I use jhalfs and the live CD to build my base LFS platform and nALFS to build on that, but I find it less than ideal and quite cumbersome.
Because I have "invested" in a number of scripts to augment the default blfs nALFS config I feel compelled to continue using it, but I really don't like the XML format build files and don't understand the lack of conditional constructs; what's wrong with plain old scripts or makefiles? The way I understand jhalfs (correct me if I am wrong) is that it is designed to build using the commands in the book. Now, I can see the value in this approach for LFS where you do want to build everything but I think with BLFS things are so much more bespoke. I have taken the nALFS BLFS config as a base and I have substantially extended it so I end up with a complete running system with components that have been configured to talk to each other properly (e.g. I have pam, nss, ldap, ssl, ssh, samba, etc working together out of the box). Just "building the BLFS book" would not give you this level of cohesion. I have added several things that the blfs book does not cover. I am not saying the book is deficient because I see it as an "a la carte menu" where you pick and mix the bits you require and then supplement it yourself. I am very happy with the way my system has turned out but the work involved in integration and automating that integration can not be underestimated; and, I still have a long way to go. If jhalfs is so much better then I'd like to move to that, perhaps a conversion tool to migrate nALFS build scripts into jhalfs would help in this transition - is there such a thing? This, for me, is a hobby not a job and I simply don't have the time to spend migrating my scripts that already work. The downside to this is I am still writing nALFS scripts for new stuff and only wish I wasn't. Part of the problem with jhalfs is I have found the lack of documentation prevents me from seeing how it can be used beyong the scope of the LFS book. -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web.com What can On Demand Business Solutions do for you? http://link.mail2web.com/Business/SharePoint -- http://linuxfromscratch.org/mailman/listinfo/blfs-support FAQ: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/faq.html Unsubscribe: See the above information page
