%general-entities; ]> This chapter shows how to build a minimal Linux system. This system will contain just enough tools to start constructing the final LFS system in and allow a working environment with more user convenience than a minimum environment would. There are two steps in building this minimal system. The first step is to build a new and host-independent toolchain (compiler, assembler, linker, libraries, and a few useful utilities). The second step uses this toolchain to build the other essential tools.