Installing Gentoo Linux

This is mainly a guide for myself, but if you want to install it in a similar way, you may also find it useful. It assumes you have some experience with Gentoo or at least Linux. I'm including some extra explanations and comments to make it easier for others to understand.

It is currently a work in progress, I don't recommend relying on it yet, but you can at least use it as an overview. You probably want to follow the Gentoo handbook instead, especially if you're a beginner.

1. Get and boot the cd

   Gentoo Linux doesn't really have versions. It is being updated continuously, and no matter what you use to install it, you can always upgrade it. First, if you don't have an installation cd, get it from www.gentoo.org ("Get Gentoo!"). Use amd64 if you have a recent pc, x86 for older ones. Currently the installation files are provided through the "autobuilds" system and updated very frequently. Get the "minimal" iso and the stage3 archive. My mirror: http://gentoo.aditsu.net:8000/releases/amd64/autobuilds/current-iso/

   Now, boot the cd, and check if you're connected to the network. If not, check the network interface. If that's missing, check the network card (lspci) and load the appropriate module if you can find it. If everything fails, you'll need to do a network-less installation. It is very helpful to have a USB drive and another computer available.

   If you are connected, you can actually start an SSH server and connect from another computer, so you can copy and paste things easily.

   passwd
   /etc/init.d/sshd start

2. Set up and mount the partitions

   I usually use 2 main partitions: root and swap. Refer to the Gentoo handbook if you want a separate boot partition, I don't like partition pollution. cfdisk is nice and convenient for partitioning, but in some cases you may need to use fdisk. Partition type 83 is for root (or FD if you use RAID), 82 is for swap.

   Then format and mount the partitions (replace the devices/file systems with the ones you are using):

   mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1
   mkswap /dev/sda2
   swapon /dev/sda2
   mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/gentoo
   cd /mnt/gentoo
   mkdir boot

3. Install the system files

   First, check and correct the system date, in UTC time. The format is: MMDDhhmmYYYY (month date hour minute year).

   date
   date 061315002009

   Then put your stage3 archive (the main system files), which you downloaded earlier, in /mnt/gentoo. Also get a portage snapshot (the database of available packages), from http://gentoo.aditsu.net:8000/snapshots/portage-latest.tar.lzma (replace with your preferred mirror).

   Extract the archives (in /mnt/gentoo):

   tar xvjpf stage3-<tab>
   unlzma portage-<tab>
   tar xvf portage-<tab> -C usr

   If you have another computer already running Gentoo, it is convenient to copy over the /usr/portage/distfiles folder (perhaps using a usb drive).

4. Enter into the new environment

   If you're online, copy the DNS info:

   cp -L /etc/resolv.conf etc/

   Mount proc and dev:

   mount -t proc none proc
   mount -o bind /dev dev

   Then chroot:

   chroot . /bin/bash
   env-update
   . /etc/profile
   export PS1="(chroot) $PS1"

5. Configure some system options

   Edit make.conf:

   nano /etc/make.conf

   Here's what I use:

   CFLAGS="-O2 -pipe -march=native"
   CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"
   CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
   MAKEOPTS="-j3"
   GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://gentoo.aditsu.net:8000/ http://ftp.jaist.ac.jp/pub/Linux/Gentoo/"

   Adjust as appropriate for your system. You can also set up the USE variable, or leave it for later.

6. Set the timezone and system clock

   List the timezones and copy the correct one

   ls /usr/share/zoneinfo
   cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Hong_Kong /etc/localtime

   Edit the clock settings

   nano /etc/conf.d/clock

   Set the CLOCK and TIMEZONE options, e.g.

   CLOCK="UTC"
   TIMEZONE="Asia/Hong_Kong"

   Now check the date and fix it if it's wrong (it should be in your timezone now)

   date
   date 061315002009

   Save the date and time to the hardware clock, otherwise it may be wrong when you reboot.

   hwclock --systohc

7. Build the Linux kernel

   Very quick guide for "emerge": emerge is the tool used for installing packages from portage. "emerge -av foo" installs a package called "foo". "-a" means "ask before continuing" and "-v" is for "verbose". "emerge -s foo" searches for all the packages containing "foo" in the name and displays some basic information. For more details, "man emerge".

