Over the next couple of days I plan to start making a new CLFS system. I ran into some issues the last time I began, partially because the host I was using wouldn't allow me to go the chroot method instead of the boot method. Can anyone suggest a good host system to use for an x86_64 build? Currently I'm using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. If it's just a matter of having the correct packages, what dev packages are key to allowing me to chroot rather than have to boot? If it's actually an architecture concern, please suggest a better distro that will work.

chroot isn't part of any of the dev packages. It's part of coreutils and should be automatically included in any distro.

Figuring out why you were unable to chroot will depend on the error message you got. A couple things to keep in mind: you should enter the chroot command from the clfs book as root. If you su, and it says it cannot find the chroot command, it's possible you didn't get root's path when you executed su. you may have to enter the command with the full path to chroot: "/usr/sbin/chroot"

I've built clfs in Ubuntu 9.10, and I am currently building it on a new system with Fedora 14 as the Host.
Many prefer using a live cd or slackware as their hosts. It's possible to do in any of these, just make sure you have gcc, make, flex, bison, etc installed.

Hope this helps.

I appreciate the reply, but I guess I was unclear as to exactly what my issue was. Following Chapter 6 of the CLFS book, you have the option to boot or chroot to finish the job. The book states,

During my last build attempt, these tests failed, leading me down the boot method. Along the way I ran into a few other issues and ended up setting the project aside, and have just returned to it. Now, it's been several months, and I don't remember exactly how they failed, but I assumed that failure indicated an issue with the host system allowing me to complete the installation using the chroot method over the boot method. I hope that is a little more clear. I've no issue using the chroot command, but rather during my last adventure I ran the above commands and it told me to boot, and I'd much rather chroot through Chapter 7. Since I'm not 100% certain what the above commands are telling me, a little clarification in their purpose would probably go a long way toward solving me dilemma as well, if anyone is able to explain it.

As an update, I have reached the point I was at before and can provide the actual messages I was getting. When attempting to run

at the section about To Boot or to Chroot, this is what I get.

Any assistance would be appreciated. I'm going to attempt a Package Users build and it would be so much easier to chroot and have access to quick research if I run into any trouble.