If you don’t want to learn about the inner-workings of a Linux system (and spend
lots of time getting it to work), Gentoo may not be for you. An experienced Linux
person usually takes several tries to get Gentoo going, while someone new to Linux
may not get it installed and running at all without lots of help. However, if you like
to tune and tweak your operating system, Gentoo is a great way to go.

Gentoo Installation
Here are the minimum computer requirements for a Gentoo installation using the
x86 procedure described in this chapter:
1GB of hard disk space
64MB of RAM
A 486 processor (or better)
300MB of total memory (combined RAM and swap)

If you have a slow processor, consider getting precompiled packages because the
full compilation process can take a long time.
Obtain the Gentoo installation CD image from http://bouncer.gentoo.org/?product=gentoo-...-minimum&os=x86 (minimal)
http://bouncer.gentoo.org/?product=gentoo-...niversal&os=x86 (universal)
& print this http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml
1. Insert CD. Insert the CD (minimal or universal) into your computer’s CD or
DVD drive.
2. Reboot. Reboot your computer.
3. Boot CD. From the boot prompt, press Enter. (If you are not able to boot the
install medium, press F1 or F2 to see other install options that might help you
get going.)
Gentoo should detect your computer hardware, start the install process, and
display a boot prompt.
4. Set date. Type the date command to make sure the date and time are set correctly.
If they need to be changed, use the date command (with options) to
change them. For example, to set the date to 8:15 a.m. June 15, 2006, type:
# date 061508152006
5. Load modules. If some piece of hardware was not auto-detected, you may
have to load the module you need to access that hardware. Use the modprobe
command with the name of the module you want to load. For example, to load
the module for an Orinoco wireless LAN card, you can type:
# modprobe orinoco
Do a Web search for “Linux” and the name of the hardware not being detected to
find out what module to load.
6. Configure network. Type ifconfig eth0 to see if the Internet connection to
your first Ethernet card is up and running. Then try to ping a computer on the
Internet to make sure you can get out (for example, ping www.gentoo.org). If
you are not able to pick up a DHCP server to automatically connect to the
Internet, you can set up your Internet connection manually, by typing:
# net-setup eth0

7. Partition hard disk. Partition your hard disk to prepare it to receive your
Gentoo installation. You can use the fdisk utility to do this. Gentoo recommends
a 64MB boot volume (ext2 file system), a swap partition that’s double
the size of your RAM, and a large root (/) partition (ReiserFS file system). Start
fdisk by following the command with the name of your first hard disk (such
as /dev/hda or /dev/sda for your first IDE or SCSI hard disk, respectively).

Then type h to display a list of commands
Repartitioning your disk destroys existing data on your hard disk. Back up any data
you value before starting this procedure. Be sure not to delete or change any partitions
that have data on them that you want to keep.
# fdisk /dev/hda
8. Make file systems. To create the appropriate file systems on your disk partitions,
use the mk2fs and mkswap commands. For example, with an IDE hard
drive that has the first partition as the boot partition (/dev/hda1), the second
as swap (/dev/hda2), and the third as the root (/) partition
(/dev/hda3), you can type the following:
# mke2fs /dev/hda1
# mkswap /dev/hda2
# mkreiserfs /dev/hda3
9. Turn on swap. Use the swapon command to turn on your swap partition. For
our example (with hda2 being the swap partition), type:
# swapon /dev/hda2
10. Mount root (/) partition. You need to mount the root (/) partition temporarily
to begin installing Gentoo to it. In this example (with the root file system on
/dev/hda3), type:
# mount /dev/hda3 /mnt/gentoo
11. Mount the /boot partition. Next, mount the boot partition so you can install
boot files to that partition:
# mkdir /mnt/gentoo/boot
# mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/gentoo/boot
12. Get the stage1 tarball. Assuming that you have the minimal Gentoo installation
CD, you need to download the stage1 tarball. Find a mirror site near you
Then make a directory on your hard disk to copy it to
and download the tarball using a tool such as wget. Here is an example:
If you are using the universal CD, the stage1 tarball is available there. Instead of
downloading it, jump to the next step and extract the tarball from /mnt/cdrom/
stages/stage1*.tar.bz2.
# mkdir /mnt/gentoo/tmp2
# cd /mnt/gentoo/tmp2
# wget -c http://gentoo.osuosl.org/releases/x86/2005.1/
stages/x86/stage1-x86-2005.1.tar.bz2
The wget command, which appears on multiple lines here, should all be typed on
one line. (There’s no space between the slash at the end of the first line and the
word “stages” at the beginning of the next.) If the download should stop in the middle,
you can restart it by running the same command again in the same directory.

