Pocket Linux Guide
David Horton
<dhorton<AT>NOSPAM.member.fsf.org>
Revision History
Revision 3.1
2005−04−09
Revised by: DH
Minor clarifications and spelling corrections.
Revision 3.0
2004−11−02
Revised by: DH
Changed bootloader to GRUB rather than LILO. Updated versions on all source code packages. Made minor
clarifications to some shell commands and scripts.
Revision 2.1
2004−02−18
Revised by: DH
Corrected typos. Changed resource site hosting to SourceForge. Added appendix B to include the GNU Free
Documentation License as part of this document.
Revision 2.0
2003−11−08
Revised by: DH
Updated to use GNU coreutils in place of fileutils, sh−utils and textutils. Updated version numbers on many
source code packages. Introduced Freshmeat as a resource for finding source code. Changed /etc/mtab to a
real file rather than using a symlink to /proc/mounts. Corrected local_fs script errors. Updated email address.
Revision 1.2
2003−05−31
Revised by: DH
Corrected errors in "strip −o library" commands.
Revision 1.1
2003−05−21
Revised by: DH
Bug fixes, typo corrections and improved XML markup.
Revision 1.0
2003−02−17
Revised by: DH
Initial Release, reviewed by LDP.
The Pocket Linux Guide is for anyone interested in learning the techniques of building a GNU/Linux system
from source code. The guide is structured as a project that builds a small diskette−based GNU/Linux system
called Pocket Linux. Each chapter explores a small piece of the overall system explaining how it works, why
it is needed and how to build it. After completing the Pocket Linux project, readers should possess an
enhanced knowledge of what makes GNU/Linux systems work as well as the confidence to explore larger,
more complex source−code−only projects.