I recently downloaded syslinux source code because I'd like to build my own USB stick boot sectors and partition tables. I'm fed up with VFAT but need it so winboxes can recognize the things when they need to.

This led me to investigating the Arch boot process (again). Grub2 confuses me. I liked old-school lilo and grub. I also would like to take control of my own kernel, libc and the whole core process without losing the awesome advantages of pacman and the arch repos for everything else.

Plus I have a perfectly good PC sitting here with nothing to do.

Any suggestions?

Give Linux From Scratch a try.

I'm not sure that you will be able to take control over the whole core process w/o loosing the functionalities of pacman.

As far as controlling the kernel is concerned there are parameters that can be passed to the kernel to give desired results. It depends on what you want to control about the kernel.

There are many different kernels to choose from in the Linux Kernel archives.

Modules that are loaded into the kernel are done so dynamically. This keeps the core small and makes it possible to load or replace modules in a running kernel w/o rebooting.

Distributions will update the kernel when the next stable release comes out. So I'm not sure how you would prevent the kernel from updating aside from removing that particular repo.

You will need a member with experience to show you how to configure the kernel.

LFS sounds is pretty cool. Thank you.

Or go Gentoo. Gentoo is like LFS with convenience of great package management.

You're Welcome.

Good Luck!

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/read.html
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/stable/

I thought Gentoo was abandoned file manager project from 10 or 12 years ago. I'll have close look, I keep hearing about it.
Minimal Install CD. Cool.

That's exactly what I'm trying to accomplish. Alsa works great without PA, and systemd grosses me out. Looks like MICROS~T.

Do not use minimal CD. Use SysRescueCD instead. Much better hardware support and you can run X, pasting commands from Gentoo Handbook into terminal window.

that rang a bell, so i went to look it up:
http://obsession.se/gentoo/

(sorry for ot)

Let us know what you go with-

Thank you for that bit of advice. I had already burnt a copy of the minimal iso. Boots fine. I have one blank CD left. SystemRescueCD it is.
They don't have it on their regular website (http://distfiles.gentoo.org/releases...l-20160119.iso), it's over here (http://www.system-rescue-cd.org/Download).

I decided to build my own personal FrankenBox. Old SystemV boot system (with LILO, LOL), with new kernel and package management system. Kinda like a 1949 Ford Pickup truck body with brand new Chevy S10 engine and electrical. Hybrid, if you will. All through ssh, nfs, and xwindow forwarding when things are good.

That SystemRescueCD I would recommend to anyone. Thanks again for that tip.

Update:

Had a bit of trouble getting gentoo started, but once I realized gentoo is kernel and gentoo.igz is the initrd, I could get lilo straightened out and it took off.

Network was up and running right away. sshd on boot, I can shell in to do everything from my comfy chair.

Got a fresh 4.1.12 kernel compiled and a bunch of other stuff. Looking good. Openrc, no systemd, awesome.

emerge is pretty cool. Some deep wizardry going on there. Everything is compiled from source. Sweet.

On to glib... 2.44 it says. Let's see what happens when I get to xorg and those big guys. That'll be interesting.

it's a long way to the top
welcome to the Gentoo world

Once you roll your own kernel you do not need initrd any more.

Setting up and installing Xorg goes by setting variables in make.conf and emerge will pull in necessary drivers - do not install drivers by hand!

Every time you run emerge <package> the <package> will be recorded in the world file. When troubleshooting or installing dependencies make sure you run emerge -1 <package> or your world file will be cluttered with software that does not belong there.