Your distro. Your rules.

Linux From Scratch (LFS) has become my linux of choice. Once the system is tailored to my specifications, I want the capability to replicate the system again on the same computer, or on other computers.

Most other linux distributions are in a constant state of flux which irritates me in several ways:

1. Installation, configuration, administrative procedures, file locations, and even some simple commands must be re-learned over and over again.
2. There is almost constant downloading of updates from the internet.
3. One thing or another is broken (due to an update) and it will be an unspecified amount of time before a fix can be obtained.
4. It is nearly impossible to replicate a system.
5. If a newer version of something is installed (updated) and it doesn't work out, you cannot go back and install the prior version that did work out.
6. If for some reason you want or need a package that is an older version than the one available from the distibution, you very nearly cannot install the older version.
7. There are numerous services being added. For one thing, these cause the system to take more than 30 seconds to boot. For another thing, nobody can fully explain what some of these services do or whether it is safe to turn them off.
   

Building a LFS system is not what I would call easy. Many people would call it "too painfully tedious to complete". There is a thing called Automated Linux From Scratch that can do a large part of the tedious work automatically. That sounds like a dream come true. However, a search for instructions on how to do it generally yeilds varying duplications of ALFS Project Homepage which is merely a decription of the thing.

Some observations that helped me to successfully build Automated Linux From Scratch were:

1. jhalfs is the official implementation
2. jhalfs builds from XML versions of the LFS BOOK -- not from the HTML versions.
3. An XML version of the LFS BOOK can be found on the Live Cd.
4. jhalfs can also be found on the Live Cd.
   
5. The Live Cd contains all the LFS sources needed to build the system.
6. If it can be set up so that everything is pulled from the local system, then the stable version of LFS can be built automatically. That is what I did in the automated linux from scratch post.
   

This interview with Gerard Beekmans, the founder of LFS, provides some insight into linux from scratch project.