GNU Gentoo Linux Guide

[likewhoa]

.: Introduction :.

First of all, welcome to Gentoo. You are about to enter the world of choices and performance. Gentoo is all about choices. When installing Gentoo, this is made clear to you several times -- you can choose how much you want to compile yourself, how to install Gentoo, what system logger you want, etc.

Gentoo is a fast, modern meta distribution with a clean and flexible design. Gentoo is built around free software and doesn't hide from its users what is beneath the hood. Portage, the package maintenance system which Gentoo uses, is written in Python, meaning you can easily view and modify the source code. Gentoo's packaging system uses source code (although support for precompiled packages is included too) and configuring Gentoo happens through regular textfiles. In other words, openness everywhere.

.: What is Stage1 About? :.

Starting from a stage1 install 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 or people that want the most out of their hardware. It is also a great installation method for those who would like to know more about the inner workings of Gentoo Linux.

A stage1 installation can only be performed when you have a working Internet connection.

here are some of the Pros & Cons when doing a Stage1 install.

Pros:

Allows you to have total control over the optimization settings and optional build-time functionality that is initially enabled on your system.
Suitable for power users that know what they are doing.
Allows you to learn more about the inner workings of Gentoo.

Cons:

Takes a long time to finish the installation.
If you don't intend to tweak the settings, it is probably a waste of time.
Not suitable for network less installations.
Not officially supported by Gentoo - If you want support you will need to follow the Official stage3 Gentoo Linux Guide as this guide is not that. you can find a link to that guide at the bottom of this thread.


Now take a look at the available installation media.

Gentoo LiveCDs

The Gentoo LiveCDs are bootable CDs which contain a self-sustained Gentoo environment. They allow you to boot Linux from the CD. During the boot process your hardware is detected and the appropriate drivers are loaded. They are maintained by Gentoo developers.

All LiveCDs allow you to boot, set up networking, initialize your partitions and start installing Gentoo from the Internet.

As we are concerned with an install from stage1 the LiveCD is all that is required.

This is a small, no-nonsense, bootable CD, the sole purpose of which is to boot the system, prepare the networking and continue with the Gentoo installation. It does not contain any stages (or, in some cases, a single stage1 file), source code or precompiled packages. For example the amd64 variant of this LiveCD can be found in the releases/amd64/2006.1/livecd/ subdirectory and is called livecd-amd64-installer-2006.1.iso.

Downloading and Burning the LiveCDs

We'll first start by downloading and burning the chosen LiveCD. We previously discussed the available LiveCDs, but where can you find it?

You can download the LiveCDs from one of the Gentoo mirrors (http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/mirrors.xml) or via a torrent (http://torrents.gentoo.org/).

Inside that directory you'll find so-called ISO-files. Those are full CD images which you can write on a CD-R. In case you wonder if your downloaded file is corrupted or not, you can check its MD5 checksum and compare it with the MD5 checksum we provide (such as livecd-amd64-installer-2006.1.iso.DIGESTS).
Check the contents of this file for the MD5 HASH then, You can check the MD5 checksum with the md5sum (http://www.etree.org/md5com.html) tool under Linux/Unix or md5sum for Windows.

To burn the downloaded ISO(s), you have to select Mode 1. How you do this is highly program-dependent. You can use Nero burning ROM or CDburner XP but if you are all ready running Linux, We will discuss cdrecord and K3B here; more information can be found in the Gentoo FAQ. (http://gentoo.org/doc/en/faq.xml)

32bit or 64bit? The choice is yours.
If you know for sure that your CPU is 64bit capable then download the 64bit stage1 sources, otherwise download the 32bit stage1 sources. If you're not sure and want to know if your processor is 64bit capable then just download the x86 livecd.

Notes: commands are not to be paste with the "#" symbol.

32bit configuration commands will be highlighted in RED
64bit configuration commands will be highlighted in BLUE
when showing sample configuration files that need to be edited, pay attention to the ones that are uncommented; which you should follow.


Processors that are 64bit capable:

Intel Processors in the LGA775 package.
Intel Pentium D 8xx,9xx.
AMD Opteron Processors (single/dual-core) in the 1xx,2xx,22xx series.
AMD Sempron "E6 (Part No.: *BX)".


Downloading the LiveCD:

32bit Gentoo LiveCD:

ISO Image: livecd-i686-installer-2006.1.iso (http://mirror.datapipe.net/gentoo/releases/x86/2006.1/livecd/livecd-i686-installer-2006.1.iso)
DIGEST: livecd-i686-installer-2006.1.iso.DIGESTS (http://mirror.datapipe.net/gentoo/releases/x86/2006.1/livecd/livecd-i686-installer-2006.1.iso.DIGESTS)


64bit Gentoo LiveCD:

ISO Image: livecd-amd64-installer-2006.1.iso (http://mirror.datapipe.net/gentoo/releases/amd64/2006.1/livecd/livecd-amd64-installer-2006.1.iso)
DIGEST: livecd-amd64-installer-2006.1.iso.DIGESTS (http://mirror.datapipe.net/gentoo/releases/amd64/2006.1/livecd/livecd-amd64-installer-2006.1.iso.DIGESTS)


Using cdrecord to burn the ISO


# cdrecord -v -dao dev=/dev/hdc driveropts=burnfree livecd.iso


Replace /dev/hdc with your CD-RW drive's device path and livecd.iso with the name of your ISO image file. :)

With K3B, select Tools→CD→Burn Image. Then you can locate your ISO file within the 'Image to Burn' area. Finally click Start.

Booting the LiveCD(s)


Important
Read this whole subsection before continuing, as you will probably not have the opportunity to read it before doing things later.

Once you have burned your installation CDs, it is time to boot of the LiveCD.

Now reboot with CD in the drive. You should see a boot prompt. At this screen, you can hit Enter to begin the boot process with the default boot options, or boot the LiveCD with custom boot options by specifying a kernel followed by boot options and then hitting Enter.

.: Installation :.

About the Gentoo Linux Installation

Optional: Starting the SSH Daemon

Setting up Gentoo is easiest via an ssh session from another machine, allowing you to read (this guide for example) while staying connected to a Gentoo help channel on irc and being able to browse the net all in a GUI, making life easier in many ways. you can still install Gentoo from 1 machine and still browse the internet in a graphical way using "links -q". I will explain this later in the guide.

First let's give the 'virtual' livecd root account a password, since this is auto scrambled by the livecd for security purposes. you can also type:



# sudo su


to gain root access. for now let's just change the password.



# passwd


and if it is easier for you to make alterations through sshd let's start it up.



# /etc/init.d/sshd start


Run 'ifconfig' and note down the ip address of the system, you will need to 'ssh root@ipaddress' to continue with the installation.

Optimizing Media Access (Optional)

So you have the sexiest windows box in the universe eh...? Think it's quick..? I think not.

In windows you do not have a utility to physically affect changes to the hard drives performance parameters. Linux does. hdparm is that utility that allows you to set your hard disks and cdroms to utilize the fastest 32/64bit and udma transfer modes supported by your hard disks.

Keep in mind that hdparm is intended more for ide ~ udma ~ ata based systems because sata and scsi disks have the ability to dynamically affect these changes from the scsi controller's chipset. Gentoo Linux adds hdparm in all the livecd's. Even minimal livecd's. The results from using it can save you days of waiting for apps to compile if your motherboards ide chipset does not automatically set the hard drives performance parameters to use 32/64bit i/o, multi count and read ahead disk modes tuned just for your system.

Hard disks, cdroms, cdrw's, dvdrw's all may require these modes to be set to allow your system to truly achieve the performance linux can really offer. Below you will see four examples. The first is a non optimized drive offering no dma, 32/64bit i/o, multi count or unmask irq usage, The second and third shows how to set these modes for hard disks and optical storage readers and writers. The fourth are the results of the settings.

