Linux From Scratch HOWTO

Gerard Beekmans

Version 2.0-beta2

This document describes the process of creating your own Linux system from scratch from an already installed Linux distribution, using nothing but the source code of software that we need

1. Introduction

1.1 What's this all about?

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

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

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

1.2 New versions

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

1.3 Version history

2.0-beta2 - Unknown date, sorry folks

1.3 - February 11th, 2000

1.2 - January 9th, 2000

1.1 - December 20th, 1999

1.0 - December 16th, 1999

1.4 Mailinglists

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

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

Subscribing

To subscribe to a list, send an email to majordomo@fist.org and type in the body either subscribe lfs-discuss or subscribe lfs-announce

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

Unsubscribing

To unsubscribe from a list, send an email to majordomo@fist.org 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 mailinglist. If you need to reach me personally, you can reach me, Gerard Beekmans, at tts-sol@dds.nl

2. Conventions used in this HOWTO

2.1 About $LFS

Please read the following very carefully: throughout this document you will very frequently see the variable name $LFS. $LFS must at all times be replaced by the directory where the partition that will contain the LFS system is mounted on. The creating and where to mount the partition will be explained in full detail in chatper 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, you best install it using your distribution's installation tool.

Note that immediately after we have unpacked the archive, we delete the packed 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 howto 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 sumarized 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.

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.

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/

Make (3.77) : 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/

File Utils (4.0) : ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/fileutils/

Util Linux (2.9z) : ftp://ftp.win.tue.nl/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/

Text Utils (1.22) : ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/textutils/

Tar (1.12) : ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/tar/

Gzip (1.2.4) : ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gzip/

Binutils (2.9.1) : ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/binutils/

Grep (2.2) : ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/grep/

Bison (1.25) : 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/

Diff Utils (2.7) : ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/diffutils/

Ld.so (1.9.10) : ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/packages/GCC/

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/

Automake (1.3) : ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/automake/

Autoconf (2.13) : ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/autoconf/

Glibc (2.0.7pre6) : ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/glibc/2.0.7pre6/

Glibc-crypt (2.0.pre6) : ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/glibc/2.0.7pre6/

Glibc-linuxthreads (2.0.7pre6) : ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/glibc/2.0.7pre6/

Libstdc++-2.91.60 : ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/slink/main/binary-i386/base/

Libstdc++-2.91.660-dev : ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/slink/main/binary-i386/devel/

GCC (2.7.2.3) : ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/

G++-2.91.60 : ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/slink/main/binary-i386/devel/

Ncurses (4.2) : ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/

Vim (5.5) : ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/editors/vim/

Readline Library (4.0) : ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/readline/

Termcap Library (1.3) : ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/termcap/

Flex (2.5.4a) : ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/flex/

Less (332) : ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/less/

E2fsprogs (1.12) : ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/packages/ext2fs/

File (3.26) : ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/slink/main/source/utils/

Libtool (1.2) : ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/libtool/

Modutils (2.3.7) : ftp://ftp.ocs.com.au/pub/modutils/

Linux86 (0.14.3) : ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/slink/main/source/devel

Lilo (21) : ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/boot/lilo/

DPKG (1.4.0.35) : ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/slink/main/source/base/

Sysklogd (1.3.31) : ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/daemons/

Groff (1.11.1) : ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/groff/

Man-db (2.3.10) : ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/slink/main/source/doc/

Procps (2.0.6) : ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/sources/usr.bin/

Procinfo (17) : ftp://ftp.cistron.nl/pub/people/svm/

Psmisc (19) : ftp://lrcftp.epfl.ch/pub/linux/local/psmisc/

Shadow Password Suite (19990827) : ftp://piast.t19.ds.pwr.wroc.pl/pub/linux/shadow/

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 : ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/linux/Networking/netkit-devel/

Net-tools (1.53) : http://www.tazenda.demon.co.uk/phil/net-tools/

Procmail (3.13.1) : ftp://ftp.procmail.org/pub/procmail/

Sendmail (8.9.3) : ftp://ftp.sendmail.org/pub/sendmail/

Mailx (8.1.1) : ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/slink/main/source/mail/

