mqlinux

A minimal Linux system with an automated build process.

Overview

This project automates building a minimal Linux environment from source. The build process is orchestrated by the make script, which prepares a root filesystem, fetches, builds, installs, and configures a set of core packages using per-package makepkg scripts found in each package directory (e.g., linux/makepkg, glibc/makepkg, etc.).

How It Works

• make: The main script. It:

  • Creates the root filesystem structure.
  • Iterates through a predefined package list, using each package’s makepkg to download, build, install, and configure.
  • Creates a hash of the build process for each package and on consecutive runs, it checks if the package has changed to avoid unnecessary rebuilds.
  • At the end, builds an initramfs image.

• */makepkg: Each package directory contains a makepkg script defining how to build and install that package. These scripts standardize the build process by defining build, install, and configure functions.

• Packages include the Linux kernel, glibc, BusyBox, OpenRC, and other essential utilities.

Usage

./make

This will build all components and produce a bootable root filesystem and initramfs.

TODO

• Get networking working
• Modify the build process to produce tarballs of each package, effectively making a proto-package manager
  • Transform the proto-package manager into a full package manager and bundle it with the root filesystem
• Transition from busybox to GNU coreutils
• Add more packages (e.g., bash, zsh, vim, git, etc.)
• Use udev instead of a fixed /dev directory
  • Stop cheating and build libgcc_s.so and libgcc_s.so.1 from source, instead of copying them from the host system
• Add a bootloader configuration and ability to make a bootable ISO
• Add an install script to the ISO that can install the system to a disk
• Move each package into its own repository

License

This project (in particular, the make script and each package makepkg script and accompanying files) is licensed under the GPL-3.0 License.

See the LICENSE.md file for details.