Linux fun things to do with linux shell ?

ok i'm at the office after a long project period and I got no urgent work to finish atm. I setup a debian 3.1 (shell only) virtual machine and I'm thinking of what to do to spend my time and learn a few things at the same time. Any suggestions are welcome. I was thinking of compiling a kernel from scratch but I'm not sure where to start from.

 

Try Greg KH's book Linux Kernel in a Nutshell. If you scroll down the page in that link you'll see links to all of the chapters, ie. it's 100% free.

 

If you want to compile stuff (like a kernel), don't use Debian... Instead try Gentoo or the likes...

 

may I ask why ? The stupid thing about linux is that you have to read a loads and loads of docs to understand some basic concepts, most of the times i'm reading things I don't understand and I got to re-read them (english isn't my first language) so I need to have someone to explain me things all the time, so sorry if i'm asking silly questions ><

 

There are valid reasons to use a custom kernel even in Debian but in general Debian is designed to be rock stable and playing with custom builds and fresh code tends to undermine this. Gentoo tends to be more cutting edge than Debian, unless you play with unstable. Personally if you need a custom kernel for your hardware, my on-board nic for example reports the mac address backwards on <2.6.20 kernels so i can either run testing or a custom kernel, Debian makes it quite easy with a number of tools to do some of the dirty work for you (packaging etc) but you don't learn as much as doing it the Gentoo way. Not sure what Gliders reasons are but i'm sure he'll explain.

 

Why? Debian is a binary based distro, as in you download binaries that have been compiled on a Debian developers machine and they just run without any hassle. The same goes for the kernel, Debian uses a generic compiled kernel, which you just download and use.

Because of this, Debian often lacks a lot of tools that are required for compiling (IIRC, GCC, GlibC, busybox,...). So in order to make your Debian machine 'compile ready' you need to preform some installs (not that much, but still)

Then on the other hand we have Gentoo, a source based distro. On Gentoo you download source codes wich you compile (and optimise) on your system. Hence the entire environment is tweaked and tuned for compilations. And TBH, you learn a lot more from a Gentoo install then you do from a Debian install.

 

but with a gentoo install you can wind up confused and annoyed that it didint work (or at least i did) might have to give it another go now that ive done some looking into the problems i had

 

Have you actually used Debian Much? you can send a flag to apt, telling it to build the source debs instead of grabbing the binaries. and busybox should come default now. At least it does on Lenny and the current Sid. so does GCC. I think the same is true for current stable. and the 'not much' is: apt-get install gcc. that's all.

 

Much is relative, on... *count* 1,2,3... 11,12, 13 running systems, of which 7 frontline production servers ranging from 1CPU 333MHz to 4 socket servers loaded with Quad opterons, with functions going from gateway all up to XEN Dom0... SOOOOooo, I guess I can answer it with a YES.

Edit, I forgot 3 Quad opterons so it seems

Edit2: Woot 3000 posts... shame my 3k one is loaded with sarcam