Mutt (1.0i) : ftp://ftp.mutt.org/pub/mutt/

Fetchmail (5.2.0) : http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/fetchmail/

Netkit-telnet : ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/linux/Networking/netkit-devel/

Proftpd (1.2.0pre9) : ftp://ftp.tos.net/pub/proftpd/

Netkit-ftp : ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/linux/Networking/netkit-devel/

Apache (1.3.3) : http://www.apache.org/dist/

Slang Library (1.3.10) : ftp://space.mit.edu/pub/davis/slang/

Zlib Library (1.1.3) : http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/zlib/

Lynx (2.8.1) : http://www.slcc.edu/lynx/release/

Xfree86 (3.3.2.3) : 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/

PPP (2.3.10) : ftp://cs.anu.edu.au/pub/software/ppp/

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 HOWTO 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).

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 parition's designation is. It could be something like hda5 (as it is in my case). This newly created partition will be refered 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 HOWTO 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 practise 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

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 a minimal directory tree on the LFS partition. issuing the following commands will create the necessary directories. 

cd $LFS
mkdir boot etc home mnt proc root tmp var usr
cd $LFS/usr
mkdir bin sbin src man include share lib
cd $LFS/man
mkdir man1 man2 man3 man4 man5 man6 man7 man8
cd $LFS/usr
ln -s . local
ln -s ../etc etc
ln -s ../var var
cd $LFS/usr/share
ln -s ../man man
cd $LFS
ln -s usr/lib lib
ln -s usr/bin bin
ln -s usr/sbin sbin

I am aware that a number of directories you have created above are in total violation with the FHS (File Hierarchy Standard - http://www.pathname.com/fhs/). The reason why I do this is just a preference. I want to keep certain files all together. For example the old standard was that man pages go in /usr/man and /usr/local/man. The most recent standard dictates that man pages should go in /usr/share/man (and possibly /usr/local/share/man). I just want them all to be in /usr/man so I know exactly in what directory a certain man page is and I don't have to start looking in various directories to find out where it is (although I can simply find a file with the 'locate' command I still prefer the way I do things).

If you want to create a file system that it completely according the FHS, then I urge you to take a look at www.pathname.com/fhs and create your directories accordingly.

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

Feel free to strip down the $LFS/dev directory, only leaving the devices you really need.

5. Making the LFS system bootable

5.1 Installing Sysvinit

Under normal circumstances, after the kernel's 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.

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


make 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:
 
si::sysinit:/etc/init.d/rcS
 
~~: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
z6:6:wait:/sbin/sulogin
 
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.

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 a 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. 

./configure --enable-static-link
make
cp bash $LFS/usr/bin
cd $LFS/usr/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. Please note that you will get errors regarding the init program not being able to start the rcS and rc scripts. Ignore those errors for now. It is normal. We will install these scripts in a later chapter.

Also note that 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 NSSlibrary (Name Server Switch) which is part of the GNU C Library, which also 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 ok).

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

cd $LFS/usr/include
ln -s ../src/linux/include/linux linux
ln -s ../src/linux/include/asm asm

6.3 Updating LILO

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 the GNU C and C++ Libraries

7.1 Installing the GNU C Library

We're not going to installed the latest Glibc version (2.1.2 at the time of writing), but version 2.0.7pre6. The reason is that glibc 2.1.2 requires at least gcc 2.8 (or egcs 1.1). My system has gcc 2.7.2.3 thus I can't compile the glibc2.1.2 library. A second reason is that I have used the 2.1.2 C library for a while and found out that certain software doens't run smoothly when linked against that library version. In the future we might undergo the transition to Glibc-2.1.x when we have been able to fix those programs. For now, we'll stick with the library and compiler in which I have most confidence.

A note on the glibc-crypt package. The following is quoted from the glibc-crypt-README file on ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/glibc: 

-*-*-*-*-*-
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/2.0.7pre6/. 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. 

