This new boot CD will boot from nearly any modern IDE CD-ROM drive, as well
as many SCSI CD-ROM drives, assuming that your CD-ROM and BIOS both support booting.
Included on the CD-ROM is Linux support for IDE (and PCI IDE) (built-in to the
kernel) as well as support for all SCSI devices (available as modules.) In
addition, we provide modules for literally every kind of network card that
Linux supports, as well as tools to allow you to configure your network and
establish outbound (as well as inbound)
To install from the build CD, you will need to have a 486+ processor and ideally at least 64 Megabytes of RAM. (Gentoo Linux has been successfully built with 64MB of RAM + 64MB of swap space, but the build process is awfully slow under those conditions.)
Gentoo Linux can be installed using one of three "stage" tarball files. The one you choose depends on how much of the system you want to compile yourself. The stage1 tarball is used when you want to bootstrap and build the entire system from scratch. The stage2 tarball is used for building the entire system from a bootstrapped state. The stage3 tarball already contains a basic Gentoo Linux system.
So, should you choose to start from a stage1, stage2, or stage3 tarball? Starting from a stage1 allows you to have total control over the optimization settings and optional build-time functionality that is initially enabled on your system. This makes stage1 installs good for power users who know what they are doing. Stage2 installs allow you to skip the bootstrap process, and doing this is fine if you are happy with the optimization settings that we chose for your particular stage2 tarball. Choosing to go with a stage3 allows for the fastest install of Gentoo Linux, but also means that your base system will have the optimization settings that we chose for you. Since major releases of Gentoo Linux have stage3's specifically optimized for various popular processors, this may be sufficient for you. If you're installing Gentoo Linux for the first time, consider using a stage3 tarball for installation.
So, how does one begin the install process? First, you will want to decide which one of our LiveCD ISO images to grab from
The LiveCDs are full CD images that should be burned to a CDR or CD-RW
using CD burning software. Currently, we have two types of LiveCDs. The first
carries the "gentoo-basic" label, and is approximately 40MB in size, contains only the stage 1 tarball and lives
in the
The second flavor of LiveCD we currently offer is labeled "gentoo-3stages."
This CD is also found in
What happened to i686, pentium3, athlon, athlon-mp stages, LiveCDs and GRP (Gentoo Reference Platform)?
Gentoo 1.4_rc4 is meant to be a minimal release candidate only. 1.4_final will contain all the usual x86 architectures and GRP. If you want to install stages optimized for these other x86 architectures or GRP, use the 1.4_rc2 documentation, which can be found at
Now, let us quickly review the install process. First, we will download, burn and boot a LiveCD. After getting a root prompt, we will create partitions, create our filesystems, and extract either a stage1, stage2 or stage3 tarball. If we are using a stage1 or stage2 tarball, we will take the appropriate steps to get our system to stage3. Once our system is at stage3, we can configure it (customize configuration files, install a boot loader, etc) and boot it and have a fully-functional Gentoo Linux system. Depending on what stage of the build process you're starting from, here is what is required for installation:
| stage tarball | requirements for installation |
|---|---|
Start by booting the LiveCD. You should see a fancy boot screen
with the Gentoo Linux logo on it. At this screen, you can hit Enter to begin the boot process,
or boot the LiveCD with custom boot options by specifying a kernel followed by boot options and then hitting Enter. For example
| Available kernels. | description |
|---|---|
| Available boot options. | description |
|---|---|
Once you hit Enter, you will be greeted with the standard kernel
booting output, kernel and initrd messages, followed by the normal Gentoo
Linux boot sequence. You will be automatically logged in as
"
You've probably also noticed that above your
If the PCI autodetection missed some of your hardware, you
will have to load the appropriate kernel modules manually.
To view a list of all available network card modules, type
#modprobe pcnet32 (replace pcnet32 with your NIC module)
Likewise, if you want to be able to access any SCSI hardware that wasn't detected
during the initial boot autodetection process, you will need to load the appropriate
modules from /lib/modules, again using
#modprobe aic7xxx (replace aic7xxx with your SCSI adapter module) #modprobe sd_mod (sd_mod is the module for SCSI disk support)
If you are using hardware RAID, you will need to load the ATA-RAID modules for your RAID controller.
