diff --git a/chapter01/whatsnew.xml b/chapter01/whatsnew.xml
index 4ab0abff3..d6d646f7b 100644
--- a/chapter01/whatsnew.xml
+++ b/chapter01/whatsnew.xml
@@ -294,7 +294,7 @@
     <listitem><para></para></listitem>  <!-- satisfy build -->
 
     <listitem>
-      <para>Packaging-24.2</para>
+      <para>Packaging-&packaging-version;</para>
     </listitem>
 
   </itemizedlist>
diff --git a/chapter06/diffutils.xml b/chapter06/diffutils.xml
index 8738e32b0..404fe9b66 100644
--- a/chapter06/diffutils.xml
+++ b/chapter06/diffutils.xml
@@ -43,21 +43,40 @@
   <sect2 role="installation">
     <title>Installation of Diffutils</title>
 
-    <para>When Diffutils is being configured, it checks to see if it is
-    being cross compiled. If it is, configuration fails. Since we are
-    cross compiling, comment out the specific lines that perform that
-    test now:</para>
-
-    <screen><userinput remap="pre">sed -e '46252,+3 s/^/#/' \
-    -e '46596,+3 s/^/#/' \
-    -i configure</userinput></screen>
-
     <para>Prepare Diffutils for compilation:</para>
 
     <screen><userinput remap="configure">./configure --prefix=/usr   \
             --host=$LFS_TGT \
+            gl_cv_func_strcasecmp_works=y \
             --build=$(./build-aux/config.guess)</userinput></screen>
 
+    <variablelist>
+      <title>The meaning of the configure options:</title>
+
+      <varlistentry>
+        <!-- https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/gnulib.git/commit/?id=d9083a4cc638cf9c7dfc3cc534a7c6b4debf50ab -->
+        <term><parameter>gl_cv_func_strcasecmp_works=y</parameter></term>
+        <listitem>
+          <para>This option specify the result of a check for the
+          <function>strcasecmp</function>.  The check requires running a
+          compiled C program, and this is impossible during
+          cross-compilation because in general a cross-compiled program
+          cannot run on the host distro.  Normally for such a check the
+          <command>configure</command> script would use a fall-back value
+          for cross-compilation, but the fall-back value for this check is
+          absent and the <command>configure</command> script would have no
+          value to use and error out.  The upstream has already fixed the
+          issue, but to apply the fix we'd need to run
+          <command>autoconf</command> that the host distro may lack.  So
+          we just specify the check result (<literal>y</literal> as we know
+          the <function>strcasecmp</function> function in
+          Glibc-&glibc-version; works fine) instead, then
+          <command>configure</command> will just use the specified value and
+          skip the check.</para>
+        </listitem>
+      </varlistentry>
+    </variablelist>
+
     <para>Compile the package:</para>
 
 <screen><userinput remap="make">make</userinput></screen>
diff --git a/chapter08/gperf.xml b/chapter08/gperf.xml
index bbfbbe735..25939135a 100644
--- a/chapter08/gperf.xml
+++ b/chapter08/gperf.xml
@@ -48,11 +48,9 @@
 
 <screen><userinput remap="make">make</userinput></screen>
 
-    <para>The tests are known to fail if running multiple
-    simultaneous tests (-j option greater than 1). To test
-    the results, issue:</para>
+    <para>To test the results, issue:</para>
 
-<screen><userinput remap="test">make -j1 check</userinput></screen>
+<screen><userinput remap="test">make check</userinput></screen>
 
     <para>Install the package:</para>
 
diff --git a/chapter08/packaging.xml b/chapter08/packaging.xml
index b3e9e439d..f1a6def9c 100644
--- a/chapter08/packaging.xml
+++ b/chapter08/packaging.xml
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@
   </sect2>
 
   <sect2 role="installation">
-    <title>Installation of packaging</title>
+    <title>Installation of Packaging</title>
 
     <para>Compile packaging with the following command:</para>
 
diff --git a/chapter08/stripping.xml b/chapter08/stripping.xml
index 17eb12da7..3d518dd56 100644
--- a/chapter08/stripping.xml
+++ b/chapter08/stripping.xml
@@ -24,10 +24,15 @@
   backup of the LFS system in its current state.</para>
 
