Synopsis: After all the work done on the toolchain, we discover a problem with Glibc. This, and some revisions to LFS prompt us to begin at the beginning with more recent sources. We hatch our plans for going forward.
"Igor, throw the switch!"
The Doctor loves saying that. I calmly pressed the Enter key on our LFS system, only to be greeted with the same errors I'd been getting ever since I had tried to do the make headers_check step for Section 6.17, right after finally getting the sed command to work properly (see the previous entry). It was my third time through without making any changes yet, so I was no longer surprised to see the lengthy and ominous-looking message texts.
"Hmm," he murmured as he puffed on his pipe and looked at the screen, "what's this about as not being found?"
"According to feedback from the lfs-support list, it's a part of Glibc," I replied evenly, "I'm thinking we have an error in that package and may need to start again with a fresh toolchain."
"Yes, it looks like you're right," he replied as a thick cloud of smoke engulfed his head, "Anyway, the LiveCD is woefully out of date by all indications. We should probably just go gather the most recent compatible sources and work from version 6.6 of LFS, which has just been released."
"Oh, no," I began, dreading the prospect of starting over.
"Tut, tut, my old friend," he cut in cheerily, "You have done several things correctly in this case: firstly, you have preserved a record of your work which will save us trouble on the next try. Secondly, you have done the research to figure out where the problem lies and what to do about it without making matters worse, and, lastly, you've involved the support list as an additional resource when we again exceed the limits of our own knowledge. The mistakes made are not so important as the lessons we learn from them."
"I suppose you're right," I sighed, reaching for the keyboard to reboot and start from scratch.
"Hold for a moment, Igor," I halted my movement as he spoke. He continued, "What is our plan going forward?"
"How do you mean?" I asked, then, "I thought we were to begin again with fresh sources. Shouldn't I repartition the system and get it ready to work with the new data?"
"Perhaps not right away. We should probably give thought to the environment in which we will be trying to work. Since the LiveCD is not really suitable to our ultimate purpose, why don't we start by establishing an environment that is suitable? Might I suggest PCLinuxOS 2009.4 LXDE?"
I reflected for a moment. He was right about not using the LFS Live CD - it really made little sense in view of the age of its contents, and since we were determined to work from LFS 6.6 instead of the 6.3 from here on, using a more modern Linux system as a base seemed a better way.
"Yes, of course," I replied, "but why LXDE? Why not the full-blown KDE 3.5.10 version?"
"Simple - it takes up less space, runs faster on older hardware, and has all the tools we need. Or did you want some games to play while you waited between compiles?" he grinned as he asked that last.
"Well, there is that," I smiled back, "but if I'm that desperate, there's always the lab's main computer."
A knock at the door of the lab interrupted, but the Doctor was quick to recover, and said, "Ah, I've been expecting this. Wait here."
He moved to the double-wide receiving doors at the other end of the lab, but opened their companion single-wide exit. I could see a purple uniform of some sort on the person outside.
"Yes, that's me," I heard him tell this unknown agent, "Yes, of course. Here?" The scratch of his pen against a writing surface let me know he was signing something.
"Yes, thanks," came the agent's reply, and, "That's it, then. Here you go."
He accepted a small package, then, shutting the door, called me to come see it.
"I've been keeping this a secret from you," he said affably, "but it's here now and I see no reason for further delay. This package is for you."
"For me?" I asked, somewhat surprised, "What?"
"Go on, " he waved a hand at me as I took the parcel, "open it."
I carefully cut the seals with a blade laying on our receiving table for that expressed purpose, and slowly opened the box.
"Th-thank you, Doctor," was all I could manage as tears came to my eyes.
Inside the box was a Dell Latitude D620 notebook computer. I could see I was going to be very busy for the next little while.
"Don't mention it, Igor," he came back, patting me on the shoulder, "It's the least I could do for all your hard work, and it wasn't terribly expensive. Come on, let's put it on the lab's network. One thing:"
"What's that, Doctor?" I asked, almost expecting it.
"Be careful with BitTorrent. Use too much bandwidth and the Mistress will skin us both alive!"
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