# Begin configparms
prefix=/usr
slibdir=/lib
sysconfdir=/etc
localtime=localtime
# End configparms

You have to select the current timezone that you are in. What you need to enter here must be a file relative to the /usr/share/zoneinfo directory. You can determine what your timezone file is, by running ls -l /etc/localtime. The output of this command will tell you to what file this symlink is pointing. If your timezone file is /usr/share/zoneinfo/EST5EDT, you enter 'localtime=EST5EDT' in the configparms file. If your timezone file is /usr/share/zoneinfo/Canada/Eastern you enter 'localtime=Canada/Eastern' in the configparms file. 

make; make install_root=$LFS install

7.2 Installing the GNU C++ Library

This HOWTO used to install the C++ library from sources, but that has been changed and is an exception. The C++ library is installed from pre-compiled binaries. The reason is that I have not been able to find the sources for the C++ library version that I prefer to use. So until then we'll use pre-compiled binaries. My preference are Debian packages.

Installing the libstdc++2.9_2.91.66-0slink2.deb package

Installing the libstdc++2.9-dev_2.91.66-0slink2.deb package

8. Installing the GNU C and C++ compilers

This HOWTO used to install the C++ compiler from source, but that has been changed and is an exception. The C++ compiler is installed using pre-compiled binaries. The reason is that I have not been able to find the sources for the C++ compiler version that I prefer to use. So until then we'll use pre-compiled binaries.

We also will link the C compiler statically. Although Glibc is installed on our LFS system, we still are compiling the compiler on our normal Linux system. The normal Linux system may contain a different version of Glibc and the compiler will be linked against that version. Therefore we will link the compiler statically and later on when all statically linked software is being re-installed we also will re-install the compiler. This procedure is not necessary if both your normal Linux system and the LFS system use the same Library version, but since I don't know that we will do it this way.

8.1 Installing GCC 2.7.2.3

./configure
make LANGUAGES=c
make stage1 
make CC="stage1/xgcc -Bstage1/" CFLAGS="-g -O2" LDFLAGS=-static LANGUAGES=c
make stage2
make CC="stage2/xgcc -Bstage2/" CFLAGS="-g -O2" LDFLAGS=-static LANGUAGES=c
make compare

Please note that you will see errors during the "make stage1" and "make stage2" processes regarding files not being found. This is perfectly ok, as these errors are c++/objc/g77 compiler related files. We specify that we only want to install the C compiler, so you'll get those errors.

8.2 Installing the g++_2.91.66-0slink2.deb package

Note that this g++ compiler is already pre-compiled and linked against glibc 2.0.7. Therefore there is no need to re-install this package in a later stage.

8.3 Creating necessary symlinks

The system needs a few symlinks to ensure every program is able to find the compiler. 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. 

cd $LFS/usr/lib; ln -s gcc-lib/<host>/2.7.2.3/cpp cpp
cd $LFS/usr/bin
ln -s ../lib/gcc-lib/<host>/2.7.2.3/cpp cpp
ln -s gcc cc

Replace <host> with the directory where the gcc-2.7.2.3 files were installed (i686-unknown-linux in my case). You will most likely find two different directories. One of these is i484-linux. This is the directory that contains the C++ compiler files that we installed before. The directory for the gcc compiler will probably have a different name.

9. 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 install the ppp daemon to give an example.

There are a number of packages that need to be linked statically 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. During the installatin 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.

9.1 Preparing LFS system for installing basic system software

Installing Binutils

./configure
make LDFLAGS=-all-static
cp gas/as-new $LFS/usr/bin/as
cp gas/gasp-new $LFS/usr/bin/gasp
cp ld/ld-new $LFS/usr/bin/ld
cd binutils
cp addr2line ar c++filt nm-new objcopy objdump ranlib size strings strip-new $LFS/usr/bin
mv $LFS/usr/bin/nm-new $LFS/usr/bin/nm
mv $LFS/usr/bin/strip-new $LFS/usr/bin/strip

Install Diffutils

./configure
make LDFLAGS=-static
cp cmp diff diff3 sdiff $LFS/usr/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:/tts.ookhoi.dds.nl/lfs-howto/download/diffutils-2.7-lfs.tar.gz

