On Fri, Nov 09, 2012 at 06:26:13PM +0000, Feuerbacher, Alan wrote: > Hi, > > I'm soon going to start building BLFS for the 2nd time -- this time on my new > system -- and I'd like some guidance on package dependencies. I'm building > the development version of LFS right now. > > The first time around I found by trial and error that most packages have > dependencies of some sort, either required or recommended. Some package > recommendations turned out to have circular dependencies, such as ghostscript > and texlive. Is there a way, short of looking at every package installation > page, to find the dependencies so that I can install everything in an > efficient manner?
Probably, but I don't know what it is :) In my own case, I build a shed-load of packages before rebooting. Then, docbook and related packages, followed (on a desktop) by the parts of xorg that I use or haven't got around to removing from my build. After that, I treat it as functional - one script builds the gtk toolkits and related packages, and allows me to build icewm, the next builds firefox with *all* the dependencies that I care about using system versions. From there on, I think about what is important and prioritise those packages. My last documented build, and some previous desktop versions, are in ~/ken/desktop-builds at lfs. The few parts of gnome which I use are still at 3.4. Since then, the only things I've updated have been firefox/xulrunner, webkit (1.8), a few libraries (all these for known vulnerabilities), and gutenprint (for printing changes, I rip out the whole cups stack, so e.g. cups-filters also got updated in my rebuild. > > Another thing: The first time around I had only a vague idea of what BLFS > packages would be useful to have already installed before I fired up LFS for > the first time. The LFS book recommends GPM, Lynx or the equivalent, and > Dhcpcd. > > What other BLFS packages would you recommend to make life easier? I have my > own ideas about this, having gone through the installation once, but I'd like > some advice from experienced people. > I'm not suggesting that any of these packages will be useful to you, but they are what I build and for a few of them I explain why I build them. You will notice that I don't build gpm : whenever I'm building a new system I do the first parts in an xterm or equivalent, and if I get a new machine I (*horror*) install a backup from a previous machine, fix up the details such as hostname and fstab, and build a kernel to suit. After that I use it to build LFS/BLFS properly. > The LFS book, in section 9.3, states: > > "Installing a text mode web browser, such as Lynx, you can easily view the > BLFS book in one virtual terminal, while building packages in another." > > This assumes that you've installed a terminal program of some sort. What > programs work well in a system that does not yet have X installed? > Someone, possibly you, asked this question recently - when an LFS box boots, you are in tty1. Use Alt-Fn to switch between the different terminals : where n is 1..6. And Alt-F7 to go back to a running X desktop if you ever switch to a tty. > Finally, as I installed certain BLFS programs, I found that a few required > certain modules to be installed in the Linux kernel. Is there a good way to > figure this out BEFORE compiling the kernel so that I don't have to recompile > it several times? > Again, it was asked recently, I think someone pointed out which pages mentioned the kernel (it's near the bottom of longindex.html). Personally, I'm not a believer in uptime on desktops - I use development kernels a lot, so recompiling to try something new is not a big deal. To be honest, you should work out the first part of what you want to build, and coming up with an order that seems to work, while you have a graphical browser. So, at a minimum xorg, your choice of browser, and whatever those pull in as dependencies. ĸen -- das eine Mal als Tragödie, das andere Mal als Farce -- http://linuxfromscratch.org/mailman/listinfo/blfs-support FAQ: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/faq.html Unsubscribe: See the above information page