The un-optimized view would or could look such as this does



# hdparm /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
IO_support = 1 (32-bit)
unmaskirq = 1 (on)
using_dma = 1 (on)
keepsettings = 0 (off)
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 256 (on)
geometry = 16383/255/63, sectors = 78165360, start = 0


To set the optimized transfer modes for most hard disks from the livecd do the following



# hdparm -d1c1u1 /dev/cdroms/cdrom0


The optimized results



# hdparm -d1c1u1m16 /dev/hda



/dev/hda:
setting 32-bit IO_support flag to 1
setting multcount to 16
setting unmaskirq to 1 (on)
setting using_dma to 1 (on)
multcount = 16 (on)
IO_support = 1 (32-bit)
unmaskirq = 1 (on)
using_dma = 1 (on)

Setting Up the Network

2006.1 is stable with loading networking on boot however there will be the odd occasion that you will need to go back to the drawing board and run through the paces manually and setup your networking if you don't have a dhcp server on your network.



# ifconfig eth0
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:00:6C:B5:F0:A6
inet addr:192.168.1.100 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:16086954 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:11107723 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:16851375902 (16070.7 Mb) TX bytes:2400613649 (2289.4 Mb)
Interrupt:23 Base address:0x6000

# ping -c5 www.google.com
PING www.l.google.com (64.233.161.99) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from od-in-f99.google.com (64.233.161.99): icmp_seq=1 ttl=241 time=48.4 ms
64 bytes from od-in-f99.google.com (64.233.161.99): icmp_seq=2 ttl=241 time=115 ms
64 bytes from od-in-f99.google.com (64.233.161.99): icmp_seq=3 ttl=241 time=117 ms
64 bytes from od-in-f99.google.com (64.233.161.99): icmp_seq=4 ttl=238 time=65.4 ms
64 bytes from od-in-f99.google.com (64.233.161.99): icmp_seq=5 ttl=241 time=105 ms

--- www.l.google.com ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time 3998ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 48.467/90.425/117.629/28.170 ms


If you see packet traffic it's time to continue. If not head over to gentoo's irc chans for user support.


Note: Before heading over to irc, try running net-setup from the LiveCD. This will usually set things up properly.


TIP: for me 'net-setup eth0' doesn't work but 'net-setup eth1' does.

Preparing the Disks



If you have a SATA or SCSI system replace hda with sda appropriately in the following code samples.


Fdisk Partition Utility & Setting up Filesystems

First check your system for available disks. If this command prints nothing you have a problem that is outside the scope of this handbook:

Check your system for available disks



# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 150.0 GB, 150039945216 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 18241 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes


The following example shows Windows on the primary partition /dev/sda1 and it's swap partition on /dev/sda2, while Linux's primary partition is on /dev/sda4 and swap on /dev/sda3. This layout is ideal for booting both Linux and Windows on the same drive.



# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 150.0 GB, 150039945216 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 18241 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 9915 79642206 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 9916 10464 4409842+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 10465 11014 4417875 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4 11015 18241 58050877+ 83 Linux




If you are gonna install Linux and still keep windows for dual-booting, use the above layout scheme.


Using fdisk - fdisk in a nutshell..

The manual of fdisk



# fdisk /dev/sda

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 18241.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Command (m for help): m
Command action
a toggle a bootable flag
b edit bsd disklabel
c toggle the dos compatibility flag
d delete a partition
l list known partition types
m print this menu
n add a new partition
o create a new empty DOS partition table
p print the partition table
q quit without saving changes
s create a new empty Sun disklabel
t change a partition's system id
u change display/entry units
v verify the partition table
w write table to disk and exit
x extra functionality (experts only)

Proceed to create each partition by entering options:

Setting the swap partition type:


n - new partition.
p - primary (or e for extended)
# - this is the number of partition. i.e 3 for /dev/sda3
hit enter key to skip first cylinder value.
enter amount of space to allocate .
i.e +2G "meaning 2Gigs"
t - change a partition's system id.
enter the partition number swap is on. i.e 3
82 - set Linux Swap System ID.
w - write table to disk and exit.


Setting the root partition:


n - new partition.
p - primary (or e for extended)
# - this is the number of partition. i.e 4 for /dev/sda4
hit enter key to skip first cylinder value.
enter amount of space to allocate
i.e +80G "meaning 80Gigs"
w - write table to disk and exit.


Here is an example of a partition scheme with only single boot Linux.



Filesystem Type Size Mounted on
/dev/hda1 reiserfs 80G /
/dev/hda2 swap 1.0G <Linux Swap>


Optional: Extra Partitions.

Some users may find it useful to have have folders such as '/opt' and '/home' mounted in different a) partitions and or b) drives. There can only be a maximum of either four primary partitions or three primary partitions and an 'extended partition' that can house many 'logical partitions', and due to this we allocate the rest of the space to the extended partition and then setup each logical partition as needed (inside that). Seems complicated but it is quite easy once you get the hang of it.



/dev/hda4 ext3 Rest <Extended Partition>
/dev/hda5 ext3 1.0G /opt
/dev/hda6 ext3 Rest /home


Set hda1 to Active with "a" and also change the swap partition "type" of hda2 to swap By pressing "t" and entering type "82", which is the hex code for linux swap. See the fdisk manual above if you're confused.

What you'll see if correctly set up via fdisk



Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 970 488848+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 971 2909 977256 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda3 2910 22286 9766008 83 Linux


Optionally seen if included in the partition table



/dev/hda4 22287 238216 108828720 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 22287 24225 977224+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 24226 238216 107851432+ 83 Linux


Filesystems and Mounting

Using ext2 or ext3 would be such a waste. It's slow, it cannot output i/o at the rates of reiserfs 3.6 or reiser4... Yes I tested Reiser4 stability for Gentoo and it's fsckin killa over 80MB/s i/o on hard drives *not* properly tuned with hdparm for udma133 with no raid.

Reiser4 was recently released as a stable file system. and if you've been following the news on reiser4.. It's the fastest file system on the planet. I will be adding Reiser4 as an optional file system in this tutorial in the very near future as time permits and when it's finally in the vanilla kernel.

To create file systems:



If you have a SATA or SCSI system replace hda with sda appropriately in the following code examples.




# mkreiserfs /dev/hda4


or if you would like to stick with ext3.



# mke2fs -j /dev/hda4


Creating and Starting Swap.



# mkswap /dev/hda3
# swapon /dev/hda3


Mounting the partitions.



# mount /dev/hda4 /mnt/gentoo


.: Installing the Gentoo Installation Files :.

Setting the Date/Time

Before you continue you need to check your date/time and update it. A mis-configured clock may lead to strange results in the future!

To verify the current date/time, run date:



# date
Sat Feb 3 18:48:43 EST 2007


If the date/time displayed is wrong, update it using the date MMDDhhmmYYYY syntax (Month, Day, hour, minute and Year). For instance, to set the date to February 3th, 04:20 in the year 2007:



# date 020304202007


Retrieving a Base System Stage Tarball

We will be building a toolchain with The Native Linux Posix Threading (NPTL) model that makes pthreading look like child's play. To use it you must compile every application to support it specifically toolchain which primarily consists of glibc and gcc. For this example we're going for brutal speed and agility so if you've been following it's stage1 were planning to build. Precompilied applications in a can will leave you with broken libs or unsupported features. Think of your toolchain as 3 hardware pieces; Glibc being your motherboard which has all the bridges that connects your components that being BinUtils and finally GCC is your processor. With a good motherboard (Glibc C library), great components (Binutils system tools) and a killer processor (GCC compiler collection) there is really nothing stopping you from gaining a nice overclock except some heat from that massive overvoltage :D

TIP: Processors that are 64bit capable

Intel Processors in the LGA775 package.
Intel Pentium D 8xx,9xx.
AMD Opteron Processors (single/dual-core) in the 1xx,2xx,22xx series.
AMD Sempron "E6 (Part No.: *BX)".


32bit Gentoo 2006.1 stage1 tarball


# cd /mnt/gentoo
# wget http://mirror.datapipe.net/gentoo/releases/x86/2006.1/stages/stage1-x86-2006.1.tar.bz2
# tar xvjpf stage1*


64bit Gentoo 2006.1 stage1 tarball


# cd /mnt/gentoo
# wget http://mirror.datapipe.net/gentoo/releases/amd64/2006.1/stages/stage1-amd64-2006.1.tar.bz2
# tar xvjpf stage1*


Gentoo Portage Tree Snapshot


# cd /mnt/gentoo
# wget http://mirror.datapipe.net/gentoo/snapshots/portage-latest.tar.bz2
# tar xvjpf portage* -C usr/


Setting your compiler flags make.conf

I have a completed make.conf available for everyone to download and edit to suit their needs. Due to the amount of variables in Gentoo's make.conf they cannot be covered in this tutorial. If you require some assistance ingesting how make.conf works.

read the manual page.