Installing Fileutils

./configure
make LDFLAGS=-static
cd src
cp chgrp chmod chown cp dd  df dir dircolors du ginstall ln ls mkdir mkfifo mknod mv rm rmdir sync touch vdir $LFS/usr/bin
cd $LFS/bin
mv ginstall install
ln -s install ginstall

Installing grep

./configure
make LDFLAGS=-static
cd src
cp egrep fgrep grep $LFS/usr/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:/tts.ookhoi.dds.nl/lfs-howto/download/grep-2.4-lfs.tar.gz

Installing gzip

./configure
make LDFLAGS=-static
cp gunzip gzip $LFS/bin

This package is known to cause compilation problems on all platforms we have access to. If you're having trouble compiling this package as well, you can download a fixed package from http:/tts.ookhoi.dds.nl/lfs-howto/download/gzip-1.2.4-lfs.tar.gz

Installing Make

./configure
make LDFLAGS=-static
cp make $LFS/usr/bin

Installing Sed

./configure
make LDFLAGS=-static
cp sed/sed $LFS/usr/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:/tts.ookhoi.dds.nl/lfs-howto/download/sed-3.02-lfs.tar.gz

Installing Sh-utils

./configure
make LDFLAGS=-static
cd src
cp basename chroot date dirname echo env expr factor false groups hostid hostname id logname nice nohup pathchk pinky printenv printf pwd seq sleep stty su tee test true tty uname uptime users who whoami yes $LFS/usr/bin

Installing Tar

./configure
make LDFLAGS=-static
cp src/tar $LFS/bin

Installing Textutils

./configure
make LDFLAGS=-static
cd src
cp cat cksum comm csplit cut expand fmt fold head join md5sum nl od paste pr ptx sort split sum tac tail tr tsort unexpand uniq wc $LFS/usr/bin

Installing Util-linux

./configure
cd lib;make
cd ../mount;make LDFLAGS=-static mount umount
cp mount umount $LFS/sbin

9.2 Reboot into LFS

Before we install the rest of the basic system software, you first have to reboot into the LFS system before continuing. Once you're rebooted and logged in, remount the root partition in read-write mode by running: /sbin/mount -n -o remount,rw / /

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.

Installing Bison

./configure --disable-nls
make; make install

Installing Mawk

./configure
make; make install
cd /usr/bin; ln -s mawk awk

Installing Findutils

./configure
make; make install

This package is known to cause compilation problems on all platforms we have access to. If you're having trouble compiling this package as well, you can download a fixed package from http:/tts.ookhoi.dds.nl/lfs-howto/download/findutils-4.1-lfs.tar.gz

Installing Ncurses

./configure --with-shared
make; make install

Installing Less

./configure
make; make install

Installing Perl

./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.

Installing M4

./configure
make; make install

Installing Texinfo

./configure
make; make install

Installing Autoconf

./configure
make; make install

Installing Automake

./configure
make install

Installing Bash

./configure
make; make install

Installing Flex

./configure
make; make install

Installing Binutils

./configure
make; make install

Installing Diffutils

./configure
make; make install

Installing E2fsprogs

./configure
make; make install

Installing File

./configure
make; make install

Installing Fileutils

./configure
make; make install
cd /usr/bin 
rm ginstall; ln -s install ginstall

Installing GCC

./configure
make LANGUAGES=c
make stage1
make CC="stage1/xgcc -Bstage1/" CFLAGS="-g -O2" LANGUAGES=c
make stage2
make CC="stage2/xgcc -Bstage2/" CFLAGS="-g -O2" LANGUAGES=c
make compare
make CC="stage2/xgcc -Bstage2/" CFLAGS="-g -O2" LANGUAGES=c install

Installing Grep

./configure
make; make install

Installing Groff

./configure
make; make install

Installing Gzip

./configure
make; make install

This package is known to cause compilation problems on all platforms we have access to. If you're having trouble compiling this package as well, you can download a fixed package from http:/tts.ookhoi.dds.nl/lfs-howto/download/gzip-1.2.4-lfs.tar.gz

