
# End /usr/bin/poff
11.5.3. Testing PPP system
o Connect to the Internet by running pon
o Try to connect to a site like
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org
o Disconnect from the Internet by running poff
12. Installing X Window System
12.1. Installing X
o Unpack the X archive and install it by running:
make World
make install; make install.man
During the compilation process you will encounter a few errors about
the "makedepend" script not being able to find the stddef.h stdarg.h
and float.h header files. The script just isn't as smart as the
compiler is apparently, since the compilation itself does work fine
without compilation errors. Though, creating a few temporary symlinks
won't solve the problem; they only will cause more problems.
So you just ignore the many makedepend errors you most likely will be
getting. Also errors similar to "pointer targets in passing arg x of
somefunction differ in signedness". You can rewrite those files if you
feel like it. I won't do it.
12.2. Creating /etc/ld.so.conf
Create a new file /etc/ld.so.conf containing the following:
# Begin /etc/ld.so.conf
/lib
/usr/lib
/usr/X11R6/lib
# End /etc/ld.so.conf
o Update the dynamic loader cache by running ldconfig
12.3. Creating the /usr/include/X11 symlink
o In order for the pre-processor to find the X11/*.h files (which you
encounter in #include statements in source code) create the
following symlink: ln -s /usr/X11R6/include/X11 /usr/include/X11
12.4. Creating the /usr/X11 symlink
Often software copies files to /usr/X11 so it doesn't have to know
which release of X you are using. This symlink hasn't been created by
the X installation, so we have to create it by ourselves.
o Create the /usr/X11 symlink by running ln -s /usr/X11R6 /usr/X11
12.5. Adding /usr/X11/bin to the $PATH environment variable
There are a few ways to add the /usr/X11/bin path to the $PATH
environment variable. One way of doing so is the following:
o Create a new file /root/.bashrc with it's contents as follows:
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/X11/bin
You need to login again for this change to become effective. Or you
can update the path by running export PATH=$PATH:/usr/X11/bin manually
12.6. Configuring X
o Configure the X server by running xf86config
If the XF86Config file created by xf86config doesn't suffice, then you
better copy the already existing XF86Config from your normal Linux
system to /etc. Cases wherein you need to make special changes to the
file which aren't supported by the xf86config program force you to do
this. You can always modify the created XF86Config file by hand. This
can be very time consuming, especially if you don't quite remember
what needs to be changed.
12.7. Testing X
Now that X is properly configured it's time for our first test run.
o Start the X server by running startx
The X server should start and display 3 xterm's on your screen. If
this is true in your case, X is running fine.
12.8. Installing Window Maker
I choose to install Window Maker as the Window Manager. This is
because I've used WindowMaker for quite a while now and I'm very
satisfied with it. As usual, you don't have to do what I'm doing;
install whatever you want. As you might know, you can install several
Window Managers simultaneously and choose which one to start by
specifying it in the $HOME/.xinitrc (or $HOME/.xsession in case you
decide to use xdm) file.
12.9. Preparing the system for the Window Maker installation
12.9.1. Installing libPropList
o Unpack the libPropList archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
12.9.2. Installing libXpm
o Unpack the libXpm archive and install it by running:
xmkmf; make Makefiles; make includes; make depend
cd lib; make; make install
cd ..; make; make install
This slightly different installation is necessary due to a bug in one
of the Makefiles. It depends on files in the lib directory which
aren't installed yet and it's not searching for them in the lib
directory, so we have to install those files first before compiling
the actual package.
12.9.3. Installing libpng
o Unpack the libpng archive and install it by running:
make -f scripts/makefile.lnx; make -f scripts/makefile.lnx install
12.9.4. Installing libtiff
o Unpack the libtiff archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
12.9.5. Installing libjpeg
o Unpack the libjpeg archive and install it by running:
./configure --enable-shared --enable-static
make; make install
12.9.6. Installing libungif
o Unpack the libungif archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
12.9.7. Installing WindowMaker
o Unpack the WindowMaker archive and install it by running:
./configure
make; make install
12.10. Updating dynamic loader cache
o Update the dynamic loader cache by running: ldconfig
12.11. Configuring WindowMaker
Every user who wishes to use WindowMaker has to run the wmaker.inst
script before he or she can use it. This script will copy the
necessary files into the user's home directory and modify the
$HOME/.xinitrc file (or create it if it's not there yet).
o Setup WindowMaker for yourself by running wmaker.inst
12.12. Testing WindowMaker
o Start the X server and see if the WindowMaker Window Manager starts
properly by running startx
13. Resources
A list of books, HOWTOs and other documents you might find useful to
download or buy follows. This list is just a small list to start with.
We hope to be able to expand this list in time as we come across more
useful documents or books.
13.1. Books
o Sendmail published by O'Reilly. ISBN: 1-56592-222-0
o Linux Network Administrator's Guide published by O'Reilly. ISBN:
1-56592-087-2
o Running Linux published by O'Reilly. ISBN: 1-56592-151-8
13.2. HOWTOs
o ISP-Hookup-HOWTO at
http://ww.linuxdoc.org
o Linux Network Administrator's Guide online at
http://www.linuxdoc.org
13.3. Other
o The various manual and info pages that come with packages
14. The End
You have reached the end of the Linux From Scratch HOWTO. I hope this
experience helped you getting to know Linux better. If you have
anything that you think needs to be mentioned in here (be it a bug
fix, extra software which has been forgotten but which you consider
important) let us know. Together with your help and suggestions this
HOWTO can be improved significantly.
15. Copyright & Licensing Information
Copyright (C) 1999 by Gerard Beekmans. This document may be
distributed only subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the
LDP License at
http://www.linuxdoc.org/COPYRIGHT.html.
It is not necessary to display the license notice, as described in the
LDP License, when only a small part of this document (the HOWTO) is
quoted for informational or similar purposes. However, I do require
you to display with the quotation(s) a line similar to the following
line: "Quoted from the LFS-HOWTO at
http://huizen.dds.nl/~glb/
