Generic Distro Toolkit for GNU/Linux

Another approach to ALFS (Automated Linux From Scratch)

https://devopstribe.it/2025/08/18/my-journey-in-building-a-gnu-linux-aarch64-arm-system/

Project Overview

I’m building GNU/Linux following LFS (Linux From Scratch) with Ansible and Jenkins. This project is a general-purpose framework for building Linux distributions in a semi-automated and DevOps way.

gdt (Generic Distro Toolkit) is a work-in-progress.

Project Structure

Generic-Distro-ToolK1t/
├── jenkins-lfs/               # LFS build automation
│   └── start.sh               # Bash script to handle most tasks, especially build jobs for different architectures and LFS sections
│   └── chroot_in.sh           # Structured command wrapper to enter chroot
│   └── playbooks/             # Ansible playbooks for system setup
│       └── roles/
│       │    └── ansible-gdt/  # Main GDT Ansible role
│       │        └── tasks/          # Contains aarch64_jobs and amd64_jobs (Jenkins job creation) and system_conf (generic configuration for both architectures)
│       │        └── vars/main.yaml  # Defines all Jenkins jobs, package build instructions, and configuration tasks
│       │        └── files/          # Static files (OS configs, init scripts, bash scripts, kernel configs)
│       └── aarch64_lfs.yml    # Configure the aarch64 build node (also acts as Jenkins slave)
│       └── reset_jobs.yml     # Remove all Jenkins jobs
│       └── starts.yml         # Launch ansible-gdt role (start.sh injects tags to start specific tasks)
├── images/                    # Screenshots and documentation assets
├── os_images/                 # Vagrant-synced folder containing *.img files (aarch64)
└── Vagrantfile                # Defines the aarch64 build node (amd64 builds run directly on Jenkins master for now)

Prerequisites

• Before starting the operating system build, ensure you have a Jenkins server to coordinate the agent.
• For building AMD64 or AARCH64, enable KVM and install libvirt, QEMU, and Cockpit.

Notes:

• For AMD64, I used a physical server with both the Jenkins Master and Agent running on the same node.
• For AARCH64, I used my laptop with a VM acting as the Jenkins Agent, connected to a Jenkins Master (you can provision the master wherever you prefer).

Build AMD64 - GNU/Linux Operating System

1. Clone this repo
2. Run start.sh and select 17) Provision an AMD64 build node directly with Ansible
3. Run start.sh and create Jenkins folders

    0)  Create Jenkins Folders
    1)  Build AMD64 all Jenkins Jobs
    2)  Build AMD64 cross_toolchain Jenkins Jobs
    3)  Build AMD64 cross_compiling_temporary_tools Jenkins Jobs
    4)  Build AMD64 chroot_and_building_additional_temporary_tools Jenkins Jobs
    5)  Build AMD64 basic_system_software Jenkins Jobs
    6)  Build AMD64 system_configuration Jenkins Jobs
    7)  Build AMD64 containers Jenkins Jobs

4. Run Jenkins jobs in the order of the numbered folders and jobs.
5. The job 0004 - Prepare System Image (System Configuration) will start the VMs, which can be monitored using Cockpit.

Build AARCH64 - GNU/Linux Operating System

1. Clone this repo
2. Run start.sh and select 16) Provision an AARCH64 build node using Vagrant
3. Run start.sh and create Jenkins folders

    0)  Create Jenkins Folders
    8)  Build AARCH64 all Jenkins Jobs
    9)  Build AARCH64 cross_toolchain Jenkins Jobs
    10) Build AARCH64 cross_compiling_temporary_tools Jenkins Jobs
    11) Build AARCH64 chroot_and_building_additional_temporary_tools Jenkins Jobs
    12) Build AARCH64 basic_system_software Jenkins Jobs
    13) Build AARCH64 system_configuration Jenkins Jobs
    14) Build AARCH64 containers Jenkins Jobs

4. Run Jenkins jobs in the order of the numbered folders and jobs.
5. Run start.sh and select 15) Start AARCH64 VM on QEMU to work on your GNU/Linux system.

LFS Numbered Job Jenkins

The operating system can be built by following Jenkins numbered builds.

