Preface

%general-entities; ]> Preface $LastChangedBy$ $Date$ Foreword Having helped out with Linux From Scratch for a short time, I noticed that we were getting many queries as to how to do things beyond the base LFS system. At the time, the only assistance specifically offered relating to LFS were the LFS hints (). Most of the LFS hints are extremely good and well written but I (and others) could still see a need for more comprehensive help to go Beyond LFS - hence BLFS. BLFS aims to be more than the LFS-hints converted to XML although much of our work is based around the hints and indeed some authors write both hints and the relevant BLFS sections. We hope that we can provide you with enough information to not only manage to build your system up to what you want, whether it be a web server or a multimedia desktop system, but also that you will learn a lot about system configuration as you go. Thanks as ever go to everyone in the LFS/BLFS community; especially those who have contributed instructions, written text, answered questions and generally shouted when things were wrong! Finally, we encourage you to become involved in the community; ask questions on the mailing list or news gateway and join in the fun on #lfs at irc.linuxfromscratch.org. You can find more details about all of these in the section of the book. Enjoy using BLFS.

Mark Hymers markh <at> linuxfromscratch.org BLFS Editor (July 2001–March 2003)

I still remember how I found the BLFS project and started using the instructions that were completed at the time. I could not believe how wonderful it was to get an application up and running very quickly, with explanations as to why things were done a certain way. Unfortunately, for me, it wasn't long before I was opening applications that had nothing more than "To be done" on the page. I did what most would do, I waited for someone else to do it. It wasn't too long before I am looking through Bugzilla for something easy to do. As with any learning experience, the definition of what was easy kept changing. We still encourage you to become involved as BLFS is never really finished. Contributing or just using, we hope you enjoy your BLFS experience.

Larry Lawrence larry <at> linuxfromscratch.org BLFS Editor (March 2003–June 2004)

The BLFS project is a natural progression of LFS. Together, these projects provide a unique resource for the Open Source Community. They take the mystery out of the process of building a complete, functional software system from the source code contributed by many talented individuals throughout the world. They truly allow users to implement the slogan "Your distro, your rules." Our goal is to continue to provide the best resource available that shows you how to integrate many significant Open Source applications. Since these applications are constantly updated and new applications are developed, this book will never be complete. Additionally, there is always room for improvement in explaining the nuances of how to install the different packages. To make these improvements, we need your feedback. I encourage you to participate on the different mailing lists, news groups, and IRC channels to help meet these goals.

Bruce Dubbs bdubbs <at> linuxfromscratch.org BLFS Editor (June 2004–Present)

Preface to Version 6.0 Version 6.0 is a major milestone in the evolution of BLFS. This version provides installation instructions for 357 packages and an additional 21 sections covering configuration and customization of different aspects of your system. Changes and upgrades to the individual packages are detailed in the . There you will see literally hundreds of changes made since the last edition. In this change log, one name that you will see over and over is Randy McMurchy. Without his efforts this release would not have been possible. I want to take this opportunity to thank him for the hundreds of hours he has worked to produce this release. I also want to thank the other editors, both past and present, whose insight and effort have made this current version possible. Last, but certainly not least, I want to thank our resident XSL wizard, Manuel Canales Esparcia, whose ability to format a complicated document such as BLFS is truly amazing. There are two other areas of change that are worthy of note. First, the license that BLFS is released under has changed significantly. In fact, it is now released under two licenses. The first license, the , covers the descriptive text in the book. The second, the , covers the instructions actually used to build and install the packages. These licenses, along with the book itself, represent our ongoing commitment to open and free software. The final area of change is the addition of an Index. This section of the book is still incomplete, but as the book continues to be developed, will become an excellent resource for finding programs, libraries, configuration files, and references to kernel configuration requirements. I hope you find it useful.

Bruce Dubbs March 17, 2005

Preface to Version 6.1 Version 6.1 is an incremental update of BLFS. This version continues the tradition of providing an extensive set of instructions for extending a basic Linux From Scratch system. The instructions in this version of BLFS are based on the LFS 6.1 Book. As usual, the list of packages that have been upgraded or added are in the . One major accomplishment in this version of the book is the completion of the Index. This section is now a relatively complete (but not perfect) reference for the components of the various packages in the book. In any task as large and complex as this book, there are bound to be errors. The editors of the book are dedicated to keeping the book up to date. We appreciate any feedback in helping us to make the book as accurate as possible. The best place to provide comments is via the mailing list at . Enjoy!

Bruce Dubbs August 1, 2005

$LastChangedBy$ $Date$ Who Would Want to Read this Book This book is mainly aimed at those who have built a system based on the LFS book. It will also be useful for those who are using other distributions, but for one reason or another want to manually build software and are in need of some assistance. Note that the material contained in this book, in particular the dependency listings, is based upon the assumption that you are using a base LFS system with every package listed in the LFS book already installed and configured. BLFS can be used to create a range of diverse systems and so the target audience is probably nearly as wide as that of the LFS book. If you found LFS useful, you should also like this! Since Release 5.0, the BLFS book version matches the LFS book version. This book may be incompatible with a previous or latter release of the LFS book. $LastChangedBy$ $Date$ Organization This book is divided into the following parts. Part I - Introduction This part contains information which is essential to the rest of the book. Part II - Post LFS Configuration and Extra Software Here we introduce basic configuration and security issues. We also discuss a range of editors, file systems, and shells which aren't covered in the main LFS book. Part III - General Libraries and Utilities In this section we cover libraries which are often needed by the rest of the book as well as system utilities. Information on Programming (including recompiling GCC to support its full range of languages) concludes this part. Part IV - Connecting to a Network Here we cover how to connect to a network when you aren't using the simple static IP setup given in the main LFS book. Part V - Basic Networking Networking libraries and command-line networking tools make up the bulk of this part. Part VI - Major Servers Here we deal with setting up mail and other servers (such as SSH, Apache, etc.). Part VII - X + Window Managers This part explains how to set up a basic X Window System installation along with some generic X libraries and Window managers. Part VIII - KDE For those who want to use the K Desktop Environment or some parts of it, this part covers it. Part IX - GNOME GNOME is the main alternative to KDE in the Desktop Environment arena and we cover both GNOME-1.4 and GNOME-&gnome-version; here. Part X - X Software Office programs and graphical web browsers are important to most people. They, along with some generic X software can be found in this part of the book. Part XI - Multimedia Here we cover setting multimedia libraries and drivers along with some audio, video and CD-writing programs. Part XII - Printing, Scanning and Typesetting (PST) The PST part of the book covers document handling with applications like Ghostscript, CUPS and DocBook to installing TeX. Appendices The Appendices cover information which doesn't belong in the main book; they are mainly there as a reference.