Preface

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 (http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/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 Introduction 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–December 2006)

My introduction to the [B]LFS project was actually by accident. I was trying to build a GNOME environment using some how-tos and other information I found on the web. A couple of times I ran into some build issues and Googling pulled up some old BLFS mailing list messages. Out for curiosity, I visited the Linux From Scratch web site and shortly thereafter was hooked. I've not used any other Linux distribution for personal use since.

I can't promise anyone will feel the sense of satisfaction I felt after building my first few systems using [B]LFS instructions, but I sincerely hope that your BLFS experience is as rewarding for you as it has been for me.

The BLFS project has grown significantly the last couple of years. There are more package instructions and related dependencies than ever before. The project requires your input for continued success. If you discover that you enjoy building BLFS, please consider helping out in any way you can. BLFS requires hundreds of hours of maintenance to keep it even semi-current. If you feel confident enough in your editing skills, please consider joining the BLFS team. Simply contributing to the mailing list discussions with sound advice and/or providing patches to the book's XML will probably result in you receiving an invitation to join the team.

Randy McMurchy
randy <at> linuxfromscratch.org
BLFS Editor (December 2006–Present)

Foreword to Version 6.2.0

Version 6.2.0 is the complement to the LFS 6.2 book. More time has elapsed between the release of the previous version (6.1) and this one than in any other release cycle. Much of this is due to the fact that LFS 6.2 took much longer to be released than was originally anticipated. Many new packages have been introduced in the 6.2.0 version, as well as many updates, refinements and additions to the existing packages.

The BLFS book now provides build and configuration instructions for almost 400 packages. Some of the new packages introduced in this version are: autotooled XOrg, HAL, D-BUS, GStreamer (now broken out into separate plugin packages), usbutils, libquicktime, GraphViz, K3b, dvd+rw-tools, NSS, Libidn, GAIM, Poppler, SeaMonkey, XChat, Audacious, cairo and unixODBC. Major updates include GNOME-2.14.3 (with several new GNOME packages such as Totem, gnome-mount and gnome-volume-manager), KDE-3.5.6, Firefox-1.5.x, Thunderbird-1.5.x, and most of the mainline server packages. As always, the list of packages that have been upgraded or added as well as configuration and build command changes are annotated in the Change Log.

Unfortunately, BLFS activity was semi-stagnant for several months after (and shortly before) the LFS 6.2 release. Therefore, many of the packages are somewhat dated (compared to previous BLFS versions). This brings us to why the versioning scheme has changed. This release is 6.2.0 as we fully anticipate releasing another version (6.2.1) just as soon as possible. The 6.2.1 release will also be based on the LFS-6.2 book, but will include updated packages, and fixes for any errors which may be discovered in 6.2.0.

As always, the main thrust of BLFS development will be to support the changes in the current LFS development book, but any changes or updates to the BLFS development book (that are compatible with LFS 6.2) will also be merged into the BLFS 6.2 branch. This way, a 6.2.1 version of BLFS should be released fairly soon, and should provide a very current and stable Linux platform.

Enjoy!

Randy McMurchy
January 31, 2007

Last updated on 2007-02-07 20:23:28 -0600