I have a quick question about Linux from Scratch - Can one go through the process on a machine with no OS and a prepared thumb drive? I have a spare laptop right here… (or even an image on Ventoy)

  • wetbeardhairs@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    15·
    5 days ago

    That’s an interesting problem in computer science. Generally it’s called “bootstrapping” when you build a process that is used to build another process. For instance, compilers like gcc are bootstrapped from a purpose built compiler compiler but then gcc compiles its own source to result in the final product. But that can be done on one machine. Bootstrapping a machine from bare metal pretty much requires another machine.

    • CarrotsHaveEars@lemmy.mlEnglish
      5·
      5 days ago

      This. It sounds like OP is trying to bootstrap the low-level system. On startup the CPU is instructed to read from the first 512 bytes from the designated hard drive if it’s MBR and run it as native code. If OP has any mean (like a butterfly) to write his own invention of boot code and Grub equivalent then it totally goes off the ground there.