13. Extract the stage 1 tarball. Use the following commands:
# cd /mnt/gentoo
# tar -xvjpf /mnt/gentoo/tmp2/stage1-*.tar.bz2
You can remove the stage1 tarball once you have untarred it.
14. Select mirror site. Use the mirrorselect command to search for a Gentoo
mirror site from which you can efficiently download the files you need to do
the install. Run the following command to select an efficient mirror and add it
to your make.conf file (it will take a while to test download speed from more
than 150 servers):
# mirrorselect -a -s4 -o |grep GENTOO_MIRRORS >> /mnt/gentoo/etc/make.conf
If, when you run emerge commands later in this procedure, you see messages
that files are not found from any of the download sites, you might need to add
other mirror sites to the make.conf file.
15. Mount file systems. Mount the /proc file system as follows:
# mount -t proc none /mnt/gentoo/proc
16. Change root directory. Use the chroot command to change /mnt/gentoo to
be your root directory, but first copy the resolve.conf file so it can be used
from there:
# cp /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/gentoo/etc/resolv.conf
# chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash
17. Update environment. Read in environment variables as follows:
# env-update; source /etc/profile
18. Update Portage tree. Type the following command to have the latest package
information installed to your /usr/portage directory:
# emerge --sync
19. Modify make.conf. Use the nano text editor to change the make.conf file
that is used to build your Gentoo system. Here’s how:
# nano -w /etc/make.conf
If you don’t know what to change, refer to the /etc/make.conf.example file
for information on the settings you may want to change before continuing. If
you don’t know what processor your computer has, type cat /proc/cpuinfo.
20. Bootstrap Gentoo. Run bootstrap.sh to bootstrap Gentoo as follows:
# cd /usr/portage/ ; scripts/bootstrap.sh
21. Install Gentoo. Run the following emerge command to install:
# emerge -e system
It takes a long time for emerge -e system command to complete. If it fails before
it is finished, check that the settings in your make.conf file are correct.

22. Set the time zone. Use the following command:
# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/path /etc/localtime
You need to replace path with the path to the file that represents the time
zone your computer is in. For example, the entire path for Central time in the
United States is /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Central.
23. Create file system table. Add the file systems you want to mount automatically
at boot time to your /etc/fstab file. Here’s an example:
# nano -w /etc/fstab
Here’s what /etc/fstab might look like (given the partitions created earlier
in this example procedure):
# <fs> <mountpoint> <type> <opts> <dump/pass>
/dev/hda1 /boot ext2 noauto,noatime 1 2
/dev/hda2 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/hda3 / reiserfs noatime 0 1
/dev/cdroms/cdrom0 /mnt/cdrom auto noauto,user 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
24. Build kernel. Either install a prebuilt kernel or build one yourself. To build
one, you need a kernel sources package (gentoo-sources is recommended).
Type the emerge command as follows to get the gentoo-sources package:
# emerge gentoo-sources
Next, use the following command to get the genkernel package and configure
a kernel using menuconfig:
# emerge genkernel
# genkernel --menuconfig all
After you have made any changes you want to your kernel configuration,
select Exit, and then choose Yes to save it. At this point, genkernel makes
your new kernel. This takes a while.
Configuring your own kernel can be quite tricky at first. If you run into problems,
refer to the Gentoo Linux Handbook (www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/
handbook-x86.xml). Select Section 7, “Configuring the Kernel,” for further
information.
After genkernel is complete, note the names of the kernel and boot loader. (Type
ls /boot to see names that are similar to initramfs-genkernel-x86-2.6.13-
gentoo-r3 and kernel-genkernel-x86-2.6.13-gentoo-r3.)
25. Add coldplug. Type the following to enable coldplug (so hardware outside
of that which is detected during initialization is detected and configured
automatically):
# emerge coldplug
# rc-update add coldplug boot
26. Configure system services. Install your system services—system logger, cron
service, hotplug, and reiserfs service—and set the domain name. Then turn
on each of those services, as follows:
# emerge syslog-ng
# rc-update add syslog-ng default
# emerge vixie-cron
# rc-update add vixie-cron default
# emerge hotplug
# rc-update add hotplug default
# emerge reiserfsprogs
# rc-update add domainname default
27. Add special driver support. There may be particular kernel modules required
by your computer at this point. For example, if you have a special Ethernet
adapter or a special type of video card, use the emerge command to install
kernel modules now. You may not need any of them. Here are a few examples:
# emerge nvidia-kernel
# emerge nforce-audio
# emerge e100
# emerge e1000
# emerge emu10k1
# emerge ati-drivers
These emerge command lines are used only if you have special hardware
associated with the kernel drivers. Respectively, those commands load
drivers for accelerated Nvidia video cards, audio for Nvidia NForce motherboards,
Intel e100 Fast Ethernet cards, Intel e1000 Gigabit Ethernet cards,
Sound Blaster Live!/Audigy support for 2.4 kernel, and ATI Radeon+/FireGL
graphics acceleration video cards.
28. Add user and machine information. Add a password for the root user, a regular
user account name of your choosing (chris in this example), a machine
name, and a domain name. If you like, you can also edit the /etc/hosts and
/etc/rc.conf files to add IP addresses and host name or change the basic
system startup script.
# passwd
# useradd chris -m -G users,wheel,audio -s /bin/bash
# passwd chris
# echo mymachine > /etc/hostname
# echo mydomain.com > /etc/dnsdomainname
# nano -w /etc/hosts
# nano -w /etc/rc.conf
29. Set up networking. Edit the net file, and then run rc-update to add the eth0
interface as the default. (Uncomment the line iface eth0=”dhcp” to have the
network use DHCP to start up automatically.)
# nano -w /etc/conf.d/net
# rc-update add net.eth0 default
30. Add kernel modules. Add any extra kernel modules that you need to add at
boot time. You usually need to do this only if some piece of hardware isn’t
detected and the module needed to use it isn’t automatically loaded. Edit either
the kernel-2.4 or kernel-2.6 file, depending on which kernel you are using.
# nano -w /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-<version>
You can type uname -a to see what your current kernel version is.
31. Configure the boot loader. You need to install a boot loader (grub in this
example) and configure it. The example makes the following assumptions
about your setup:
• Gentoo is installed on your first IDE hard disk (/dev/hda).
• You have a separate /boot partition on /dev/hda1.
• Your initrd file in the /boot directory is initrd-2.4.26-gentoo-r9.
• Your kernel file in the /boot directory is kernel-2.4.26-gentoo-r9.
If any of that information is different for your setup, you need to adapt the following
step appropriately. To configure grub, install it with emerge, run the
grub command, and then create the grub.conf file as follows:
# emerge grub
# grub
grub> root (hd0,0)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit
# nano -w /boot/grub/grub.conf
default 0
timeout 15
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title=Gentoo Linux
root (hd0,0)
kernel /kernel-2.6.13-gentoo-r3 root=/dev/hda0
initrd /initrd-2.6.13-gentoo-r3
32. Reboot. Exit from your chroot partition by running umount to unmount all
partitions and then rebooting as follows:
# exit; cd /
# umount /mnt/gentoo/proc /mnt/gentoo
# reboot
Remove the installation disk and allow the computer to boot from hard disk.
After a few moments, you should see the GRUB boot screen. Select Gentoo
Linux (press Enter).
From here on you will be booting from the hard disk and working directly from the
operating system you installed. If you see error messages, such as missing kernel
drivers, I recommend that you go to http://forums.gentoo.com or to (irc.efnet.net #linux-noob
and ask znx or enigma)
for the driver that’s causing problems. Chances are that someone else has had the
same problem and can offer you a solution.