#modprobe ataraid #modprobe pdcraid (Promise Raid Controller) #modprobe hptraid (Highpoint Raid Controller)
The Gentoo LiveCD should have enabled DMA on your disks, but if it did not,
Replace hdX with your disk device. # hdparm -d 1 /dev/hdXEnables DMA # hdparm -d1 -A1 -m16 -u1 -a64 /dev/hdX(Enables DMA and other safe performance-enhancing options) # hdparm -X66 /dev/hdX(Force-enables Ultra-DMA -- dangerous -- may cause some drives to mess up)
If you're using a 1.4_rc3 or later LiveCD, it is possible that your networking has already been
configured automatically for you. If so, you should be able to take advantage of the many included
network-aware commands on the LiveCD such as
If networking has been configured for you, the
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:50:BA:8F:61:7A
inet addr:192.168.0.2 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::50:ba8f:617a/10 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:1498792 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1284980 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:1984 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:485691215 (463.1 Mb) TX bytes:123951388 (118.2 Mb)
Interrupt:11
You may want to also try pinging your ISP's DNS server (found in
#ping -c 3 www.yahoo.com
Are you able to use your network? If so, you can skip the rest of this section.
Assuming you need PPPoE to connect to the internet, the LiveCD (any version) has
made things easy for you by including
#adsl-setup #adsl-start
If something goes wrong, double-check that you correctly typed
your username and password by looking at
The simplest way to set up networking if it didn't get configured automatically is to run the
#net-setup eth0
Of course, if you prefer, you may still set up networking manually. This is covered next.
Network configuration is simple with DHCP; If your ISP is not using DHCP, skip down to the static configuration section below.
#dhcpcd eth0
If you receive dhcpConfig warnings, don't panic; the errors are most likely cosmetic. Skip down to Network testing below.
We need to setup just enough networking so that we can download
sources for the system build, as well as the required localhost interface.
Type in the following commands, replacing
$IFACE with your network interface (typically
#ifconfig $IFACE $IPNUM broadcast $BCAST netmask $NMASK #/sbin/route add -net default gw $GTWAY netmask 0.0.0.0 metric 1
Now it is time to create the
Here is a template to follow for creating your /etc/resolv.conf file:
domain mydomain.com nameserver 10.0.0.1 nameserver 10.0.0.2
Replace
If you are behind a proxy, it is necessary to configure your proxy before you continue. We will export some variables to set up the proxy accordingly.
#export http_proxy="machine.company.com:1234" #export ftp_proxy="$http_proxy" #export RSYNC_PROXY="$http_proxy"
Networking should now be configured and usable. You should be able to use the included
Now you need to set your system's date and time.
You can do this using the
#date Thu Feb 27 09:04:42 CST 2003(If your date is wrong, set your date with this next command) #date 022709042003 (date MMDDhhmmCCYY)
In this section, we'll take a good look at disk-oriented aspects of Gentoo Linux and Linux in general, including Linux filesystems, partitions and block devices. Then, once you're familiar with the ins and outs of disks and filesystems, you'll be guided through the process of setting up partitions and filesystems for your Gentoo Linux install.
To begin, I'll introduce "block devices". The most famous block device is probably the one that represents the first IDE drive in a Linux system:
/dev/hda
If your system uses SCSI drives, then your first hard drive will be:
/dev/sda
The block devices above represent an abstract interface to the disk. User programs can use these block devices to interact with your disk without worrying about whether your drivers are IDE, SCSI or something else. The program can simply address the storage on the disk as a bunch of contiguous, randomly-accessible 512-byte blocks.
Under Linux, we create filesystems by using a special command called
However, although it is theoretically possible to use a "whole disk" block
device (one that represents the entire disk) like
We can take a look at a disk's partition table by running
# fdisk /dev/hda
or
# fdisk /dev/sda
Once in fdisk, you'll be greeted with a prompt that looks like this:
Command (m for help):
Type
Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/hda: 240 heads, 63 sectors, 2184 cylinders Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 1 14 105808+ 83 Linux /dev/hda2 15 49 264600 82 Linux swap /dev/hda3 50 70 158760 83 Linux /dev/hda4 71 2184 15981840 5 Extended /dev/hda5 71 209 1050808+ 83 Linux /dev/hda6 210 348 1050808+ 83 Linux /dev/hda7 349 626 2101648+ 83 Linux /dev/hda8 627 904 2101648+ 83 Linux /dev/hda9 905 2184 9676768+ 83 Linux Command (m for help):
This particular disk is configured to house seven Linux filesystems (each with a corresponding partition listed as "Linux") as well as a swap partition (listed as "Linux swap").