Installing Ld.so

cd util; make ldd ldconfig
cp ldd /bin; cp ldconfig /sbin

Installing Libtool

./configure
make; make install

Installing Linux86

cd as
make; make install
cd ../ld
make; make install

Installing Lilo

make; make install

Installing Make

./configure
make; make install

Installing Shadow Password Suite

./configure 
make; make install
cd etc
cp limits login.access login.defs.linux shells suauth /etc
mv /etc/login.defs.linux /etc/login.defs

Installing Man-db

groupadd -g 1 man
useradd -u 1 -g man man
./configure
make; make install

Installing Modutils

./configure
make; make install

Installing Termcap

./configure
make; make install

Installing Procinfo

make; make install

Installing Procps

make; make XSCPT="" install

Installing Psmisc

make; make install

Installing Sed

./configure
make; make install

Installing Sh-utils

./configure
make; make install

Installing start-stop-daemon

cd scripts; make start-stop-daemon
cp start-stop-daemon /usr/sbin
cp start-stop-daemon.8 /usr/man/man8

Installing Sysklogd

make; make install

Installing Sysvinit

cd src
make; make install

Install Tar

./configure
make; make install

Installing Textutils

./configure
make; make install

Installing Util-linux

./configure
cd lib; make
cd clock; make; make install
cd ../disk-utils; make; make install
cd ../fdisk; make; make install
cd ../login-utils; make agetty
cp agetty /sbin; cp agetty.8 /usr/man/man8
cd ../mount; make; make install
cd ../sys-utils; make; make install
cd ../text-utils; make MOREHELPDIR=/usr/share/more
make MOREHELPDIR=/usr/share/mor install

Installing Vim

./configure
make; make install

10. Creating initial boot scripts

10.1 Preparing the directories and master files

You need the Sysvinit package again for this section.

Create the necessary directories by issuing these commands: 

   cd /etc
   mkdir rc0.d rc1.d rc2.d rc3.d rc4.d rc5.d rc6.d init.d rcS.d


   #!/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

10.2 Creating the reboot script

   #!/bin/sh
   # Begin /etc/init.d/reboot
  
   echo -n "System reboot in progress..."
   
   /sbin/reboot -d -f -i
 
   # End /etc/init.d/reboot

10.3 Creating the halt script

   #!/bin/sh
   # Begin /etc/init.d/halt
 
   /sbin/halt -d -f -i -p
 
   # End /etc/init.d/halt

10.4 Creating the mountfs script

#!/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..."
/sbin/mount -n -o remount,rw /
check_status
 
> /etc/mtab
/sbin/mount -f -o remount,rw /
 
echo -n "Mounting proc file system..."
/sbin/mount proc
check_status
 
# End /etc/init.d/mountfs

10.5 Creating the umountfs script

#!/bin/sh
# Begin /etc/init.d/umountfs
 
check_status()
{
  if [ $? = 0 ]
  then
    echo "OK"
  else
    echo "FAILED"
  fi
} 
echo -n "Unmounting file systems..."
/sbin/umount -a -r 
check_status
 
echo -n "Remounting root file system in read-only mode..."
/sbin/mount -o remount,ro /
check_status
 
# End /etc/init.d/umountfs

10.6 Creating the sendsignals script

#!/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

10.7 Set file permissions and create symlinks

   cd ../rc6.d; ln -s ../init.d/umountfs S90umountfs
   ln -s ../init.d/reboot S99reboot
   ln -s ../init.d/sendsignals S80sendsignals
 
   cd ../rc0.d; ln -s ../init.d/umountfs S90umountfs
   ln -s ../init.d/halt S99halt
   ln -s ../init.d/sendsignals S80sendsignals
 
   cd ../rcS.d; ln -s ../init.d/mountfs S10mountfs

10.8 Creating the /etc/fstab file

   /dev/<LFS-partition device> / ext2 defaults 0 1
   /dev/<swap-partition device> none swap sw 0 0
   proc /proc proc defaults 0 0

10.9 Testing the system

You can test the system by restarting your computer and boot into LFS again. Any errors should be gone now and your root partition should be mounted in read-write mode automatically.

