Going Beyond BLFS

The packages that are installed in this book are only the tip of the iceberg. We hope that the experience you gained with the LFS book and the BLFS book will give you the background needed to compile, install and configure packages that are not included in this book.

When you want to install a package to a location other than /, or /usr, you are installing outside the default environment settings on most machines. The following examples should assist you in determining how to correct this situation. The examples cover the complete range of settings that may need updating, but they are not all needed in every situation.

If you are in search of a package that is not in the book, the following are different ways you can search for the desired package.

Some general hints on handling new packages:

[Tip]

Tip

If you have found a package that is only available in .deb or .rpm format, there are two small scripts, rpm2targz and deb2targz that are available at https://anduin.linuxfromscratch.org/BLFS/extras/deb2targz.tar.bz2 and https://anduin.linuxfromscratch.org/BLFS/extras/rpm2targz.tar.bz2 to convert the archives into a simple tar.gz format.

You may also find an rpm2cpio script useful. The Perl version in the linux kernel archives at https://lore.kernel.org/all/[email protected]/2-rpm2cpio works for most source rpms. The rpm2targz script will use an rpm2cpio script or binary if one is on your path. Note that rpm2cpio will unpack a source rpm in the current directory, giving a tarball, a spec file, and perhaps patches or other files.