# man make.conf


and to get a better idea of how portage works, check out Gentoo's official portage documentation (http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/index.xml?catid=gentoo#doc_chap2). I have also provided configuration files for both 32bit and 64bit processors. pick the one that suits your needs.

Configuration for Athlon-XP Processors

32bit Athlon-XP configuration:



# cd /mnt/gentoo/etc
# mv make.conf make.conf.original
# wget http://weboperative.com/gentoo/athlon-xp/x86/make.conf


64bit Athlon-XP configuration:



# cd /mnt/gentoo/etc
# mv make.conf make.conf.original
# wget http://weboperative.com/gentoo/athlon-xp/amd64/make.conf


Notes on Althlon-XP Procs


MAKEOPTS="-j2" edit this to MAKEOPTS="-j3" if your processor has dual-cores.
If your processor is missing any of the sse,sse2 flags edit these out from the USE="..." in the make.conf
to view available flags type or to check if you have two cores. type
# cat /proc/cpuinfo


Configuration for Athlon64 Processors

32bit Athlon64 configuration:



# cd /mnt/gentoo/etc
# mv make.conf make.conf.original
# wget http://weboperative.com/gentoo/athlon64/x86/make.conf


64bit Athlon64 configuration:



# cd /mnt/gentoo/etc
# mv make.conf make.conf.original
# wget http://weboperative.com/gentoo/athlon64/amd64/make.conf


Notes on Althlon64 Procs


MAKEOPTS="-j2" edit this to MAKEOPTS="-j3" if your processor has dual-cores.
If your processor is missing any of the sse,sse2 flags edit these out from the USE="..." in the make.conf
to view available flags type or to check if you have two cores. type
# cat /proc/cpuinfo


Configuration for Athlon64 X2 Processors (Socket 939/AM2)

32bit Athlon64 X2 (Socket 939/AM2) configuration:



# cd /mnt/gentoo/etc
# mv make.conf make.conf.original
# wget http://weboperative.com/gentoo/athlon64x2/x86/make.conf


64bit Athlon64 X2 (Socket 939/AM2) configuration:



# cd /mnt/gentoo/etc
# mv make.conf make.conf.original
# wget http://weboperative.com/gentoo/athlon64x2/amd64/make.conf


Notes on Althlon64 X2 (Socket 939/AM2) Procs


If your processor is missing any of the sse,sse2 flags edit these out from the USE="..." in the make.conf
to view available flags type:
# cat /proc/cpuinfo


Configuration for Opteron Processors (Socket 939/AM2)

32bit Opteron Configuration:



# cd /mnt/gentoo/etc
# mv make.conf make.conf.original
# wget http://weboperative.com/gentoo/opteron/x86/make.conf


64bit Opteron Configuration:



# cd /mnt/gentoo/etc
# mv make.conf make.conf.original
# wget http://weboperative.com/gentoo/opteron/amd64/make.conf



Notes on Opteron Procs

MAKEOPTS="-j3" edit this to MAKEOPTS="-j2" if your processor does not have dual-cores.
If your processor is missing any of the sse,sse2 flags edit these out from the USE="..." variable in the make.conf
to view available flags type or to check if you have two cores. type
# cat /proc/cpuinfo


Configuration for Intel Core Dou/ Core 2 Dou Processors

32bit Core Dou Configuration:



# cd /mnt/gentoo/etc
# mv make.conf make.conf.original
# wget http://weboperative.com/gentoo/nocona/x86/make.conf


64bit Core Dou Configuration:



# cd /mnt/gentoo/etc
# mv make.conf make.conf.original
# wget http://weboperative.com/gentoo/nocona/amd64/make.conf


Notes on Core Dou/Core 2 Dou Procs


MAKEOPTS="-j2" edit this to MAKEOPTS="-j3" if your processor has dual-cores.
If your processor is missing any of the sse,sse2 flags edit these out from the USE="..." in the make.conf
to view available flags type or to check if you have two cores. type
# cat /proc/cpuinfo



Configuration for Pentium2 Processors

32bit Pentium2 Configuration:



# cd /mnt/gentoo/etc
# mv make.conf make.conf.original
# wget http://weboperative.com/gentoo/pentium2/x86/make.conf


Notes on Pentium2 Procs


MAKEOPTS="-j2" edit this to MAKEOPTS="-j3" if your running a dual processor board.
If your processor is missing any of the sse,sse2 flags edit these out from the USE="..." in the make.conf
to view available flags type or to check if you have two cores. type
# cat /proc/cpuinfo


Configuration for Pentium3 Processors

32bit Pentium3 Configuration:



# cd /mnt/gentoo/etc
# mv make.conf make.conf.original
# wget http://weboperative.com/gentoo/pentium3/x86/make.conf


Notes on Pentium3 Procs


MAKEOPTS="-j2" edit this to MAKEOPTS="-j3" if your running a dual processor board.
If your processor is missing any of the sse,sse2 flags edit these out from the USE="..." in the make.conf
to view available flags type or to check if you have two cores. type
# cat /proc/cpuinfo


Configuration for Pentium-M (Centrino)/Celeron M (Intel) Processors

32bit Pentium-M Configuration:



# cd /mnt/gentoo/etc
# mv make.conf make.conf.original
# wget http://weboperative.com/gentoo/pentium-m/x86/make.conf


Notes on Pentium-M Procs


MAKEOPTS="-j2" edit this to MAKEOPTS="-j3" if your processor has dual-cores.
If your processor is missing any of the sse,sse2 flags edit these out from the USE="..." in the make.conf
to view available flags type or to check if you have two cores. type
# cat /proc/cpuinfo


Configuration for Pentium4 Processors

32bit Pentium4 Configuration:



# cd /mnt/gentoo/etc
# mv make.conf make.conf.original
# wget http://weboperative.com/gentoo/pentium4/x86/make.conf


64bit Pentium4 Configuration:



# cd /mnt/gentoo/etc
# mv make.conf make.conf.original
# wget http://weboperative.com/gentoo/pentium4/amd64/make.conf


Notes on Pentium4 Procs


MAKEOPTS="-j2" edit this to MAKEOPTS="-j3" if your processor has dual-cores.
If your processor is missing any of the sse,sse2 flags edit these out from the USE="..." in the make.conf
to view available flags type or to check if you have two cores. type
# cat /proc/cpuinfo


Configuration for Pentium4 (Prescotts) Processors

32bit Pentium4 (Prescotts) Configuration:



# cd /mnt/gentoo/etc
# mv make.conf make.conf.original
# wget http://weboperative.com/gentoo/p4-prescott/x86/make.conf


64bit Pentium4 Configuration:



# cd /mnt/gentoo/etc
# mv make.conf make.conf.original
# wget http://weboperative.com/gentoo/p4-prescott/amd64/make.conf


Notes on Pentium4 (Prescotts) Procs


MAKEOPTS="-j2" edit this to MAKEOPTS="-j3" if your processor has dual-cores.
If your processor is missing any of the sse,sse2 flags edit these out from the USE="..." in the make.conf
You can verify the chip is a Prescott by looking for pni in the flags section of /proc/cpuinfo. this indicates support for SSE3. In 2004, Intel started branding processors with the Prescott core as Intel Celeron D.
to view available flags type or to check if you have two cores. type
# cat /proc/cpuinfo


Configuration for PentiumD Processors

32bit PentiumD Configuration:



# cd /mnt/gentoo/etc
# mv make.conf make.conf.original
# wget http://weboperative.com/gentoo/pentium-d/x86/make.conf


64bit PentiumD Configuration:



# cd /mnt/gentoo/etc
# mv make.conf make.conf.original
# wget http://weboperative.com/gentoo/pentium-d/amd64/make.conf


Notes on PentiumD Procs


If your processor is missing any of the sse,sse2 flags edit these out from the USE="..." in the make.conf
to view available flags type or to check if you have two cores. type
# cat /proc/cpuinfo


Configuration for Xeon w/o EM64T Processors

32bit Xeon w/o EM64T Configuration:



# cd /mnt/gentoo/etc
# mv make.conf make.conf.original
# wget http://weboperative.com/gentoo/xeon_no_em64t/x86/make.conf


Notes on Xeon w/o EM64T Procs


If you have hyperthreading turned on, then each processor counts as two logical CPUs, so if you have two hyperthreaded CPUs, then you should use MAKEOPTS="-j5" in your make.conf. This wont affect the generated code but might make your compiles faster.
If your processor is missing any of the sse,sse2 flags edit these out from the USE="..." in the make.conf
to view available flags type or to check if you have two cores. type
# cat /proc/cpuinfo


Configuration for Xeon w/ EM64T Processors

32bit Xeon w/o EM64T Configuration:



# cd /mnt/gentoo/etc
# mv make.conf make.conf.original
# wget http://weboperative.com/gentoo/xeon_w_em64t/x86/make.conf


64bit Xeon w/ EM64T Configuration:



# cd /mnt/gentoo/etc
# mv make.conf make.conf.original
# wget http://weboperative.com/gentoo/xeon_w_em64t/amd64/make.conf


Notes on Xeon w/ EM64T Procs


If you have hyperthreading turned on, then each processor counts as two logical CPUs, so if you have two hyperthreaded CPUs, then you should use MAKEOPTS="-j5" in your make.conf. This wont affect the generated code but might make your compiles faster.
If your processor is missing any of the sse,sse2 flags edit these out from the USE="..." in the make.conf
to view available flags type or to check if you have two cores. type
# cat /proc/cpuinfo



Configuration for Celeron (Willamette) Processors

32bit Celeron (Willamette) Configuration:



# cd /mnt/gentoo/etc
# mv make.conf make.conf.original
# wget http://weboperative.com/gentoo/celeron/x86/make.conf


Notes on Celeron (Willamette) Procs


MAKEOPTS="-j2" edit this to MAKEOPTS="-j3" if your processor is has dual-cores.
If your processor is missing any of the sse,sse2 flags edit these out from the USE="..." in the make.conf
to view available flags type or to check if you have two cores. type
# cat /proc/cpuinfo


Selecting Fast Mirrors



# mirrorselect -s4 -o -D >>/mnt/gentoo/etc/make.conf


First -s4 says the number of mirrors to use. Change the 4 to something else if you want to have a different number of mirrors. The -o is just so we can get output redirected and not written directlly to /etc/make.conf (which we don't want). The -D is for deep mode this means that mirrorselect will download about 100k from each mirror to get a better idea of their speed. So if you have slow connection definally remove this.

Mounting /proc

Before chrooting you must mount procfs from the running livecd into the hard drive's newly extracted filesystem for stuff to operate properly while chrooted.



# mount -t proc proc /mnt/gentoo/proc


Mounting /dev Into the extracted Stage

/dev on the livecd should be mounted into the chroot also as you may experience some difficulties setting up grub if your using a promise or other offboard ide card.



# mount -o bind /dev /mnt/gentoo/dev


.: Installing the Gentoo Base System :.

Copying the dns server address file into the base stage

resolv.conf is the primary file responsible for advising a linux system which dns servers should be used for address resolving. This file is dynamically updated by dhcp when the livecd starts but does'not exist by default in the base system stage. We must copy /etc/resolv.conf to provide for the dns resolver configuration.



# cp -v /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/gentoo/etc/resolv.conf


Chrooting

Chroot is defined in the manpage as " chroot - run command or interactive shell with special root directory"

It's meaning really an acronym for "change root". After preparing the base system stage we need to change to the "new root" in the base stage.



# chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash



To leave the gentoo base system chroot at any time type 'exit' once.

Rehashing the $path environment



# env-update && source /etc/profile



Updating your profile for NPTL(32bit Users only)

The Gentoo x86 2006.1 stage1 tarball comes with a no-nptl profile by default, but we don't want this because we just want bleeding edge performance out of our massively overclocked systems. We will also rehash the $path environment after switching to our new profile.

Checking if the profile is no-nptl


# if [ $(readlink /etc/make.profile|grep no-nptl) ]; then unlink /etc/make.profile; ln -s /usr/portage/profiles/default-linux/x86/2006.1 /etc/make.profile;gcc-config 1;env-update;source /etc/profile;fi


Updating perl library against the new profile.

This step is neccessary so that when you upgrade portage Locale-gettext and others don't fail because the perl libraries are not compiled against the new NTPL profile. This problem affects 2006.1 stage1.



# emerge -O gdbm libperl perl


Getting the Portage Tree
note: this next step takes a while 15-30mins. Ignore the message about installing portage, the bootstrap script will handle this for us.



# emerge --sync


Selecting a Locale
We will selecting only the locales neccessary for our system since if no locales are select in locale.gen glibc will generate locales for all languages and that waste time unless you need that many locales. We will choose the English ISO-8889-1 & UTF-8 locale, uncomment any locales that you might want besides those two.



# nano -w /etc/locale.gen

en_US/ISO-8859-1
en_US.UTF-8/UTF-8


Setting the System's Timezone Symlink

We must set the system's localtime before we begin to prevent certain packages from complaining because it's not set.

Available Time Zones

After running the command below, pick your time zone and use it in place where <your time zone> is specify.


Output of ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/
Africa Atlantic Canada EST5EDT Factory GMT-0 Iceland Japan MST7MDT Navajo Portugal Turkey W-SU posixrules
America Australia Chile Egypt GB GMT0 Indian Kwajalein Mexico PRC ROC UCT WET right
Antarctica Brazil Cuba Eire GB-Eire Greenwich Iran Libya Mideast PST8PDT ROK US Zulu zone.tab
Arctic CET EET Etc GMT HST Israel MET NZ Pacific Singapore UTC iso3166.tab
Asia CST6CDT EST Europe GMT+0 Hongkong Jamaica MST NZ-CHAT Poland SystemV Universal posix




# emerge -O timezone-data
# ls /usr/share/zoneinfo
# rm -v /etc/localtime
# ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/<your time zone> /etc/localtime


Next we will begin the tool chain build this process is the most important and most time consuming process of the base system.

Bootstrapping the System (one-liner)

Now that we have done all of the above it is now time to build the toolchain this is the part where your system will be build most of the system utils,compiler and libraries. We will begin with the bootstrap.sh script Gentoo provides to build a stable toolchain against our cflags this will provide us with a stable system that will be able to perform the next steps; next we will once again build the toolchain but with different keywords so that we get the packages consider "under development" this means packages that are known to work but are still not ready for the stable tree. After this process you will not only have a system that is rock solid, extremely fast, on the bleeding edge and with the most current packages as they are submitted to the Gentoo tree. If for any reason packages fail on the next steps,. please take a look at the FAQ/Troubleshooting section at the bottom of this guide for help and tips.

note: this step is the most time consuming and it will take about 2-4hours depending on hardware.



# /usr/portage/scripts/bootstrap.sh && source /etc/profile && if [ $(grep "CHOST=\"x86_64-pc-linux-gnu\"" /etc/make.conf) ]; then sed -i 's/amd64 x86/~amd64 ~x86/' /etc/make.conf ;fi && emerge gcc-config linux-headers glibc binutils gcc portage && env-update && source /etc/profile && emerge linux-headers glibc binutils gcc && emerge -O libperl sysvinit expat gettext python && emerge --deep system && emerge syslog-ng grub hotplug vixie-cron reiserfsprogs sysfsutils udev dhcpcd && emerge -O ntp && rc-update add syslog-ng default && rc-update add net.eth0 default && rc-update add vixie-cron default && rc-update add sshd default && rc-update add hotplug default


Eliminating Clock Skew

There's just not enough time in a day. and it's a little known fact that a computer has two clocks. One is a hardware clock and the second is a software clock that runs in the os. They however do not stay in sync which creates a condition known as clock skew that can cause havok with source build operating systems such as gentoo linux. Clock skew can cause source compiles to fail. We allieviate this problem by adding a network time protocol client into the installation.



# rc-update add ntp-client default
# ntpdate -u -b pool.ntp.org


Configuring the RC System

Before we begin with the Kernel configuration we will set some configuration options.



