FreeBSD from Scratch

[Bob Johnson]

On 8/4/06, Rich Mayo <richard.mayo at sri.com> wrote:
> Is anyone on the list familiar with the "Linux from Scratch" project?
> More to the point, is anybody aware if there is anything like a "FreeBSD
> from Scratch" project??

It depends on which aspect of "Linux from Scratch" is of interest to you.

Building from source code is the standard way to update FreeBSD.  By
editing appropriate configuration files you can produce a fairly
customized installation:

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/cutting-edge.html
describes the basics.

You also have the option of doing a minimal install in the first
place, and then adding additional pieces as you wish.

Another approach to a customized FreeBSD is the nanobsd project, which
has tools to let you build a stripped-down FreeBSD that is small
enough to run from a floppy disk (although these days a usb flash
drive is probably a more common target):

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/nanobsd.html

There are preconfigured nanobsd builds to make firewalls, routers, and
other common tools.

- Bob