Notice the name of the corresponding partition block
devices on the left hand side, starting with
All partitions
So, In our example,
Also, notice that each partition has an "Id", also called a "partition
type". Whenever you create a new partition, you should ensure that the
partition type is set correctly. '83' is the correct partition type for
partitions that will be housing Linux filesystems, and '82' is the correct
partition type for Linux swap partitions. You set the partition type using the
Now that you've had your introduction to the way disk partitioning is done under Linux, it's time to walk you through the process of setting up disk partitions for your Gentoo Linux installation. After we walk you through the process of creating partitions on your disk, your partition configuration will look like this:
Disk /dev/hda: 30.0 GB, 30005821440 bytes 240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3876 cylinders Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 * 1 14 105808+ 83 Linux /dev/hda2 15 81 506520 82 Linux swap /dev/hda3 82 3876 28690200 83 Linux Command (m for help):
In our suggested "newbie" partition configuration, we have three partitions.
The first one (
It's recommended to have boot partitions (containing everything necessary for the boot loader to work) at the beginning of the disk. While not necessarily required anymore, it is a useful tradition from the days when the lilo boot loader wasn't able to load kernels from filesystems that extended beyond disk cylinder 1024.
The second partition (
The third partition (
Before we partition the disk, here's a quick technical overview of the suggested partition and filesystem configuration to use when installing Gentoo Linux:
| Partition | Size | Type | example device |
|---|---|---|---|
OK, now to create the partitions as in the example and table above. First,
enter fdisk by typing
Now, it's time to delete any existing partitions. To do this, type
Command (m for help): d Partition number (1-4): 1
The partition has been scheduled for deletion. It will no longer show up if
you type
Now, assuming that you do indeed want to wipe out all the partitions on your
system, repeatedly type
Disk /dev/hda: 30.0 GB, 30005821440 bytes 240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3876 cylinders Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System Command (m for help):
Now that the in-memory partition table is empty, we're ready to create a
boot partition. To do this, type
Command (m for help): n Command action e extended p primary partition (1-4) p Partition number (1-4): 1 First cylinder (1-3876, default 1): Using default value 1 Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-3876, default 3876): +100M
Now, when you type
Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/hda: 30.0 GB, 30005821440 bytes 240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3876 cylinders Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 1 14 105808+ 83 Linux
Next, let's create the swap partition. To do this, type
Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/hda: 30.0 GB, 30005821440 bytes 240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3876 cylinders Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 1 14 105808+ 83 Linux /dev/hda2 15 81 506520 82 Linux swap
Finally, let's create the root partition. To do this, type
Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/hda: 30.0 GB, 30005821440 bytes 240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3876 cylinders Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 1 14 105808+ 83 Linux /dev/hda2 15 81 506520 82 Linux swap /dev/hda3 82 3876 28690200 83 Linux
Finally, we need to set the "bootable" flag on our boot partition and then write
our changes to disk. To tag
Now that the partitions have been created, it's time to set up filesystems on the boot and root partitions so that they can be mounted and used to store data. We will also configure the swap partition to serve as swap storage.
Gentoo Linux supports a variety of different types of filesystems; each type has its strengths and weaknesses and its own set of performance characteristics. Currently, we support the creation of ext2, ext3, XFS, JFS and ReiserFS filesystems.
ext2 is the tried and true Linux filesystem but doesn't have metadata journaling, which means that routine ext2 filesystem checks at startup time can be quite time-consuming. There is now quite a selection of newer-generation journaled filesystems that can be checked for consistency very quickly and are thus generally preferred over their non-journaled counterparts. Journaled filesystems prevent long delays when you boot your system and your filesystem happens to be in an inconsistent state.
ext3 is the journaled version of the ext2 filesystem, providing metadata journaling for fast recovery in addition to other enhanced journaling modes like full data and ordered data journaling. ext3 is a very good and reliable filesystem. It offers generally decent performance under most conditions. Because it does not extensively employ the use of "trees" in its internal design, it doesn't scale very well, meaning that it is not an ideal choice for very large filesystems, or situations where you will be handling very large files or large quantities of files in a single directory. But when used within its design parameters, ext3 is an excellent filesystem.