# nano -w /etc/conf.d/rc


File: /etc/conf.d/rc

Global config file for the Gentoo RC System
I will not go into detail on what each setting does and will only explain the settings that we will enable for now.

Setting this will start your services in parallel thus speeding up the INIT process.
RC_PARALLEL_STARTUP="yes"

Since devfs is currently deprecated we will tell the system we want to use udev instead. more information on udev can be found here. (http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/udev.html)
RC_DEVICES="udev"

With devfs it was neccessary to keep a backup of your /dev structure, udev has changed all this and we can disable this option. set to no.
RC_DEVICE_TARBALL="no"

Kernel Configuration

A Little History (source wikipedia.org (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel))
The Linux kernel is a Unix-like operating system kernel. It is the namesake of the Linux family of operating systems. Released under the GNU General Public License (GPL) and developed by contributors worldwide, Linux is one of the most prominent examples of free/open source software whose developers primarily follow the philosophy of the open source movement.

Linux was created by Linus Torvalds in 1991. At the time, the GNU Project had created many of the components required for a free software operating system, but its own kernel, GNU Hurd, was incomplete and unavailable. The BSD operating system had not yet freed itself from legal encumbrances. This left a space for the Linux kernel to fill, and despite the limited functionality of the early versions it rapidly accumulated developers and users. Early on, the Minix community contributed code and ideas to the Linux kernel, and today it has received contributions from thousands of programmers.

There are a few pointers when it comes to configuring your kernel.


lspci part of sys-apps/pciutils
This tool will output information on your main board to help you decide what needs to be enabled on the Linux Kernel.
lsmod part of sys-apps/module-init-tools
In short it means List Modules, with this command you will be able to see what modules are currently loaded by the Linux Kernel, I use this to find out what modules the Gentoo LiveCD loaded for my system and by the names i can quickly find the source inside the Linux Kernel's configuration file.


Example of lspci output:



# lspci
00:00.0 Memory controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 Memory Controller (rev a3)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 ISA Bridge (rev a3)
00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation CK804 SMBus (rev a2)
00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 USB Controller (rev a2)
00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 USB Controller (rev a3)
00:06.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 IDE (rev a2)
00:07.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 Serial ATA Controller (rev a3)
00:08.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 Serial ATA Controller (rev a3)
00:09.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCI Bridge (rev a2)
00:0a.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 Ethernet Controller (rev a3)
00:0b.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
00:0c.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
00:0d.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
00:0e.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:08.0 RAID bus controller: Silicon Image, Inc. SiI 3114 [SATALink/SATARaid] Serial ATA Controller (rev 02)
01:09.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 80)
01:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8001 Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 13)
01:0b.0 Multimedia audio controller: C-Media Electronics Inc CM8738 (rev 10)
05:00.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 01b3 (rev a3)
06:00.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 01b3 (rev a3)
06:01.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 01b3 (rev a3)
07:00.0 3D controller: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 0294 (rev a1)
08:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 0294 (rev a1)


That is the output for my DFI NF4 LanParty SLI-DR Venus Board.

output of lsmod:



# lsmod
Module Size Used by
snd_seq 54560 0
snd_pcm_oss 43552 0
snd_mixer_oss 16384 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_cmipci 34592 2
snd_pcm 79176 2 snd_pcm_oss,snd_cmipci
snd_page_alloc 8400 1 snd_pcm
snd_opl3_lib 9792 1 snd_cmipci
snd_timer 21064 3 snd_seq,snd_pcm,snd_opl3_lib
snd_hwdep 8648 1 snd_opl3_lib
snd_mpu401_uart 7936 1 snd_cmipci
snd_rawmidi 22752 1 snd_mpu401_uart
snd_seq_device 6736 2 snd_opl3_lib,snd_rawmidi
snd 55720 15 snd_seq,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_cmipci,snd_p cm,snd_opl3_lib,snd_timer,snd_hwdep,snd_mpu401_uar t,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device
rtc 12160 0
serpent 19520 8
thermal 13264 3
processor 16764 1 thermal
ide_cd 39328 0
cdrom 36968 1 ide_cd
nvidia 7740248 36
pwc 85056 0
compat_ioctl32 9344 1 pwc
videodev 25408 1 pwc
forcedeth 39620 0
ohci1394 32392 0
v4l1_compat 12932 1 videodev
amd74xx 15344 0 [permanent]
v4l2_common 24448 2 compat_ioctl32,videodev
ieee1394 91376 1 ohci1394
ide_core 131300 2 ide_cd,amd74xx
k8temp 5504 0
psmouse 39120 0
i2c_nforce2 7680 0
hwmon 3080 1 k8temp
evdev 9984 0



Downloading and Emerging Gentoo Linux Sources.

The beauty of gentoo is that you don't have to manually compile applications and to top it off, the majority of the programs,tools,libraries you will emerge with gentoo are compiled from source.



# emerge gentoo-sources


Now that you have downloaded the lastest Linux Kernel with the Gentoo patchset you are ready to start configuring it. I have provided a Kernel configuration as a starting point for you.

32bit Linux Kernel Configuration:


# cd /usr/src/linux
# wget http://weboperative.com/gentoo/kernel/x86/.config
# make menuconfig


64bit Linux Kernel Configuration:


# cd /usr/src/linux
# wget http://weboperative.com/gentoo/kernel/amd64/.config
# make menuconfig


Welcome to the linux kernel configuration menu. Here you must make a few changes to your configuration using the provided kernel config. My config is sutable for most systems however it's built to run on my system.



To fit your kernel to your unique hardware you must navigate to the following kernel menus and make require changes.



First you must tell the kernel which processor you currently running, this is done in the the following section:
Processor type and features --->
Processor family (AMD-Opteron/Athlon64)
Symmetric multi-processing support (enable if running multiple cores)
Generic x86 support (enable if running old processors Duron/Athlon/PII)
Next if you are currently a 64bit user make sure the following option
IA32 Emulation in the following section is enabled:
Executable file formats / Emulations --->
IA32 Emulation
Now to the Device Drivers section. Here you will configure several options in regards to your IDE/SATA/PATA, Network Cards,AGP Support,Sound Cards & USB devices.
Device Drivers --->
ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support --->
Serial ATA (prod) and Parallel ATA (experimental) drivers --->
Network device support --->
Character devices --->
/dev/agpgart (AGP Support) (enable if you want AGP support)
Sound --->
USB support --->
Finally you will setup support for your file system (reiserfs) or any other file system that you might have selected instead of the one provided by this guide.
File systems --->




TIP: to search for specific kernel configuration options or module names, type / at the kernel menu prompt.


After configuring your kernel for supported devices exit from menuconfig and type the following

32bit Kernel Compilation:


# make && make modules_install
# cp -v arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/2.6.20
# modules-update


64bit Kernel Compilation:


# make && make modules_install
# cp -v arch/x86_64/boot/bzImage /boot/2.6.20
# modules-update


The command above will compile the kernel image, compile the kernel modules, install the modules. next you will copy your kernel image to your /boot directory.

Installing Additional Kernel Modules.

I allways build tons of modules where ever possible unless doing so is not advisable unless you know what you're doing. A dynamically loading system will save valuable memory address space in your system kernel. lsmod is your eyes into a running modular linux system but it's only usable with modules. NIC modules are an excellent example. Adding them to modprobe at boot is required as hotplug doesn't load nic drivers dynamically possibly leaving you with a booted system without network.

Here is a list of kernel-related ebuilds that you could emerge:


nvidia-drivers - NVIDIA X11 driver and GLX libraries
ati-drivers - ATI precompiled drivers for r350, r300, r250 and r200 chipsets
device-mapper - Device mapper ioctl library for use with LVM2 utilities
qc-usb - Logitech USB Quickcam Express Linux Driver Modules


Beware though, some of these ebuilds might deal with big dependencies. To verify what packages will be installed by emerging an ebuild, use
# emerge --pretend
For instance, for the nvidia-kernel package:


Note: recommended that you do not install this package now and just use this as an example only. reason being is when you try to emerge this package which will depend on xorg-x11 thus bring in a big list of packages, you might want to save such a big list for when you have your system up and running instead of compiling them from the livecd.



# emerge --pretend --verbose nvidia-drivers


You should list the modules you want automatically loaded in /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6. You can add extra options to the modules too if you want.

