How to build distro from scratch


Recommended Posts

I am not experienced enough to do it, but I am just curious.

I mean, the kernel itself does nothing. Do you have to format a partiton as ext3 or something, place all bin files there and then it will work?`

Just tell it simple, I am not going to do it.

585698810[/snapback]

There's a book about how to do that, it's free and open source.

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

EDIT: The latest release for online viewing is here. Starts with partitioning, then setting up a tool chain, boot strapping adding the system tools, and finally being rebooting.

To make a useable distribution takes about a month of half-hearted work (for a cross compiled to run on an old MIPs system). To use on a PC with a graphical interface is a week or two of work - most of it waiting for things to compile and fooling around fixing dependencies by yourself: I don't recommend it unless you really want to make a hobby of Linux.

The best part: You could have found this amazing resource by simply putting your post title ("how to build [linux] distro from scratch" into a google search bar and clicking "I'm feeling lucky".

There's a book about how to do that, it's free and open source.

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

EDIT: The latest release for online viewing is here. Starts with partitioning, then setting up a tool chain, boot strapping adding the system tools, and finally being rebooting.

To make a useable distribution takes about a month of half-hearted work (for a cross compiled to run on an old MIPs system). To use on a PC with a graphical interface is a week or two of work - most of it waiting for things to compile and fooling around fixing dependencies by yourself: I don't recommend it unless you really want to make a hobby of Linux.

The best part: You could have found this amazing resource by simply putting your post title ("how to build [linux] distro from scratch" into a google search bar and clicking "I'm feeling lucky".

585698980[/snapback]

Okay. Thanks.

About googling, I don't want to read 2464 paged books or sites, I just want a short responce, like yours.

I was actually going to post the same question. I was really curious, and that's a great site. Thanks!

585705364[/snapback]

Totally agreed, I mean there's far too many distros out there - so I always wondered what it would take to actually build a custom one.

I won't be doing this anytime soon - I mean, why be annoying and released another one out (when they're all essentially the same, except for program installations).

duh! the point of this thread is to make one's own distro - not to use an existing one.

585710580[/snapback]

I don't see much difference.

You choose all the packages on your system with portage, in an easy and powerful environment, and get easy access to all the latest code and kernels. How is that different to building your own distro really, when you think about it you could save allot of time doing it this way :)

"(when they're all essentially the same, except for program installations)."

:yes:

Edited by Knight'

Knight', that's true, but it doesn't address the point of the thread:

Just tell it simple, I am not going to do it.
He's looking for information on how distros are built, not how he could go about getting a customised box set up. There's a fine line... but the difference is that he wants the 'theory' of it, not what is practical. That's what I think he means, anyway.
Knight', that's true, but it doesn't address the point of the thread:He's looking for information on how distros are built, not how he could go about getting a customised box set up. There's a fine line... but the difference is that he wants the 'theory' of it, not what is practical. That's what I think he means, anyway.

585712263[/snapback]

Fair enough, I misread what he was asking for. :)

Check this out:

http://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/index.php?pagename=LFS

It's not "simple" but it does describe howto build your own distro.

Fair enough, I misread what he was asking for. :)

Check this out:

http://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/index.php?pagename=LFS

It's not "simple" but it does describe howto build your own distro.

585715172[/snapback]

Now you're with us :) and damn, that's a lot of sub-chapters. I guess I'll be skipping that any time quick.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Euro-Office must default to ODF to be considered "genuinely European", LibreOffice argues by David Uzondu Euro-Office is a web-based collaborative office suite that positions itself as a "European sovereign alternative" to American tech companies, backed by a coalition of developers including Nextcloud, IONOS, Abilian, BTactic, OpenProject, and, more recently, Tuta. The project officially went live a couple of days ago, but not before drawing heavy fire from LibreOffice developers, who called the marketing claim that Euro-Office represents the "first open-source office suite developed in Europe" a deceptive historical inaccuracy because projects like OpenOffice and LibreOffice existed decades earlier. Now that the project has launched, LibreOffice is back with another complaint, arguing that Euro-Office cannot consider itself "genuinely European" while it pushes proprietary Microsoft defaults on users. Euro-Office had promised to improve the OpenDocument Format (ODF) back in April, but the current release still plagues users with several technical failures. For instance, the suite lacks an admin setting to enforce ODF, and mobile editors completely block ODF saves, forcing files into Microsoft's OOXML formats. Some configurations force files into read-only mode, while editing frequently corrupts document formatting or erases data. LibreOffice thinks that merely supporting a format as an afterthought does not make you a sovereign alternative, as file formats are the battleground where" digital sovereignty is won or lost." The road to the first stable release of Euro-Office has been quite bumpy due to an aggressive public fallout with OnlyOffice, from which the coalition originally forked the project. OnlyOffice struck back by accusing the coalition of violating copyright terms under its AGPLv3 branding requirements by stripping the original branding anyway and forking the code. Getting Euro-Office up and running is a bit wonky (at least for non-technical users), as there is no direct installer to grab off the web. The easiest way we learnt is by using Docker. First, pull the official Euro-Office image from the GitHub Container Registry: docker pull ghcr.io/euro-office/documentserver:latest Then, run the container with active ports and a secure JWT token, enabling the test environment: docker run -i -t -d -p 8080:80 --restart=always -e EXAMPLE_ENABLED=true -e JWT_SECRET=my_secure_jwt_secret ghcr.io/euro-office/documentserver:latest And finally, open a web browser and go to the following address: http://localhost:8080 If you are running this on a remote server, replace localhost with your server's IP address. You will see the Euro-Office test page, where you can create new text documents, spreadsheets, or presentations directly in the browser. Image via Euro-Office Nextcloud promises that proper standalone desktop versions and mobile apps will arrive in a future release.
    • It’s any of their products not just windows.
    • Google Gemini has been failing for users across the United States, Europe, and Asia since early Wednesday morning, June 10, 2026, and more than six hours into the incident Google has yet to declare a fix............. https://www.techtimes.com/articles/318152/20260610/google-gemini-outage-tops-six-hours-errors-1076-1099-worldwideflash-lite-still-answers.htm
    • Fun fact: There are more Warhammer 40k games than there are stars in the universe.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      FBSPL earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Year In
      Jim Dugan earned a badge
      One Year In
    • One Month Later
      Tommi118 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      sjbousquet earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      sjbousquet earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      486
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      197
    3. 3
      +Edouard
      155
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      83
    5. 5
      ATLien_0
      69
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!