Having installed Arch myself a couple of times, i think i would disagree. Not really much in that process that teaches you how linux actually works. It's more just about managing disk partitions and moving files around than anything else.

LFS is just on a whole different level, and is on my bucket list to complete the entire process one day.

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stickynotememo 14 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

It's not just the installation process. Being forced to manage or setup automatic management for most parts of your system teaches you a lot. Often it's just as simple as `sudo pacman -Sy yabdabadoo` but its more instructive than it 'just working'.

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cogman10 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I've completed it along with BLFS and I just don't really agree.

Like, yes you get pretty familiar with autotools, sed, and patch. However, a lot of LFS is in fact just managing disk partitions and moving files around.

LFS also glosses over a lot of pretty important parts like kernel configuration.

The docs from both Gentoo and Arch, on the other hand, are much more complete and practical in explaining things and also troubleshooting problems. And at the end of the process you're left with a system that can be easily maintained.

LFS is harder, but that doesn't really mean you end up learning more. Especially since it's pretty easy to lose focus and just rely on copy/pasting the next command to run.

Edit: Just an example of what I mean.

Here is the LFS discussion of filesystems.

https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/stable/chapter02/c...

And here is the same Gentoo discussion.

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:AMD64/Installation/Dis...

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shevy-java 6 hours ago | parent [-]

Gentoo I understand but Arch? Does Arch go into compilation that much?

	▲	cogman10 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Not so much compilation, but it does delve into system management in a way that other OSes don't. Arch has few defaults setup for the user, so if you do it from scratch you'll end up needing to go through several of the general setup recommendations [1]. That's where you end up learning a lot about linux which is particularly practical. Other Linux distros, especially for the desktop, hide a lot of this information behind nice guis. [1] https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/General_recommendations

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necovek 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Agreed!

As an addendum, you have to do it for your actual working computer, otherwise, doing it on a VM or a machine you don't use, you won't be learning nearly as much as there is no pressure to make it truly work for you (this is where learning happens, when the thing you wanted to configure, and LFS docs or web docs are out of date on, so you have to dig deeper).

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jdc0589 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

agreed. I haven't done LFS, but ive done arch and plently of other distros for a good while and I definitely wouldn't say I have a rock solid understanding of the fundamentals.

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wiredpancake 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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