33. Install a Desktop. For most of us, it’s not much fun just working from the command
line. The following command installs a basic set of desktop packages,
including the X Window System (xfree), KDE desktop (kde), Mozilla browser
(mozilla), and Openoffice.org office suite (openoffice-bin). This takes a long
time to install over the network!
# emerge xfree kde mozilla openoffice-bin
As an alternative, if you have these packages available on CD-ROM, you can
type the following commands to identify the location of the packages and
install them from that location:
# export PKGDIR=”/mnt/cdrom/packages”
# emerge -k xfree gnome kde mozilla openoffice-bin
You can also save some time by installing only GNOME or KDE (not both). If
you don’t plan to create documents or spreadsheets, you probably don’t need
to install openoffice-bin either.
34. Configure the X server. Now that your desktop software is installed, you need
to configure the X Window System to work properly with your video card and
monitor. Type the following to configure your video card and monitor:
# /usr/X11R6/bin/xf86config

At this point you should have a working Gentoo system. For further documentation,
check out www.gentoo.org/doc/en/index.xml.


johnny06

Nice - spread the gentoo love .

If you have another computer, I'd recommend doing a remote install - that way you can browse docs, etc while doing the install.

boot as described. Once you get the prompt,
#net-setup eth0
set the ip and stuff so you can get to it.
#passwd
set the root password
#/etc/init.d/sshd start
start the sshd demon.

now you can continue the installation from the other machine using ssh (from linux) or putty (from windows)

forums.gentoo.org is also a great place to get quick help

Gentoo installation was just as hectic as Arch Linux.. but i got them both to work.. currently installing Fedora 6 to see which one i like better its a showdown

Gentoo vs Arch vs Fedora who will win? Arch linux is in the lead if only they utitilzed a GUI installer or LiveCD installer like Gentoo... sigh...

arch hektik? u asure.. it's easy.. porlly easy as mandriva..

gentoo was easy too... [ ewll following teh manual] it was.. i only doen it once, was my first time.. but it's a pain in teh ass.. cos i don't liek waiting lol.. and plus arch linux on my machine N-XI is faster, fastest OS ever.