Prepare E2fsprogs to be compiled: mkdir ../e2fsprogs-build && cd ../e2fsprogs-build && ../e2fsprogs-&e2fsprogs-version;/configure --prefix=/usr --with-root-prefix="" \     --enable-elf-shlibs Continue with compiling the package: make And finish off installing the package: make install && make install-libs && install-info /usr/share/info/libext2fs.info /usr/share/info/dir --with-root-prefix="": The reason for supplying this option is because of the setup of the e2fsprogs Makefile. Some programs are essential for system use when, for example, /usr isn't mounted (like the e2fsck program). These programs and libraries, therefore, belong in directories like /lib and /sbin. If this option isn't passed to E2fsprogs's configure, it places these programs in /usr, which is not what we want. --enable-elf-shlibs: This creates shared libraries that some programs in this package can make use of. make install-libs: This installs the shared libraries that are built. install-info...: This updates the /usr/share/info/dir file to include this package's info pages to the index.