• Linux from Scratch to drop System V versions

    From LWN.net@86:200/23 to All on Sat Feb 7 06:40:08 2026

    The Linux From
    Scratch (LFS) project provides step-by-step instructions on
    building a customized Linux system entirely from source. Historically,
    the project has provided separate System˙V and systemd editions,
    which gave users a choice of init systems. Bruce Dubbs has announced
    the project will no longer produce the System˙V version:

    There are two reasons for this decision. The first reason is
    workload. No one working on LFS is paid. We rely completely on
    volunteers. In LFS there are 88 packages. In BLFS there are over
    1000. The volume of changes from upstream is overwhelming the
    editors. In this release cycle that started on the 1st of September
    until now, there have been 70 commits to LFS and 1155 commits to BLFS
    (and counting). When making package updates, many packages need to be
    checked for both System V and systemd. When preparing for release, all
    packages need to be checked for each init system.

    The second reason for dropping System V is that packages like GNOME
    and soon KDE's Plasma are building in requirements that require
    capabilities in systemd that are not in System V. This could
    potentially be worked around with another init system like OpenRC, but
    beyond the transition process it still does not address the ongoing
    workload problem.

    [...] As a personal note, I do not like this decision. To me LFS is
    about learning how a system works. Understanding the boot process is a
    big part of that. systemd is about 1678 "C" files plus many data
    files. System V is "22" C files plus about 50 short bash scripts and
    data files. Yes, systemd provides a lot of capabilities, but we will
    be losing some things I consider important.

    The next version, 13.0, is expected in March and will only focus on
    systemd.

    https://lwn.net/Articles/1057509/
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