   <para>A <command>strip</command> command with the
-  <parameter>--strip-unneeded</parameter> option removes all debug symbols
-  from a binary or library.  It also removes all symbol table entries not
+  <parameter>--strip-unneeded</parameter> option removes all debug symbols from
+  a binary or library.  It also removes all symbol table entries not normally
   needed by the linker (for static libraries) or dynamic linker (for
-  dynamically linked binaries and shared libraries).</para>
+  dynamically linked binaries and shared libraries). Using
+  <parameter>--strip-debug</parameter> does not remove symbol table entries
+  that may be needed by some applications.  The difference between "unneeded"
+  and "debug" is very small. For example, an unstripped libc.a is 22.4 MB.
+  After stripping with --strip-debug it is 5.9 MB.  Using --strip-unneeded only
+  reduces the size further to only 5.8 MB.</para>
 
   <!-- TODO: Zstd is better than Zlib for both speed and size.
              Unfortunately Valgrind does not support Zstd-compressed debug
@@ -82,7 +87,7 @@ cd /usr/lib
 for LIB in $save_usrlib; do
     objcopy --only-keep-debug --compress-debug-sections=zlib $LIB $LIB.dbg
     cp $LIB /tmp/$LIB
-    strip --strip-unneeded /tmp/$LIB
+    strip --strip-debug /tmp/$LIB
     objcopy --add-gnu-debuglink=$LIB.dbg /tmp/$LIB
     install -vm755 /tmp/$LIB /usr/lib
     rm /tmp/$LIB
@@ -121,14 +126,14 @@ online_usrlib="libbfd-&binutils-version;.so
 
 for BIN in $online_usrbin; do
     cp /usr/bin/$BIN /tmp/$BIN
-    strip --strip-unneeded /tmp/$BIN
+    strip --strip-debug /tmp/$BIN
     install -vm755 /tmp/$BIN /usr/bin
     rm /tmp/$BIN
 done
 
 for LIB in $online_usrlib; do
     cp /usr/lib/$LIB /tmp/$LIB
-    strip --strip-unneeded /tmp/$LIB
+    strip --strip-debug /tmp/$LIB
     install -vm755 /tmp/$LIB /usr/lib
     rm /tmp/$LIB
 done</userinput><userinput arch="ml_32,ml_all">
@@ -151,7 +156,7 @@ for i in $(find /usr/lib -type f -name \*.so* ! -name \*dbg) \
     case "$online_usrbin $online_usrlib $save_usrlib" in
         *$(basename $i)* )
             ;;
-        * ) strip --strip-unneeded $i
+        * ) strip --strip-debug $i
             ;;
     esac
 done</userinput><userinput arch="ml_32,ml_all">
diff --git a/general.ent b/general.ent
index 09c98f613..27b62c37f 100644
--- a/general.ent
+++ b/general.ent
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@
 ]]>
 <![ %systemd; [
 <!ENTITY version         "%relnum;-systemd">
-<!ENTITY short-version   "stable-systemd"> <!-- Used below in &blfs-book; -->
+<!ENTITY short-version   "%relnum;-systemd"> <!-- Used below in &blfs-book; -->
 ]]>
 <!ENTITY errata          "&lfs-root;lfs/errata/&version;/">
 <!ENTITY generic-version "%relnum;"> <!-- Used below in
diff --git a/lfs-latest-git.php b/lfs-latest-git.php
index d8da03ef5..a6723e909 100644
--- a/lfs-latest-git.php
+++ b/lfs-latest-git.php
@@ -139,6 +139,7 @@ if ( $package == "mpfr"       ) $dirpath = "https://mpfr.loria.fr/mpfr-current";
 if ( $package == "ncurses"    ) $dirpath = "https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses";
 if ( $package == "ninja"      ) $dirpath = github("ninja-build/ninja");
 if ( $package == "openssl"    ) $dirpath = github("openssl/openssl");
+if ( $package == "packaging"  ) $dirpath = "https://pypi.org/rss/project/packaging/releases.xml";
 if ( $package == "procps-ng"  ) $dirpath = "https://gitlab.com/procps-ng/procps/-/tags";
 if ( $package == "psmisc"     ) $dirpath = "https://gitlab.com/psmisc/psmisc/-/tags";
 if ( $package == "Python"     ) $dirpath = "https://www.python.org/downloads/source/";
@@ -262,6 +263,9 @@ if ( $package == "zstd"       ) $dirpath = github("facebook/zstd");
      return find_max( $lines, "/wheel\/\d/", "/^.*wheel\/([\d\.]+).*$/" );
   # End Python modules
 
+  if ( $package == "packaging" )
+     return find_max( $lines, "/packaging/", "/^.*^.*packaging.([\d\.]+\d)\/.*$/" );
+
   if ( $package == "procps-ng" )
      return find_max( $lines, "/v\d/", "/^.*v([\d\.]+)$/" );