A couple of days ago I thought to myself that maybe I’m building my Crux systems in an inconvenient manner.

I’ve always followed the same kind of pattern that I learned from Arch, which is to say, build a text-based system and then install software around that.

When I started using Crux I therefore disregarded the precompiled packages on the installation CD (which were out of date anyway), and just compiled things from scratch. In that way, it can take a day or two at 1Ghz to get everything in order. I end up dropping hefty commands before I go to work, or when I go to bed. It works out okay because to be honest, for most of the time I’m installing, the system isn’t really usable. Functional, yes, but not usable in the way I’d like.

But if I install the precompiled stuff from the CD, two-thirds of a working system is in place from the start, and I’m only updating that software, rather than building it from scratch. So I can get most of the things I need working within minutes of finishing the installation.

I don’t know why I was so obtuse about that; I end up compiling all that stuff anyway, so updating isn’t any real hassle. I still leave the machine running overnight, just for a different “reason.”

Lesson learned: Think about problems and situations, even after you’ve supposedly solved them. The solution you have isn’t necessarily the best one. 🙄