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by GianFabien 1348 days ago
I would recommend NOT using "Linux from Scratch". LfS is great if you want to understand how Linux is configured and built. But as a general OS reference work it is lacking.

Instead look at XV6 (https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.828/2012/xv6.html), IMHO opinion it is a cleaner, simpler work and has some excellent educational materials as well.

Is this a rite of passage? Seems there are hundreds of OS's out there, most of which remain the creator's pet.

BTW: your linked web address doesn't seem to work.

3 comments

I'll check it out! I'm not sure about a rite of passage but it is a challenge and builds new skills and knowledge. I think I am going to learn alot through this process and have a really cool portfolio piece at the end of it!
xv6 is still my favourite:

- The codebase is very small. Study the PDF references a few days, and eventually you'll start to understand how things work.

- No convoluted build system. Just "make xv6.img". Done.

- No need to build a custom compiler from source. On Linux systems: GCC supplied by your favourite package manager is sufficient. On Mac: install i386-elf-toolchain via Homebrew.

- Plenty of folks customizing it, like adding their own syscalls or a custom scheduler or a file system integrity check (Github is your friend).

Agreed. Linux from scratch pretty much has zero to do with writing an an os from scratch.