You can now finally restart your computer with a command like shutdown -r now

11. Installing the rest of the basic system software

The rest of the software that's part of our basic system will be installed in this section. You don't need all the software, but it's recommended to have it.

11.1 Installing E2fsprogs

Installing E2fsprogs

When compiling I'm getting this error: mke2fs.c:142:SCSI_DISK_MAJOR not defined. I solved it the following way:

Please note that I have no idea what this does when you're using a SCSI system, but I can guess not a heck of a lot of good. Since I'm using an IDE system this doesn't harm me. If you're using SCSI you're on your own I'm afraid since I have no idea on how to fix this. Perhaps you don't even get it when using (a) SCSI disk(s).

Creating the checkroot bootscript

We'll create a checkroot bootscript so that whenever we boot our LFS system, the root file system will be checked by fsck. 

#!/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
  mount -n -o remount,ro /
  if [ $? = 0 ]
  then
    if [ -f /forcecheck ]
    then
      force="-f"
    else
      force=""
    fi
 
    echo "Checking root file system..."
    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

Updating /etc/init.d/umountfs

echo "Deactivating swap..."
/sbin/swapoff -av

Creating proper permissions and creating symlink

11.2 Installing File

11.3 Installing Libtool

11.4 Installing Modutils

11.5 Installing Linux86

11.6 Installing Lilo

Installing Lilo

Configuring Lilo

Copying kernel image files

11.7 Installing DPKG

We don't install the Debian Package manger itself, but a small program that is shipped with this package; the start-stop-daemon program. This program is very useful in boot scripts so we're going to use it.

11.8 Installing Sysklogd

Installing Sysklogd

Configuring Sysklogd

Please note that the white spaces must be tabs and not just hitting the space bar a few times. 

#!/bin/sh
# Begin /etc/syslog.conf
 
auth,authpriv.*           /var/log/auth.log
*.*;auth,authpriv.none    /var/log/syslog
daemon.*                  /var/log/daemon.log
kern.*                    /var/log/kern.log
mail.*                    /var/log/mail.log
user.*                    /var/log/user.log
 
mail.info                 /var/log/mail.info
mail.warn                 /var/log/mail.warn
mail.err                  /var/log/mail.err
 
*.=info;*.=notice;*.=warn; \
  auth,authpriv.none; \
  daemon.none             /var/log/messages
 
*.emerg                   *
 
# End /etc/syslog.conf

Creating the Sysklogd bootscript

#!/bin/sh
# Begin /etc/init.d/sysklogd
 
test -f /usr/sbin/klogd || exit 0
test -f /usr/sbin/syslogd || exit 0
 
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

Setting up symlinks and permissions

cd /etc/rc2.d; ln -s ../init.d/sysklogd S03sysklogd
cd ../rc6.d; ln -s ../init.d/sysklogd K90sysklogd
cd ../rc0.d; ln -s ../init.d/sysklogd K90sysklogd

11.9 Installing Groff

11.10 Installing Man-db

11.11 Installing Procps

11.12 Installing Procinfo

11.13 Installing Procmisc

11.14 Installing Shadow Password

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, but you can avoid a hassle by testing properly and reading manuals ;)

12. Setting up basic networking

12.1 Installing Netkit-base

12.2 Installing Net-tools

Creating the /etc/init.d/localnet bootscript

#!/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

Setting up permissions and symlink

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.

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 somealiases

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.lfs.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).

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

Setting up permissions and symlink for /etc/init.d/ethnet

Testing the network setup

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.

13. Setting up Email sub system

13.1 Preparing system for Email sub system

Creating extra groups and user

We need to add a few groups and a user which will be used by the email utilities.

Creating directories

There are two directories used by the email sub system, thus we need to create them and give them the proper permissions.

13.2 Installing Procmail

13.3 Installing Sendmail

Installing Sendmail

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. 

OSTYPE(LFS)
FEATURE(nouucp)
define(`LOCAL_MAILER_PATH', /usr/bin/procmail)
MAILER(local)
MAILER(smtp)

13.4 Installing Mailx

Ignore possible 'comparison between pointer and integer' and 'assignments makes integer from pointer without a cast' warnings. You'll probably get quite a few of these. Though, the program seems to work just fine nevertheless.