ReiserFS is a B*-tree based filesystem that has very good overall performance and greatly outperforms both ext2 and ext3 when dealing with small files (files less than 4k), often by a factor of 10x-15x. ReiserFS also scales extremely well and has metadata journaling. As of kernel 2.4.18+, ReiserFS is now rock-solid and highly recommended for use both as a general-purpose filesystem and for extreme cases such as the creation of large filesystems, the use of many small files, very large files, and directories containing tens of thousands of files. ReiserFS is the filesystem we recommend by default for all non-boot partitions.
XFS is a filesystem with metadata journaling that is fully supported under
Gentoo Linux's
JFS is IBM's own high performance journaling filesystem. It has recently become production-ready, and there hasn't been a sufficient track record to comment either positively nor negatively on its general stability at this point.
If you're looking for the most rugged journaling filesystem, use ext3. If you're looking for a good general-purpose high-performance filesystem with journaling support, use ReiserFS; both ext3 and ReiserFS are mature, refined and recommended for general use.
Based on our example above, we will use the following commands to initialize all our partitions for use:
# mke2fs -j /dev/hda1 # mkswap /dev/hda2 # mkreiserfs /dev/hda3
We choose ext3 for our
For your reference, here are the various
#mkswap /dev/hda2
You can use the
# mke2fs /dev/hda1
If you would like to use ext3, you can create ext3 filesystems using
#mke2fs -j /dev/hda3
To create ReiserFS filesystems, use the
#mkreiserfs /dev/hda3
To create an XFS filesystem, use the
#mkfs.xfs /dev/hda3
To create JFS filesystems, use the
#mkfs.jfs /dev/hda3
Now, we will activate our newly-initialized swap volume, since we may need the additional virtual memory that it provides later:
#swapon /dev/hda2
Next, we will create the
#mkdir /mnt/gentoo #mount /dev/hda3 /mnt/gentoo #mkdir /mnt/gentoo/boot #mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/gentoo/boot
Now, you need to decide which one you would like to use as a basis for the install if you haven't already.
If you are using the "from scratch, build everything" install
method, you will want to use the
If you would like to perform an install using a stage tarball that is not on your CD , this is still possible, but you'll need to download the stage you want using the following instructions. If you already have the stage tarball you want to use (most users), then proceed to the "Extracting the stage tarball" section.
#cd /mnt/gentoo Use lynx to get the URL for your tarball: #lynx http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo/releases/1.4_rc4/x86/ Use #Up andDown arrows keys (or theTAB key) to go to the right directory Highlight the appropriate stage you want to download Pressd which will initiate the download Save the file and quit the browser OR use wget from the command line:wget insert URL to the required stage tarball here.
Now it is time to extract the compressed stage tarball of your choice to
#cd /mnt/gentoo Change "stage3" to "stage2" or "stage1" if you want to start from these stages instead. If you downloaded your stage tarball, change the path below to begin with "/mnt/gentoo/" instead of "/mnt/cdrom/gentoo/". #tar -xvjpf /mnt/cdrom/gentoo/stage3-*.tar.bz2
If you downloaded your stage tarball to
Next, we will
#mount -t proc proc /mnt/gentoo/proc #cp /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/gentoo/etc/resolv.conf #chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash #env-update Regenerating /etc/ld.so.cache... #source /etc/profile (The above points your shell to the new paths and updated binaries.)
After you execute these commands, you will be "inside" your new Gentoo Linux environment in
Now, you will need to run
#emerge sync
Now that you have a working copy of the Portage tree, it is time to
customize the optimization and optional build-time settings to use on your
Gentoo Linux system. Portage will use these settings when compiling any
programs for you. To do this, edit the file
You also should set appropriate
If necessary, you can also set proxy information here if you are behind a
firewall. Use the following command to edit
#nano -w /etc/make.conf (Edit CHOST, CFLAGS, CXXFLAGS and any necessary USE or proxy settings)
The stage1 tarball is for complete customization and optimization. If you have picked this tarball, you are most likely looking to have an uber-optimized and up-to-date system. Have fun, because optimization is what Gentoo Linux is all about! Installing from a stage1 takes a lot of time, but the result is a system that has been optimized from the ground up for your specific machine and needs.
