More new changes. More fun.

Since the stable BLFS has been upgraded to version 6.3, I would like to try using the latest jhalfs version 2.3.1 and use its blfs-tool to set up scripts to build BLFS 6.3 packages.

With the release of BLFS version 6.3, there was some reorganization of the repository of xml files for the blfs-tool. To me, it looks like somebody just tried to get too smart. Maybe that reorganization will get un-reorganized again, maybe not. One of the ramifications of that reorganization is that it causes the blfs-tool to do some very strange things and then error out.

Under more normal circumstances, to set up the blfs-tool, one would:
select "Use BOOK (Beyond Linux From Scratch)"
select "Release (Branch or stable book)"
enter "(6.3) Book Version"

There is an ugly workaround that can get the blfs-tool to set up correctly under the reorganization:
select "Use BOOK (Beyond Linux From Scratch)"
select "Release (Branch or stable book)"
enter "(6.3/6.3/BOOK)"

To see if this reorganization is in effect, one can use the command:
svn list svn://svn.linuxfromscratch.org/BLFS/tags/6.3

If the reorganization is in effect, the listing will look like this:
6.0/
6.1/
6.2/
6.3/
reorg/

I think it was always meant to look like this:
INSTALL
Makefile
README
appendices/
basicnet/
book/
general/
general.ent
gnome/
images/
index.xml
introduction/
kde/
multimedia/
obfuscate.sh
postlfs/
pst/
server/
stylesheets/
template/
tidy.conf
x/
xincludes/
xsoft/

On the bright side, the blfs-tool appears to to a nice job of setting up scripts to build xorg version 7.2. The only thing that doesn't look like it is going to work is the perl modules. It needs one, or both of URI and XML-Parser.

Here is a quickie URI:
wget http://search.cpan.org/CPAN/authors/id/G/GA/GAAS/URI-1.35.tar.gz
tar -xf URI-1.35.tar.gz
cd URI-1.35
perl Makefile.PL
make
make install

Here is a quickie XML-Parser:
wget http://cpan.org/authors/id/M/MS/MSERGEANT/XML-Parser-2.34.tar.gz
tar -xf XML-Parser-2.34.tar.gz
cd XML-Parser-2.34
perl Makefile.PL
make
make install

It looks like the blfs-tool is going to build xorg7 with XCB which I am not ready to try yet. Maybe I'll try it when I get tired of the one I built without-xcb in Build modular xorg.

The blfs-tool claims like it would build Xfce 4.4.2, but I can tell that those scripts won't work. It also claims like it would build Xfree86 4.6.0.

Over time, I'm sure the dust will settle with the upgraded LFS/BLFS versions, and it will be solid in the long run.