13.5 Creating /etc/init.d/sendmail bootscript

#!/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 -p /var/run/sendmail.pid \
        -x /usr/sbin/sendmail -- -bd
    check_status
    ;;
 
  stop)
    echo -n "Stopping Sendmail..."
    start-stop-daemon -K -q -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 -p /var/run/sendmail.pid
    check_status
 
    sleep 1
 
    echo -n "Starting Sendmail..."
    start-stop-daemon -S -q -p /var/run/sendmail.pid \
        -x /usr/sbin/sendmail -- -bd
    check_status
    ;;
 
  *)
    echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|reload|restart}"
    exit 1
    ;;
 
esac
 
# End /etc/init.d/sendmail

13.6 Setting up permissions and symlinks

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

13.7 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.

13.8 Installing Fetchmail

13.9 Testing the Email sub system

It's time to test the email system now.

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

14. Installing Internet Servers

In this section we're going to install three of the most used Internet servers, together with the necessary clients. These are going to be installed:

telnetd with the standard telnet client

proftpd with the standard ftp client

apache with lynx as client

14.1 Installing telnet daemon + client

14.2 Installing Proftpd

14.3 Installing Netkit-ftp

14.4 Installing Apache

Apache isn't that easily configured. Like with Sendmail, a lot depends on your own preference and system setup. Therefore, once I again I stick with a very basic installation. If this doesn't work well enough for you, read the documentation and modify whatever you need to.

14.5 Installing Slang Library

The Slang library is an alternative to the Ncurses library. We're going to use this library to link Lynx against. Though Lynx works fine with the Ncurses library, people recommend using the Slang library. I myself can't find a difference between a Lynx linked against the Slang library or against the Ncurses library. However, I'll just follow that advise and use Slang.

14.6 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.

14.7 Installing Lynx

14.8 Configuring the daemons

It's possible to run the daemons in either stand-alone mode or via the Internet Server daemon (inetd). Where possible, I choose to run the daemons in stand-alone mode. This makes it easier to start and stop individual processes without modifying the /etc/inetd.conf file constantly.

However, in the telnetd case it's better to run it via inetd, since telnetd doesn't seem to respawn itself when the last user logs out. This would mean as soon as the last person logs out from the telnet session, the telnet daemon stops as well. This isn't desirable, so we let telnetd run using inetd to spawn a telnet process whenever somebody logs on.

14.9 Configuring telnetd

Creating the /etc/inetd.conf configuration file

# Begin /etc/inetd.conf
 
telnet stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/in.telnetd
 
# End /etc/inetd.conf

Creating the /etc/init.d/inetd bootscript

#!/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 -p /var/run/inetd.pid \
         -x /usr/sbin/inetd
    check_status
    ;;
 
  stop)
    echo -n "Stopping Internet Server daemon..."
    start-stop-daemon -K -q -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 -p /var/run/inetd.pid
    check_status
 
    sleep 1
 
    echo -n "Starting Internet Server daemon..."
    start-stop-daemon -S -q -p /var/run/inetd.pid \
        -x /usr/sbin/inetd
    check_status
    ;;
 
  *)
    echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|reload|restart}"
    ;;
 
esac
 
# End /etc/init.d/inetd

Setting up permissions and symlinks

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

14.10 Configuring proftpd

Creating necessary groups and users

groupadd -g 65534 nogroup
groupadd -g 4 ftp


useradd -u 65534 -g nogroup -d /home nobody
useradd -u 4 -g ftp -m ftp

Creating the /etc/init.d/proftpd bootscript

#!/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 -x /usr/sbin/proftpd
    check_status
    ;;
 
  stop)
    echo -n "Stopping Pro FTP daemon..."
    start-stop-daemon -K -q -x /usr/sbin/proftpd
    check_status
    ;;
 
  restart)
    echo -n "Stopping Pro FTP daemon..."
    start-stop-daemon -K -q -x /usr/sbin/proftpd
    check_status
 
    sleep 1
 
    echo -n "Starting Pro FTP daemon..."
    start-stop-daemon -S -q -x /usr/sbin/proftpd
    check_status
    ;;
 
  *)
    echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}"
    ;;
 
esac
 
# End /etc/init.d/proftpd

Setting up permissions and symlinks

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

14.11 Configuring apache

Editing apache configuration file

Edit the files in the /usr/apache/etc directory and modify them according to your own needs.