Now, it is time to start the "bootstrap" process. This process takes about two hours on my 1200MHz AMD Athlon system. During this time, the GNU C library, compiler suite and other key system programs will be built. Start the bootstrap as follows:
#cd /usr/portage #scripts/bootstrap.sh
The "bootstrap" process will now begin.
#export PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/otherdir/tmp"
The stage2 tarball already has the bootstrapping done for you. All that you have to do is install the rest of the system.
#emerge -p system (lists the packages to be installed) #emerge system
It is going to take a while to finish building the entire base system. Your reward is that it will be thoroughly optimized for your system. The drawback is that you have to find a way to keep yourself occupied for some time to come. The author suggests "Star Wars - Super Bombad Racing" for the PS2.
Building is now complete. Go ahead and skip down to the "Setting your time zone" section.
The stage3 tarball provides a fully-functional basic Gentoo system, so no building is required. However, since the stage3 tarball is pre-built, it may be slightly out-of-date. If this is a concern for you, you can automatically update your existing stage3 to contain the most up-to-date versions of all system packages by performing the following steps. Note that this could take a long time if your stage3 is very old; otherwise, this process will generally be quick and will allow you to benefit from the very latest Gentoo updates and fixes. In any case, feel free to skip these steps and proceed to the next section if you like.
#export CONFIG_PROTECT="-*" #emerge -up system (lists the packages that would be installed) #emerge -u system (actually merges the packages) #unset CONFIG_PROTECT
Now you need to set your time zone.
Look for your time zone (or GMT if you are using Greenwich Mean Time)
in
#ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/path/to/timezonefile /etc/localtime
You now need to merge Linux kernel sources. Here are the ones we currently offer:
| ebuild | description |
|---|---|
Choose a kernel and then merge as follows:
#emerge sys-kernel/gentoo-sources
Once you have a Linux kernel source tree available, it is time to compile your own custom kernel.
Please note that
#cd /usr/src/linux #make menuconfig #make dep && make clean bzImage modules modules_install #cp /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot
Code maturity level options ---> [*] Prompt for development and/or incomplete code/drivers"(You need this to enable some of the options below.) ... File systems ---> <*> Reiserfs support(Only needed if you are using reiserfs.) ... <*> Ext3 journalling file system support(Only needed if you are using ext3.) ... [*] Virtual memory file system support (former shm fs)(Required for Gentoo Linux.) ... <*> JFS filesystem support(Only needed if you are using JFS.) ... [*] /proc file system support(Required for Gentoo Linux.) [*] /dev file system support (EXPERIMENTAL) [*] Automatically mount at boot(Required for Gentoo Linux.) [ ] /dev/pts file system for Unix98 PTYs(Uncheck this, it is NOT needed.) ... <*> Second extended fs support(Only needed if you are using ext2.) ... <*> XFS filesystem support(Only needed if you are using XFS.)
If you are using hardware RAID you will need to enable a couple more options in the kernel: For Highpoint RAID controllers select hpt366 chipset support, support for IDE RAID controllers and Highpoint 370 software RAID.For Promise RAID controllers select PROMISE PDC202{46|62|65|67|68|69|70} support, support for IDE RAID controllers and Support Promise software RAID (Fasttrak(tm))
If you use PPPoE to connect to Internet, you will need the following options in the kernel (built-in or as preferably as modules) : "PPP (point-to-point protocol) support", "PPP support for async serial ports", "PPP support for sync tty ports". The two compression options won't harm but are not definitely needed, neither does the "PPP over Ethernet" option, that might only be used by rp-pppoe when configured to do kernel mode PPPoE.
If you have an IDE cd burner, then you need to enable SCSI emulation in the
kernel. Turn on "ATA/IDE/MFM/RLL support" ---> "IDE, ATA and ATAPI Block
devices" ---> "SCSI emulation support" (I usually make it a module), then
under "SCSI support" enable "SCSI support", "SCSI CD-ROM support" and
"SCSI generic support" (again, I usually compile them as modules). If you
also choose to use modules, then
Your new custom kernel (and modules) are now installed. Now you need to choose a system
logger that you would like to install. We offer sysklogd, which is the traditional set
of system logging daemons. We also have msyslog and syslog-ng as well as metalog. Power users seem
to gravitate away from sysklogd (not very good performance) and towards the
newer alternatives.