To view all available modules, run the following find command. Don't forget to substitute "<kernel version>" with the version of the kernel you just compiled:



# find /lib/modules/<kernel version>/ -type f -name '*.o' -or -name '*.ko'


here are some common kernel modules which should be set to load on boot. keep in mind that your system will probably have different hardware thus different modules to load. in this examples we will be loading modules in a system with:

Sound Card: C-Media based on the CMI8738 chips.
ATA/ATAPI/IDE Controller: nVidia IDE Chipset.
USB Support: EHCI HCD 2.0, OHCI HCD & UHCI HCD Support.

There modules are located here:

C-Media:
/lib/modules/2.6.20-gentoo/kernel/sound/pci/snd-cmipci.ko
AMD and nVidia IDE Support:
/lib/modules/2.6.20-gentoo/kernel/drivers/ide/pci/amd74xx.ko
USB EHCI 2.0:
/lib/modules/2.6.20-gentoo/kernel/drivers/usb/host/ehci-hcd.ko
USB OHCI:
/lib/modules/2.6.20-gentoo/kernel/drivers/usb/host/ohci-hcd.ko
USB UHCI:
/lib/modules/2.6.20-gentoo/kernel/drivers/usb/host/uhci-hcd.ko
[/QUOTE]


TIP:
to load modules on a reboot add each module to
/etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6
example:
to load the C-Media Sound Card Module on a reboot, add snd-cmipci to
/etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6


Now run modules-update to commit your changes to the /etc/modules.conf file:

Configuring Your System

Setting Up Hostnames and Domain Names



# nano -w /etc/conf.d/hostname


File:/etc/conf.d/hostname



# /etc/conf.d/hostname

# Set to the hostname of this machine
HOSTNAME="ocaddict"


Next you must edit /etc/hosts to allow Linux to set your hostnames while no nameservers are reachable. IPv6 will be here in the next few years, so don't get too cozy: IPv4 will be deprecated and you will be assimilated. Here's an example of what /etc/hosts should contain:

File: /etc/hosts



# nano -w /etc/hosts




# /etc/hosts: Local Host Database
#
# This file describes a number of aliases-to-address mappings for the for
# local hosts that share this file.
#
# In the presence of the domain name service or NIS, this file may not be
# consulted at all; see /etc/host.conf for the resolution order.
#

# IPv4 and IPv6 localhost aliases
127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.1.100 ocaddict
::1 localhost

#
# Imaginary network.
#10.0.0.2 myname
#10.0.0.3 myfriend
#
# According to RFC 1918, you can use the following IP networks for private
# nets which will never be connected to the Internet:
#
# 10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
# 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
# 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255
#
# In case you want to be able to connect directly to the Internet (i.e. not
# behind a NAT, ADSL router, etc...), you need real official assigned
# numbers. Do not try to invent your own network numbers but instead get one
# from your network provider (if any) or from your regional registry (ARIN,
# APNIC, LACNIC, RIPE NCC, or AfriNIC.)
#


Configuring a Network Card to start on boot

Perform the following for your network card.



# ln -s /etc/init.d/net.lo /etc/init.d/net.eth0
# rc-update add net.eth0 default


Configuring a Second Network Card (Optional)

Perform the following for your second card. example code.



# ln -s /etc/init.d/net.lo /etc/init.d/net.eth1
# rc-update add net.eth1 default


Setting up the network config file for first reboot
Configuring DHCP

Gentoo Linux no longer defaults to installing dhcpcd as a system package so I've added it to the oneliner as an extra package. Since most users have the simplicity of a dhcp network you merely need to uncomment two variables in /etc/conf.d/net, iface_eth0 and dhcpcd_eth0, in the dhcp section about half way through the file.

File: /etc/conf.d/net (tip: for a more detail example of this configuration file, view /etc/conf.d/net.example)



config_eth0=( "dhcpcd" )


Configuring Static IP (optional)

File: /etc/conf.d/net (tip: for a more detail example of this configuration file, view /etc/conf.d/net.example)



config_eth0=( "66.90.101.18 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 66.90.101.255" )
routes_eth0=( "default via 66.90.101.1" )


Configuring Grub Bootloader

There's nothing cooler than spock ;) well or spock the gentoo developer's tizzight gensplash on the system you've managed to build by following this tutorial Cool so like that :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:in splash image on the livecd? hehe so do i... and why horde it to myslef and cackle and laugh alone looking at my computer boot gentoo linux for fun and kix. So here it is folks. More creature features courtesy of ali3nx

Bootsectors setup.

[LIST=1]
start grub console without floppy seek
tell grub where your /boot directory resides. (hd0,3) equals /dev/sda4. if your /boot resides elsewhere make the changes below.
install the Master Boot Record to /dev/sda or /dev/hda if using IDE
quit grub console




# grub --no-floppy
grub> root (hd0,3)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit


Editing /boot/grub/menu.lst



# cd /boot/grub
# wget http://weboperative.com/gentoo/grub/gentoo.xpm.gz
# nano -w /boot/grub/menu.lst


Edit the menu.lst file (this is really a symlink) as follows.



# Boot automatically after 30 secs.
timeout 30

# By default, boot the first entry.
default 0

# Fallback to the second entry.
fallback 1

# Splash image to show behind grub.
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/gentoo.xpm.gz

# For booting Gentoo GNU/Linux
title Gentoo 2.6.20
root (hd0,3)
kernel /boot/2.6.20 root=/dev/sda4
initrd /boot/fbsplash-emergence-1024x768

# For booting Windows
title Windows XP/2K
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1


Adding gensplash
Gensplash is what gives your linux boot up process a nice look, this is the same utility Gentoo uses on their LiveCD.



# emerge splashutils splash-themes-gentoo
# splash_geninitramfs -v -g /boot/fbsplash-emergence-1024x768 -r 1024x768 emergence
# rc-update add splash default


TIP:Changing The Resolution Later On.. (Optional)

Now you have setup Gentoo Splash but what if you want to lower or raise the resolution to 1280x1024...what do you do?

Enter the following:



# splash_geninitramfs -v -g /boot/fbsplash-emergence-1280x1024 -r 1280x1024 emergence


Now edit /boot/grub/menu.lst as follows and either add the following block as 'another' boot-up alternative or simply edit the current entry



Note: As the resolution goes up the refresh rate should drop, 70 - 75 is a safe maximum for this resolution. Proceed with caution if you try any higher!


Setting Up fstab

This is a step you do not want to do before installing grub... for some reason grub has a spaz attack and calls die() when it finds an fstab in completed fashion.



# nano -w /etc/fstab




/dev/sda3 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/sda4 / reiserfs defaults,notail,noatime 0 1
/dev/cdroms/cdrom0 /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,ro,user,exec,unhide 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,user 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0


Tweaking Device Access Parameters

We've gone throught he procedures above for utilizing hdparm for obtaining the fastest i/o transfer modes for your hard drive however the changes made only affect the livecd's running kernel therefore we should setup hdparm for the installation that you have created so that performance is maintained after booting into your running system. Allot of very useful options for Gentoo Linux dwell in /etc/conf.d This time we are to be concerned with the contents of /etc/conf.d/hdparm Below you will see an example of hdparm's config file. Change to suit the layout of your disks for your system appropriately. Each device may need the modes set for your systems hardware configuration. Here's a typical configuration for a system with one cdrom and hard disk. You can safely skip this step if using sata or scsi.

File: /etc/conf.d/hdparm



# nano -w /etc/conf.d/hdparm




# /etc/conf.d/hdparm: config file for /etc/init.d/hdparm

# You can either set hdparm arguments for each drive using hdX_args,
# discX_args, cdromX_args and genericX_args, e.g.
#
# hda_args="-d1 -X66"
# disc1_args="-d1"
cdrom0_args="-d1c1u1"

# or you can set options for all PATA drives
pata_all_args="-d1"

# or you can set options for all SATA drives
sata_all_args=""

# or, you can set hdparm options for all drives
all_args=""



After editing the contents of /etc/conf.d/hdparm type the following command to add hdparm to the boot runlevel



# rc-update add hdparm boot


System Information

We are almost done, hang tight :)

Set Up Users & Set a Root Password

We must change the password of the root user in the installed system to ensure it's usable after booting the system and also add a user for yourself with the appropriate groups that would be required for an average desktop-server hybrid gentoo linux system. Substitute my nick with your own username or add me a shell and pm me the login should you feel generous ;)



to change root's pass:
# passwd
to add a new user to system:
# useradd -m -d /home/<yourname> -s /bin/bash -g users -G audio,cron,wheel,portage,games,video <yourname>
to change <yourname> password:
# passwd <yourname>


Note: if you get the error message:

useradd: invalid numeric argument 'games'
do the following:


# groupadd games

then retry the 'useradd' command.

