Foreword
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 (&hints-root;).
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
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 - present)