   Install the kernel files

   emerge -av gentoo-sources

   Configure the kernel

   cd /usr/src/linux
   make menuconfig

   Most important things are: "Processor type and features", "Device Drivers" -> "Network device support" (check the network card with lspci and/or ethtool -i, in a separate terminal) and "File systems". I generally don't use modules, but compile everything into the kernel. Drivers required for booting will only work that way.

   Compile the kernel

   make
   make modules_install

8. Configure the system

   Define partitions and file systems to mount

   nano /etc/fstab

   Delete or comment out the boot line (assuming you don't have a separate boot partition); replace ROOT and SWAP with the appropriate devices. You can also comment out the cdrom line if you plan to mount cds automatically in KDE.

   Edit the hostname and hosts file

   nano /etc/conf.d/hostname
   nano /etc/hosts

   Configure the network. If you just use DHCP, you don't need to do anything. Otherwise:

   nano /etc/conf.d/net

   Example static configuration:

   config_eth0=("192.168.1.2/24")
   routes_eth0=("default via 192.168.1.1")
   dns_servers_eth0=("218.102.62.71 203.198.23.208")

   Connect to the network automatically

   rc-update add net.eth0 default

   Set the root password

   passwd

   Edit other system options

   nano /etc/rc.conf
   nano /etc/conf.d/rc
   nano /etc/conf.d/keymaps

9. Install system services and tools

   System log

   emerge -av syslog-ng
   rc-update add syslog-ng default

   Task scheduler

   emerge -av vixie-cron
   rc-update add vixie-cron default

   DHCP client (if you need it)

   emerge -av dhcpcd

   Start the SSH server automatically

   rc-update add sshd default

   Other packages I would install immediately: pciutils, gentoolkit, eix, bind-tools, mtr, telnet-bsd, zsh, zsh-completion, logrotate, ntp, mlocate

10. Set up the boot loader

    Install GRUB

    emerge -av grub

    Configure GRUB

    nano /boot/grub/grub.conf

    GRUB uses a different way to address devices. Generally, sda becomes (hd0), sdb becomes (hd1), sda1 becomes (hd0,0), sdb3 becomes (hd1,2) etc. Here is a sample configuration:

    default 0
    timeout 10
    splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
    
    title Gentoo Linux
    root (hd0,0)
    kernel /boot/kernel root=/dev/sda1
    
    # if you dual-boot with windoze
    title windows
    rootnoverify (hd1,0)
    makeactive
    chainloader +1

    Install GRUB into the master boot record. You can do it automatically:

    grep -v rootfs /proc/mounts|grep -v boot > /etc/mtab
    grub-install /dev/sda

    Or manually:

    grub
    root (hd0,0)
    setup (hd0)
    quit

    Install the kernel. Update: since "make install" doesn't work the way it used to anymore, I decided to stop using it and write two scripts instead:

    newkernel:

    cp /usr/src/linux/arch/x86/boot/bzImage /boot/kernel.new
    cp /usr/src/linux/.config /boot/config.new
    cp /usr/src/linux/System.map /boot/System.map.new
    

    stablekernel:

    cp /boot/kernel.new /boot/kernel
    cp /boot/config.new /boot/config
    cp /boot/System.map.new /boot/System.map

    Run "newkernel" after compiling a new kernel, and "stablekernel" after booting it and verifying that it works. This needs another entry in grub.conf:

    title Gentoo Linux - new
    root (hd0,0)
    kernel /boot/kernel.new root=/dev/sda1

11. Reboot

    You could probably just run "reboot", but it's better to tidy up first.

    <ctrl>-d
    cd
    umount /mnt/gentoo/dev /mnt/gentoo/proc /mnt/gentoo
    reboot

    If everything is ok, you should be able to boot your new Gentoo system.