Default root password is password.123

   - name: 0001 - Binutils Pass 1 (Cross Toolchain)
    - name: 0002 - GCC Pass 1 (Cross Toolchain)
    - name: 0003 - Linux API Headers (Cross Toolchain)
    - name: 0004 - Glibc (Cross Toolchain)
    - name: 0005 - Libstdc++ from GCC  (Cross Toolchain)
    - name: 0001 - M4 (Cross Compiling Temporary Tools)
    - name: 0002 - Ncurses (Cross Compiling Temporary Tools)
    - name: 0003 - Bash (Cross Compiling Temporary Tools)
    - name: 0004 - Coreutils (Cross Compiling Temporary Tools)
    - name: 0005 - Diffutils (Cross Compiling Temporary Tools)
    - name: 0006 - File (Cross Compiling Temporary Tools)
    - name: 0007 - Findutils (Cross Compiling Temporary Tools)
    - name: 0008 - Gawk (Cross Compiling Temporary Tools)
    - name: 0009 - Grep (Cross Compiling Temporary Tools)
    - name: 0010 - Gzip (Cross Compiling Temporary Tools)
    - name: 0011 - Make (Cross Compiling Temporary Tools)
    - name: 0012 - Patch (Cross Compiling Temporary Tools)
    - name: 0013 - Sed (Cross Compiling Temporary Tools)
    - name: 0014 - Tar (Cross Compiling Temporary Tools)
    - name: 0015 - Xz (Cross Compiling Temporary Tools)
    - name: 0016 - Binutils (Cross Compiling Temporary Tools)
    - name: 0017 - GCC Pass 2 (Cross Compiling Temporary Tools)
    - name: 0001 - Changing Ownership and Preparing Virtual Kernel File Systems (Chroot and Building Additional Temporary Tools)
    - name: 0002 - Gettext (Chroot and Building Additional Temporary Tools)
    - name: 0003 - Bison (Chroot and Building Additional Temporary Tools)
    - name: 0004 - Perl (Chroot and Building Additional Temporary Tools)
    - name: 0005 - Python (Chroot and Building Additional Temporary Tools)
    - name: 0006 - Texinfo (Chroot and Building Additional Temporary Tools)
    - name: 0007 - Util-linux (Chroot and Building Additional Temporary Tools)
    - name: 0008 - Cleaning up and Saving the Temporary System (Chroot and Building Additional Temporary Tools)
    - name: 0001 - Man-pages (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0002 - Iana-Etc (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0003 - Glibc (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0004 - Zlib (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0005 - Bzip2 (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0006 - Xz (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0007 - Lz4 (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0008 - Zstd (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0009 - File (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0010 - Readline (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0011 - M4 (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0012 - Bc (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0013 - Flex (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0014 - Tcl (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0015 - Expect (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0016 - DejaGNU (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0017 - Pkgconf (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0017A - pkg-config (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0018 - Binutils (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0019 - GMP (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0020 - MPFR (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0021 - MPC (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0022 - Attr (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0023 - Acl (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0024 - Libcap (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0025 - Libxcrypt-4.4.38 (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0026 - Shadow (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0027 - GCC (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0028 - Ncurses (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0029 - Sed (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0030 - Psmisc (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0031 - Gettext (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0032 - Bison (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0033 - Grep (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0034 - Bash-5.2.37 (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0035 - Libtool (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0036 - GDBM (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0037 - Gperf (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0038 - Expat (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0039 - Inetutils (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0040 - Less (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0041 - Perl (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0042 - XML Parser (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0043 - Intltool (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0044 - Autoconf (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0045 - Automake (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0046 - OpenSSL (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0047 - Libelf (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0048 - Libffi (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0049 - Python (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0050 - Flit-Core (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0051 - Wheel (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0052 - Setuptools (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0053 - Ninja (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0054 - Meson (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0055 - Kmod (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0056 - Coreutils (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0057 - Check (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0058 - Diffutils (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0059 - Gawk (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0060 - Findutils (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0061 - Groff (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0062 - GRUB (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0063 - Gzip (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0064 - IPRoute2 (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0065 - Kbd (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0066 - Libpipeline (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0067 - Make (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0068 - Patch (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0069 - Tar (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0070 - Texinfo (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0071 - Vim (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0072 - MarkupSafe (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0073 - Jinja2 (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0074 - Udev from Systemd (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0075 - Man-DB (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0076 - Procps-ng (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0077 - Util-linux (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0078 - E2fsprogs (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0079 - Sysklogd (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0080 - SysVinit (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0081 - openssh (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0082 - Stripping (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0083 - Cleaning Up (Basic System Software)
    - name: 0084 - libgcrypt (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0085 - OPTIONALlibksba (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0086 - npth (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0087 - libgpg-error (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0088 - gpgme (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0089 - libassuan (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0090 - gnupg (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0091 - glib (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0092 - GO (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0093 - conmon (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0094 - libpsl (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0095 - libidn2 (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0096 - libunistring (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0097 - curl (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0098 - asciidoc (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0099 - libxslt (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0100 - libxml2 (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0101 - icu4c (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0102 - git (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0103 - libseccomp (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0104 - libtasn1 (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0105 - p11-kit (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0106 - make-ca (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0107 - iptables (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0108 - cpio (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0109 - Dialogs (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0110 - libuv (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0111 - libarchive (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0112 - Cmake  (Basic System Software) OPTIONAL
    - name: 0001 - LFS-Bootscripts (System Configuration)
    - name: 0002 - BLFS-bootscripts-IPTABLES OPTIONAL (System Configuration)
    - name: 0003 - Linux (System Configuration)
    - name: 0004 - Prepare System Image (System Configuration)
    - name: 0001 - llama.cpp (GenAI)
    - name: 0001 - runc (Containers)
    - name: 0002 - cri-o (Containers)
    - name: 0003 - etcd (Containers)
    - name: 0004 - kubernetes (Containers)
    - name: 0005 - kubernetes-setup (Containers)

NOTE: When you are on aarch64_basic_system_software and reboot the aarch64 build node, remember to launch 0001 - Changing Ownership and Preparing Virtual Kernel File Systems (Chroot and Building Additional Temporary Tools) or ensure that the virtual systems are mounted.

TODO: Automate this process at the boot of the aarch64 build node if a successful provision has already been made and the machine has been restarted.

        if ! mountpoint -q $LFS/dev; then
          sudo mount -v --bind /dev $LFS/dev
        fi

        if ! mountpoint -q $LFS/dev/pts; then
          sudo mount -vt devpts devpts -o gid=5,mode=0620 $LFS/dev/pts
        fi

        if ! mountpoint -q $LFS/proc; then
          sudo mount -vt proc proc $LFS/proc
        fi

        if ! mountpoint -q $LFS/sys; then
          sudo mount -vt sysfs sysfs $LFS/sys
        fi

        if ! mountpoint -q $LFS/run; then
          sudo mount -vt tmpfs tmpfs $LFS/run
        fi    

LFS Numbered Folders (follow the order)

Ensure you follow the sequence of numbered folders during the LFS build process. Each folder corresponds to a specific step, and skipping or rearranging them may lead to errors or inconsistencies in the build.