Void Linux

Bootstrapping info

Requirements: Linux with a compiler and common tools

Automation: Minimal

Integration testing: No

What you get: Unknown, it doesn't work

Can install further software from source: Probably, with xbps-src

Why it doesn't count: Bootstrapping completely fails

Version: void-packages git commit cf623fe1

Architecture: amd64

Date: 2025-06-16

Build time: Incomplete

Using Arch Linux host. But this is just to host a VM, you could run this anywhere.
- Void doesn't easily bootstrap in a container, since it wants to use chroot-ish tools. So we need to do it in a VM
Run a minimal Debian 12 VM. All following steps occur in the VM
Setup dependencies
- apt update
- apt full-upgrade
- apt install git gcc make pkgconf zlib1g-dev libssl-dev libarchive-dev sudo nano file gawk g++ gnat libarchive-tools curl python3 texinfo bison
Create a user
- useradd -m void -G sudo -s /bin/bash
- visudo and change the line starting with '%sudo' to work without a password: %sudo ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
- passwd void to set the password
- Login as the user
Install xbps
- git clone https://github.com/void-linux/xbps.git
- cd /xbps
- ./configure --prefix=/usr
- make -j8
- sudo make install
Setup void-packages repo
- cd
- git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/void-linux/void-packages.git
- cd ~/void-packages
Bootstrap stage0
- ./xbps-src bootstrap
- Fails due to tar not being a "bootstrap package". Add bootstrap=yes to tar template
- acl package fails to configure, thinks C compiler doesn't build
  - Maybe due to some environment variable? It's hard to figure out to debug
  - I can't find any way to handle these problems incrementally, each attempt forces a rebuild from the start
  - Docs seem to indicate that bootstrapping is fragile and often breaks
  - Giving up!