tldrlfs

Too Long; Didn't Read Linux From Scratch

In short, this guide will teach you to build a working operating system that uses the Linux kernel in much fewer commands than LFS. It will take a much smaller amount of time, copious amounts of alcohol if you're so inclined, and plenty of cursing.

Preface

Linux From Scratch, while it is a great book, provides a lot of unnecessary information. To get a Linux based operating system off of the ground, you only need two things, Linux, and an init. That's it. Of course, you will probably want to tailor your distribution to a specific purpose -- maybe you want a desktop, a specialized media server -- but whatever it may be, the two components mentioned above are the greatest common denominator. This GitHub repository README will guide you through the bare minimum for a running operating system using the Linux kernel, and just a little bit more to make it more usable.

The content that will be covered in this guide include the following:

• Building the Linux kernel
• Installing an init for the system to use
• Installing a shell
• Installing an implementation of core utilities
• Installing a bootloader

Prerequisites:

• An already running Linux install to bootstrap from*
• A storage medium to install to*

* If you don't want to work on actual hardware, you are always able to work from a virtual machine.

If you're ready to begin, go ahead and read on.

Preparing Storage Medium

You'll need to create a directory to work in. It can be named anything, but for the purposes of TLDRLFS, it'll be called "build". Once a build directory has been made you'll need to mount and format your storage medium. Hopefully you don't have anything you need on that medium. TLDRLFS assumes that your device is /dev/sdb.

$ mkdir -p ./build
$ export BUILDDIR=./build
$ fdisk /dev/sdb # partition the disk (translation, just fuck all the data on the device and make a single partition)
$ mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1
$ mount /dev/sdb1 ./build

You'll need some additional directories to boot the system and have some usable tools, but for now we'll just need /boot.

$ mkdir -p $BUILDDIR/boot