Gentoo uses /etc/rc.conf for general, system-wide configuration.

This file has quite a few options that should be looked at and will need to be edited if you want to be able to have gnome (or some windowmanager) load up at boot. Of course you'll need to emerge gnome before your next reboot.

Open up /etc/rc.conf and configure it as follows to load up gnome at next boot



# nano -w /etc/rc.conf




# /etc/rc.conf: Global startup script configuration settings

# UNICODE specifies whether you want to have UNICODE support in the console.
# If you set to yes, please make sure to set a UNICODE aware CONSOLEFONT and
# KEYMAP in the /etc/conf.d/consolefont and /etc/conf.d/keymaps config files.

UNICODE="yes"

# Set EDITOR to your preferred editor.
# You may use something other than what is listed here.

#EDITOR="/bin/nano"
EDITOR="/usr/bin/vim"
#EDITOR="/usr/bin/emacs"

# DISPLAYMANAGER has moved to /etc/conf.d/xdm

# XSESSION is a new variable to control what window manager to start
# default with X if run with xdm, startx or xinit. The default behavior
# is to look in /etc/X11/Sessions/ and run the script in matching the
# value that XSESSION is set to. The support scripts are smart enough to
# look in all bin directories if it cant find a match in /etc/X11/Sessions/,
# so setting it to "enlightenment" can also work. This is basically used
# as a way for the system admin to configure a default system wide WM,
# allthough it will work if the user export XSESSION in his .bash_profile, etc.
#
# NOTE: 1) this behaviour is overridden when a ~/.xinitrc exists, and startx
# is called.
# 2) even if ~/.xsession exists, if XSESSION can be resolved, it will
# be executed rather than ~/.xsession, else KDM breaks ...
#
# Defaults depending on what you install currently include:
#
# Gnome - will start gnome-session
# kde-<version> - will start startkde (look in /etc/X11/Sessions/)
# Xsession - will start a terminal and a few other nice apps

#XSESSION="Gnome"


Exiting Chroot and Unmounting Partitions

Since we used screen during our installation we will need to exit or logout twice... once to quit screen, once to exit from chroot following with unmounting the partitions used for installation and disabling swap... A "clean" shutdown is allways a good idea...

Note: before you begin these last commands make sure you have exit all "chroot" environments, or else you will get "device is currently busy" messages.



# exit && exit
# cd ~
# umount /mnt/gentoo/{proc,dev}
# umount /mnt/gentoo
# swapoff /dev/sda3
# sync


Rebooting to your newly installed Gentoo Linux



# shutdown -r now


.: FAQ/Troubleshooting :.


How do I save my --resume settings even after I have emerged several packages?
Answer - Portage keeps tracks of the emerge list in a file called mtimedb that "emerge --resume" goes by. but If your emerge fails on a certain package that can only be fixed by emerging another package which it's a dependency of it, next time you run 'emerge --resume' it will not start where you left off. To fix this you have to do the following steps:

in this example we were running 'emerge --deep system' but it failed on the openldap package which was package 45 of 90. now we need to emerge openssh to fix the problem with openldap which depends on openssh if you're using the 'ssl' USE flag.



# cp -v /var/cache/edb/mtimedb /var/cache/edb/mtimedb.bck
# emerge openssh
# cp -v /var/cache/edb/mtimedb.bck /var/cache/edb/mtimedb
# emerge --resume



IRC: irc.freenode.net #gentoo or #init
Official Gentoo Linux Guides: http://gentoo.org/doc
Forums: http://forums.gentoo.org
Gentoo.org: http://gentoo.org/doc
Gentoo Wiki: http://gentoo-wiki.com
Grub Error Collection: http://gentoo.org/doc/en/grub-error-guide.xml
Bugs Tracker: http://bugs.gentoo.org
or my IM, check my user info ;)

Good Luck and Welcome to OPEN SOURCE software :)

Likewhoa

[likewhoa]

reserved

[SlicerSV]

uhm... what's that doing here? i hope you didn't just copy/paste that from another forum or the official docs?

[Jinxxed]

uhm... what's that doing here? i hope you didn't just copy/paste that from another forum or the official docs?


It's from the original guide, he could have just posted a link with some pointers.

[likewhoa]

uhm... what's that doing here? i hope you didn't just copy/paste that from another forum or the official docs?


It's not from an original guide, Gentoo.org's Official Guide is nothing like this and they wouldn't support a stage1 install.

[likewhoa]

It's from the original guide, he could have just posted a link with some pointers.

ehh? The Original guide does not compare to this. :nono:

[Okda]

nice guide

thanks for the great work

can u please add a howto for how to install KDe/Gnome and optimize them for maximum performance, also how to remove default programs from KDe pkgs ?

i think this will be harsh but what about XGL installation ;)

[likewhoa]

nice guide

thanks for the great work

can u please add a howto for how to install KDe/Gnome and optimize them for maximum performance, also how to remove default programs from KDe pkgs ?

i think this will be harsh but what about XGL installation ;)

most of the X Windows Desktop guides are allready covered by Gentoo.org.

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/?catid=desktop

following my guide will get you a strong,stable and fast Gentoo base system which will be optimized for any application you want to compile :)

I will be making several new Guides base on Gentoo and they will be..

Howto Beryl
Howto Gentoo Security
Howto 32bit Chroot in a 64bit Enviroment
Howto Encrypted FS using dmcrypt and luks
Howto Encrypted Optical Media using luks
Howto Windows Applications/Games under WINE/WINEX
Howto APACHE/PHP/MYSQL
Howto TwinView with Nvidia and Xorg
Howto USB WEBCAM
Howto boot from usb stick using extlinux
and many more.....

[Okda]

ok thanks

i will be looking fwd for more of ur guides

[Okda]

one small question please and i hope i will get the answer asap cause i am planning to install gentoo on the rig in m sig in few hours

the question is , should i better use the 65bit version for maximum performance, or it will be a pita so i better go with the 32bit as i always did ?

[likewhoa]

go 64bit as Gentoo's 64bit implementation is very mature now and after all Gentoo was one of the earlier adopters of the Linux 64bit Kernel.

Just keep in mind that you will still be able to run 32bit applications in the 64bit environment but there are a few applications like media player (mplayer) which is only available in binary form because you cannot install the win32codecs successfully in a 64bit system, but that can be fixed with a 32bit chroot ;)

[Okda]

ok thanks

gonna use ur guide to install gentoo later today and report back any problems or info need to be added

[likewhoa]

ok. any problems just post in here and I'll help troubleshoot. also look at the footer of the guide as it has links to other help sources.

[masterofpuppets]

Just one note about getting ATi drivers running with 64-bit Gentoo, you might have difficulty getting DRI working. I've been trying for 3 days to get DRI working on my installation, I've tried every combination of recent drivers/kernels possible to no avail, as well as using the IOMMU's builtin agpgart and the agpgart/amd64_agpgart modules. As far as I can tell it works fine on x86, just not amd64.

I've followed all of the ATi howto's on the Gentoo Wiki, read numerous forum posts, but no matter what I try, DRI just does NOT work. fglrx even detects my card, just nothing. Neither the amd64_agp nor fglrx AGPGART implementations work. Even when I replace the MesaGLX libs with the ATi equivalents by hand, it still manages to use MesaGLX. Dunno what's up with that, but I'll figure it out eventually =] I've used the ATi drivers plenty of times in the past on many systems, and this is the only time they've ever given me bother (even when they were in their almost unusable, horrificly slow days).

I've been using Gentoo for a couple of years and it's a solid distro. It's always relatively uptodate in comparison with others and the community is excellent! =] Definately worth a shot if you want a fast desktop distro and don't mind putting some effort into it!