If in doubt, you may want to try metalog, since it seems to be quite popular.
To merge your logger of choice, type
#emerge app-admin/sysklogd #rc-update add sysklogd default or #emerge app-admin/syslog-ng #rc-update add syslog-ng default or #emerge app-admin/metalog #rc-update add metalog default or #emerge app-admin/msyslog #rc-update add msyslog default
Now, you may optionally choose a cron package that you would like to use. Right now, we offer dcron, fcron and vcron. If you do not know which one to choose, you might as well grab vcron. They can be installed as follows:
#emerge sys-apps/dcron #rc-update add dcron default #crontab /etc/crontab or #emerge sys-apps/fcron #rc-update add fcron default #crontab /etc/crontab or #emerge sys-apps/vcron #rc-update add vcron default You do not need to run crontab /etc/crontab if using vcron.
For more information on starting programs and daemons at startup, see the
If you need rp-pppoe to connect to the net, be aware that at this point it has not been installed. It would be the good time to do it.
#USE="-X" emerge rp-pppoe
You may need to install some additional packages in the Portage tree
if you are using any optional features like XFS, ReiserFS or LVM. If you're
using XFS, you should emerge the
#emerge sys-apps/xfsprogs If you would like to use ReiserFS, you should emerge the ReiserFS tools: #emerge sys-apps/reiserfsprogs If you would like to use JFS, you should emerge the JFS tools: #emerge jfsutils If you're using LVM, you should emerge the #lvm-user package:emerge sys-apps/lvm-user
If you're a laptop user and wish to use your PCMCIA slots on your first real reboot, you will want to make sure you install the pcmcia-cs package.
#emerge sys-apps/pcmcia-cs
Your Gentoo Linux system is almost ready for use. All we need to do now is configure
a few important system files and install the boot loader.
The first file we need to
configure is
Use something like the
# /etc/fstab: static file system information. # # noatime turns off atimes for increased performance (atimes normally aren't # needed; notail increases performance of ReiserFS (at the expense of storage # efficiency). It is safe to drop the noatime options if you want and to # switch between notail and tail freely. # <fs> <mount point> <type> <opts> <dump/pass> # NOTE: If your BOOT partition is ReiserFS, add the notail option to opts. /dev/BOOT /boot ext2 noauto,noatime 1 2 /dev/ROOT / ext3 noatime 0 1 /dev/SWAP none swap sw 0 0 /dev/cdroms/cdrom0 /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,ro 0 0 proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
Before you forget, set the root password by typing:
#passwd
You will also want to add a non-root user for everyday use. Please consult
the
Edit this file so that it contains your fully-qualified domain name on a single line,
i.e.
#echo mymachine.mydomain.com > /etc/hostname
This file contains a list of IP addresses and their associated hostnames. It is used by the system to resolve the IP addresses of any hostnames that may not be in your nameservers. Here is a template for this file:
127.0.0.1 localhost# the next line contains your IP for your local LAN, and your associated machine name 192.168.1.1 mymachine.mydomain.com mymachine
Add the names of any modules that are necessary for the proper functioning of your system to
This is assuming that you are using a 3com card. Check 3c59x/lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net for your card.
Edit the
#nano -w /etc/conf.d/net #rc-update add net.eth0 default
If you have multiple network cards you need to create additional
#cd /etc/init.d #cp net.eth0 net.eth #x rc-update add net.eth x default
If you have a PCMCIA card installed, have a quick look into
depend() {
need pcmcia
}
This makes sure that the PCMCIA drivers are autoloaded whenever your network is loaded.
#nano -w /etc/rc.conf
Follow the directions in the file to configure the basic settings.
All users will want to make sure that
In the spirit of Gentoo, users now have more than one bootloader to choose from. Using our virtual package system, users are now able to choose between both GRUB and LILO as their bootloaders.
Please keep in mind that having both bootloaders installed is not necessary. In fact, it can be a hindrance, so please only choose one.
