Hi This is just a weekend project. I am slowly building a new machine from parts and I would like to know if when the time comes... is it possible to compile all SuSE from scratch on my new box? -H
On Sun, 2006-04-23 at 09:00 -0400, Hugo Garcia wrote:
This is just a weekend project. I am slowly building a new machine from parts and I would like to know if when the time comes... is it possible to compile all SuSE from scratch on my new box?
I have tried this with SUSE 9.0. I don't know if much has changed since then, but the problem I kept running into was that a lot of tools used in the spec files are not included in SUSE - maybe they are in the SDK, I don't know. What kind of machine are you building? Chances are the (slight) performance increase you *might* see in certain apps will probably not be worth the time you spent rebuilding everything. Hans
What kind of machine are you building? Chances are the (slight) performance increase you *might* see in certain apps will probably not be worth the time you spent rebuilding everything.
Hans
It is an intel dual core box. I was planning on doing http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/ but would like to build SuSE if I can. -H
On Sun, 2006-04-23 at 09:21 -0400, Hugo Garcia wrote:
It is an intel dual core box. I was planning on doing http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/ but would like to build SuSE if I can.
Linux from scratch is nice as a learning tool - I certainly learned a lot from it. But the absence of a package management system makes it difficult to maintain, unless you're very dilligent about documenting exactly how you compile and install each package so that you can refer back to it when you want to update or recompile something to add support for something. So if you're looking to learn, LFS is a good project. If you're just looking for a little extra performance, don't bother unless you have a *lot* of time on your hands. LFS (and Gentoo, to a far lesser degree) is a good learning experience, but, even on the fastest machines, it takes lots and lots and lots of time. If you machine is 32bit, just install ordinary SUSE with the SMP kernel. If it's 64bit, again just install 64bit SUSE with the SMP kernel. You can roll your own kernel - configure the kernel for your particular CPU - if you want to squeeze a little bit extra from it. The only other package I've recompiled in SUSE that really gave me a performance boost was QT - assuming you're a KDE user. I'm currently running 64bit gentoo on my notebook (SUSE 10.0's hardware support isn't too good for this model, I'm waiting for 10.1). It's compiled for amd64, with -mtune=k8, which means it's about as optimised for this CPU as it gets. After four months of comipiling and re-compiling stuff to get everything I want with support for everything I want/need, everything is running smoothly now, but I really can't honestly tell you it's faster than SUSE 64bit was. Hans
On Sunday 23 April 2006 15:00, Hugo Garcia wrote:
Hi
This is just a weekend project. I am slowly building a new machine from parts and I would like to know if when the time comes... is it possible to compile all SuSE from scratch on my new box?
Without proof, I believe it is possible. Perhaps one use the package 'y2pmsh' to accomplish that. But y2pmsh depends on other YaST packages, so it would be not easy to get it running on a non-SUSE system. The package 'build' is a noarch rpm, so it would be easier to use on a non-SUSE system. It needs perl and a rpm-based system. But it clearly is an immense task. I did it once in the past (9.1 -> 9.2), but I'm not going to do it again. For me it's not worth the effort. ;) But if you decide to do it, I would recommend installing a minimal SUSE system, including y2pmsh. Be sure the system has plenty of space. You could start with recompiling the rpm packages that are installed on that minimal system, bumping the release number on the way, and updating the minimal system with your fresh rpms. On your way to a self-built system, you would have to solve all kinds of pittfalls (e.g. see mail from Hans du Plooy). I don't think one weekend would be enough. IIRC, it took me several (3?) weeks. I learned a lot from my project, the most important being KISS - k)eep i)t s)imple, s)tupid. ;) I install from the already available rpm repositories, and I can be a happy SUSE user within 1 hr. ;P Cheers, Leen
So if you're looking to learn, LFS is a good project. If you're just looking for a little extra performance, don't bother unless you have a *lot* of time on your hands. LFS (and Gentoo, to a far lesser degree) is a good learning experience, but, even on the fastest machines, it takes lots and lots and lots of time.
Yes, it is a "learning experience" or "rite of passage". Like I said... this is an ongoing weekend project (read weeks). Thank you all for you comments.... it seems like it can be done and the pointers you have given me will get me started. cheers -H
participants (3)
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Hans du Plooy -
Hugo Garcia -
Leendert Meyer