Creating /etc/init.d/apache bootscript

#!/bin/sh
# Begin /etc/init.d/apache
 
case "$1" in
  start)
    echo -n "Starting Apache HTTP daemon..."
    /usr/apache/sbin/apachectl start
    ;;
 
  stop)
    echo -n "Stopping Apache HTTP daemon..."
    /usr/apache/sbin/apachectl stop
    ;;
 
  restart)
    echo -n "Restarting Apache HTTP daemon..."
    /usr/apache/sbin/apachectl restart
    ;;
 
  force-restart)
    echo -n "Stopping Apache HTTP daemon..."
    /usr/apache/sbin/apachectl stop
 
    sleep 1
 
    echo -n "Starting Apache HTTP daemon..."
    /usr/apache/sbin/apachectl start
    ;;
 
  *)
    echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|force-restart}"
    ;;
 
esac
 
# End /etc/init.d/apache

Setting up permissions and symlinks

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

14.12 Testing the daemons

The last step in this section is testing the just installed and configured daemons.

If these tests ran without trouble, the daemons are all working fine.

15. Installing X Window System

15.1 Installing X

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 for some reason.

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.

15.2 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

15.3 Modifying /etc/man_db.config

15.4 Creating the /usr/include/X11 symlink

15.5 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.

15.6 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:

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

15.7 Configuring X

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.

15.8 Testing X

Now that X is properly configured it's time for our first test run.

The X server should start and display 3 xterm's on your screen. If this is true in your case, X is running fine.

16. 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.

16.1 Preparing the system for the Window Maker installation

Installing libPropList

Installing libXpm

Ignore the warning about not being able to find the X11/xpm.h file from make depend.

The compilation process will abort because the X11/xpm.h file cannot be found. So we install this file now and then recompile.

Installing libpng

Installing libtiff

Installing libjpeg

Installing libungif

Installing WindowMaker

16.2 Updating dynamic loader cache

16.3 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).

16.4 Testing WindowMaker

17. Configuring system for Internet

17.1 Configuring 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.

17.2 Creating groups and directories

17.3 Installing PPP

17.4 Creating /etc/resolv.conf

# Begin /etc/resolv.conf
 
nameserver <IP address of your ISP's primairy DNS server>
nameserver <IP address of your ISP's secundairy DNS server>
 
# End /etc/resolv.conf

17.5 Creating the connect and disconnect scripts

#!/bin/sh
# Begin /usr/bin/pon
 
/usr/sbin/pppd call provider
 
# End /usr/bin/pon


#!/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

17.6 Creating /etc/ppp/peers/provider

# 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

17.7 Creating /etc/chatscripts/provider

# 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

17.8 Note on password authentication

As you see from the sample scripts (these are the actual scripts I'm using myself) 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 things like the username and password are sent.

17.9 Other resources

For a far more detailed guide on how to set up Internet, I refer to Egil Kvaleberg's ISP-Hookup-HOWTO which is available from the LDP site at http://www.linuxdoc.org/

18. Migrations from old to new setups

This section is only to be used by people who have installed an LFS system using previous versions of this HOWTO. If a major change in an installation approach has taken place, you first need to take some actions such as removing existing files from a package before you can re-install that package. This section is used to assist people who obtained an old, obsolete version of this HOWTO and after installing the LFS system noticed that there's a new HOWTO (like this one) fixing things that went wrong in the older versions.

18.1 Migrating from old C++ Library setup to the new setup

This section only applies to people who have previously installed the C++ Library using LFS-HOWTO version 1.0, 1.1 or 1.2.

18.2 Migrating from old compiler setup to the new setup

This section only applies to people who have previously installed compilers using LFS-HOWTO 1.0, 1.1 or 1.2.

19. 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/