I'm wondering, is there any tutorial to guide one from a bootloader to a very early version of Linux (but already have the barebone programs)? I guess any serious OS Dev course will do that, but would be interesting to find one specifically focused on Linux.
Get an old iso of Slackware and do it from scratch. For the authentic experience do it without internet access and using only the included install instructions. I once attempted this as an exercise on a very old thinkpad having only DOS+mscdex on the hard drive and a Slackware 2.1 CD-ROM. Bootstrapping that system is a feat that I’m still proud of. Though it was sort of a pointless exercise for my own gratification.
That's how I did it in 1995. I printed a few howto's, downloaded 27 or so Slackware floppy disk images, copied those onto actual disks, and biked home and booted from the first disk to start the installation process. At some point I had an issue with a corrupted disk so I had to bike back to the university to create a replacement. Following the howto, I got a booting system on my PC (dual booting with MS Dos/windows 3.x). And then using the bundled documentation, I was able to get X up and running, figured out how to rebuild the kernel with the sound drivers I needed, etc. Fun times.
I'm wondering, is there any tutorial to guide one from a bootloader to a very early version of Linux (but already have the barebone programs)? I guess any serious OS Dev course will do that, but would be interesting to find one specifically focused on Linux.