The most critical part of understanding GRUB is getting comfortable with how GRUB
refers to hard drives and partitions. Your Linux partition
The easiest way to install GRUB is to simply type
#emerge grub #grub
You will be presented with the
grub>root (hd0,0) Your boot partition grub>setup (hd0) Where the boot record is installed, here, it is the MBR
Alternatively, if you wanted to install the bootloader somewhere other than the MBR grub>root (hd0,0) Your boot partition grub>setup (hd0,4) Where the boot record is installed, here it is /dev/hda5 grub>quit
Here is how the two commands work. The first
Gentoo Linux is now
installed, but we need to create the
Now, create the grub.conf file (
default 0 timeout 30 splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz title=My example Gentoo Linux root (hd0,0) kernel (hd0,0)/boot/bzImage root=/dev/hda3# Below is for setup using hardware RAID title=My Gentoo Linux on RAID root (hd0,0) kernel (hd0,0)/boot/bzImage root=/dev/ataraid/dXpY# Below needed only for people who dual-boot title=Windows XP root (hd0,5) chainloader (hd0,5)+1
After saving this file, Gentoo Linux installation is complete. Selecting the first option will tell GRUB to boot Gentoo Linux without a fuss. The second part of the grub.conf file is optional, and shows you how to use GRUB to boot a bootable Windows partition.
If you need to pass any additional options to the kernel, simply
add them to the end of the
While GRUB may be the new alternative for most people, it is not always the best choice. LILO, the LInuxLOader, is the tried and true workhorse of Linux bootloaders. Here is how to install LILO if you would like to use it instead of GRUB:
The first step is to emerge LILO:
#emerge lilo
Now it is time to configure LILO. Here is a sample configuration file
boot=/dev/hda map=/boot/map install=/boot/boot.b prompt timeout=50 lba32 default=linux image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20 label=linux read-only root=/dev/hda3 #For dual booting windows/other OS other=/dev/hda1 label=dos
After you have edited your lilo.conf file, it is time to run LILO to load the information into the MBR:
#/sbin/lilo
LILO is configured, and now your machine is ready to boot into Gentoo Linux!
It is always a good idea to make a boot disk the first
time you install any Linux distribution. This is a security
blanket, and generally not a bad thing to do. If you are using some kinds of hardware RAID, you may
#mke2fs /dev/fd0 #mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy #mkdir -p /mnt/floppy/boot/grub #cp /usr/share/grub/i386-pc/stage1 /mnt/floppy/boot/grub/ #cp /usr/share/grub/i386-pc/stage2 /mnt/floppy/boot/grub/ #umount /mnt/floppy #grub grub>root (fd0) grub>setup (fd0) grub>quit
Now reboot and load the floppy. At the floppy's
If you are using LILO, it is also a good idea to make a bootdisk:
#dd if=/boot/your_kernel of=/dev/fd0 This will only work if your kernel is smaller than 1.4MB
Now, Gentoo Linux is installed. The only remaining step is to update necessary configuration files, exit the chrooted shell, safely unmount your partitions and reboot the system:
#etc-update #exit (This exits the chrooted shell; you can also type #^D )cd / #umount /mnt/gentoo/boot #umount /mnt/gentoo/proc #umount /mnt/gentoo #reboot
If you have any questions or would like to get involved with Gentoo Linux development,
consider joining our gentoo-user and gentoo-dev mailing lists
(more information on our
The Gentoo Linux usage statistics program was started as an attempt to give the developers
a way to find out about their user base. It collects information about Gentoo Linux usage to help
us in set priorities our development. Installing it is completely optional, and it would be greatly
appreciated if you decide to use it. Compiled statistics can be viewed at
The gentoo-stats server will assign a unique ID to your system. This ID is used to make sure that each system is counted only once. The ID will not be used to individually identify your system, nor will it be matched against an IP address or other personal information. Every precaution has been taken to assure your privacy in the development of this system. The following are the things that we are monitoring right now through our "gentoo-stats" program:
We are aware that disclosure of sensitive information is a threat to most Gentoo Linux users (just as it is to the developers).
The installation is easy - just run the following commands:
#emerge gentoo-stats Installs gentoo-stats #gentoo-stats --new Obtains a new system ID
The second command above will request a new system ID and enter it into
After that, the program should be run on a regular schedule
(gentoo-stats does not have to be run as root). Add this line to your
0 0 * * 0,4 /usr/sbin/gentoo-stats --update > /dev/null
The