Hey paul!

 pl> i've been having a great time learning linux from scratch.

Me too.  I've been enjoying it since it started way back when around 1998-ish or so.  This machine is lfs as we speak and has been since it first arrived here.  It has known nothing else other than a live slackware usb boot.  I've done the same with lfs but not for ages now.

 pl> i've got a pretty solid system now, with a good kernel build,
 pl> that has networking - both eth and wifi!!!

Which kernel version?

Life is good,
Maurice

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 ^^  ^^    ^^  ^^   ^^    ^^   ^^  ^^    ^^   ^^  ^^    ^^   ^^  ^^   ^^    ^^
... Fidonet 4K - You load sixteen penguins and what do you get?
--- GNU bash, version 5.2.15(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)