As for stage1, don't bother with it. I've definately read in the past that it can cause dependency problems in the toolchain, just stick to stage3, set your desired optimizations/USE flags, then "emerge -e system && emerge -e world" (or if you have decided to change to a different version of GCC, you should throw in another "emerge -e system". Stage1 is no longer officially supported for a reason, because it just causes problems, and recompiling the entire system after a stage3 installation does the job just as well with no fuss.

One more thing, if you want to try an optimized patchset, I'd recommend starting with ck-sources (you'll have to add it to package.keywords first), it contains a plethora of memory management and scheduler tweaks, and is quite stable. There are others that are even further optimized (and usually use ck-sources as a base), which contain even more experimental patches, just check the Unsupported Software section of the Gentoo forums for info on them, but be warned, some of them are REALLY unstable, they are unsupported for a reason. Don't use them unless you are prepared to put up with the odd panic, hardlock and spot of instability every now and again.

[likewhoa]

masterofpuppets come to freenode and join #init i know a friend who can help you get that straighten out ;)


As for stage1, don't bother with it. I've definately read in the past that it can cause dependency problems in the toolchain.

Those cingular dependency problems were fixed a long time ago messed with the base system, and they had the potential for unwanted files from the stageball to remain on the install, because they have incomplete /var/db/pkg. Also doing a stage1 even thought is not supported to the general users it's still the choice of developers when building Gentoo ;)

[masterofpuppets]

masterofpuppets come to freenode and join #init i know a friend who can help you get that straighten out ;)



Those cingular dependency problems were fixed a long time ago messed with the base system, and they had the potential for unwanted files from the stageball to remain on the install, because they have incomplete /var/db/pkg. Also doing a stage1 even thought is not supported to the general users it's still the choice of developers when building Gentoo ;)
Ah, wise you are on this subject =]

I'll be on the channel soon :toast:

[Okda]

Just one note about getting ATi drivers running with 64-bit Gentoo, you might have difficulty getting DRI working. I've been trying for 3 days to get DRI working on my installation, I've tried every combination of recent drivers/kernels possible to no avail, as well as using the IOMMU's builtin agpgart and the agpgart/amd64_agpgart modules. As far as I can tell it works fine on x86, just not amd64.

I've followed all of the ATi howto's on the Gentoo Wiki, read numerous forum posts, but no matter what I try, DRI just does NOT work. fglrx even detects my card, just nothing. Neither the amd64_agp nor fglrx AGPGART implementations work. Even when I replace the MesaGLX libs with the ATi equivalents by hand, it still manages to use MesaGLX. Dunno what's up with that, but I'll figure it out eventually =] I've used the ATi drivers plenty of times in the past on many systems, and this is the only time they've ever given me bother (even when they were in their almost unusable, horrificly slow days).


i think ur reply will force me to use 32bit edition

[likewhoa]

i think ur reply will force me to use 32bit edition

I think he will rephrase that soon ;)

[Okda]

I think he will rephrase that soon ;)


amen to that

hope it will be before i start installing tonight

[masterofpuppets]

I've managed to get glxinfo and glxgears to work as desired.. still having trouble with a couple of games though! :[ Enemy Territory and ppracer (Tuxracer) both don't seem to detect my card. Enemy Territory says I'm using Mesa and fails to start without the AllowSoftwareGL variable appended to it's command-line, and with that appended it runs horrificly slow. ppracer claims that SDL can't find any devices and refuses to start. :[ This is despite that glxinfo reports that DRI is working and my renderer is "ATI Radeon X1900 Series" and glxgears is giving out a decent amount of FPS. Still making progress though!

[likewhoa]

masterofpuppets did you compile ET with opengl USE flag? mine is compiled with opengl, I'll test ppracer in a bit.

[masterofpuppets]

ET comes as a pre-packaged 32-bit binary (and depends on x86-emul libs in order to run on amd64), but ppracer is compiled from source and runs natively in amd64 and still has the same problem. Last time I played ET on Gentoo (a long time ago, in 32-bit), I didn't have opengl in my USE flags, and I didn't emerge it with opengl in my USE flags and it worked fine.

[likewhoa]

ET comes as a pre-packaged 32-bit binary (and depends on x86-emul libs in order to run on amd64), but ppracer is compiled from source and runs natively in amd64 and still has the same problem. Last time I played ET on Gentoo (a long time ago, in 32-bit), I didn't have opengl in my USE flags, and I didn't emerge it with opengl in my USE flags and it worked fine.

well i'm using both the ~amd64 & ~x86 keywords on my system, and these are the ET/ppracer versions i currently have emerge and fully working..

games-arcade/ppracer-0.3.1
games-fps/enemy-territory-2.60b

What other fps games work for you instead?

[masterofpuppets]

Haven't tried any others yet, I'll try Quake3 and Unreal Tourney '99 later.

[Okda]

got an error while emerging grub

please see if u can help me there ==> http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=136237

[likewhoa]

did any other errors occur during the install process that you might have missed? show me the output of
emerge --info
also try to emerge lilo

[Okda]

nope not at all, i even installed the other pkg that will be installed after grub with no problem

for more details please check my thread @ gentoo's forum here ==> http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-544979.html

i think i am going to install lilo instead cause this problem has already delayed my installation for more than 6 hours

hope i won't face any problems with lilo

[likewhoa]

nope not at all, i even installed the other pkg that will be installed after grub with no problem

for more details please check my thread @ gentoo's forum here ==> http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-544979.html

i think i am going to install lilo instead cause this problem has already delayed my installation for more than 6 hours

hope i won't face any problems with lilo

I don't use grub nor lilo as i boot of a usb stick using the extlinux bootloader. I will try to reproduce your error later on today.
meantime skip grub for now and use lilo.

[Okda]

I don't use grub nor lilo as i boot of a usb stick using the extlinux bootloader. I will try to reproduce your error later on today.
meantime skip grub for now and use lilo.


more info please about this usb bootloader ?

can i use it so if any of my family wanted to use my PC whle this usb is not plugged , it will boot from the harddisk and start windows normally, while to boot linux i must insert the usb ?

[likewhoa]

more info please about this usb bootloader ?

can i use it so if any of my family wanted to use my PC whle this usb is not plugged , it will boot from the harddisk and start windows normally, while to boot linux i must insert the usb ?

yes that's what it's for and more. I can explain briefly how it's done. basically you just need a custom initramfs image loaded by the kernel that will mount your root partition then switch to it from the usb device.

google extlinux more a little more info..

the steps are as follow. create your kernel with a custom initramfs image containing your code inside /init which will mount and switch to your real root partition..



#overwrite mbr of usb device
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=1024k count=5 conv=notrunc
# create file system on usb partition
mke2fs -m0 /dev/sdb1
# make temp directory, copy syslinux package tarball to it, untar.
mkdir tempdir && cd tempdir
cp /usr/portage/distfiles/syslinux-<version>.tar.bz2 .
tar -xvjf syslinux-<version>.tar.bz2
cd syslinux-<version>
# install mbr
cat mbr.bin > /dev/sdb
# mount usb paritition
mount -t ext2 /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb
# copy kernel image and your custom initramfs image.
cp /usr/src/linux/arch/<arch>/boot/bzImage /mnt/usb/
cp /usr/src/linux/usr/initramfs_data.cpio.gz /mnt/usb
# copy this file to get a simple menu
cp syslinux-<version>/com32/modules/menu.c32 /mnt/usb
# install extlinux into usb device partition, then copy extlinux.conf "edit this after"
extlinux /mnt/usb
cp /path/to/extlinux.conf /mnt/usb/
# unmount it.
umount /mnt/usb
sync


that's basically the steps you take to get a usb stick ready to boot linux. you'll have to learn how to make the initramfs's init script yourself.

to create an initramfs which the kernel can read type.


cd /src/initramfs-contents && find . | cpio --quiet -o -H newc | gzip -9 >/root/initramfs_data.cpio.gz

[Okda]

ok thanks for the help

gonna buy a small flash drive later tonight and try to use it

it will be very helpful

[Okda]

so if i want to follow ur guide but just install the stable versions of software

like the gcc-4.1.1 ;)

to do this i just need to edit the following command , by removing "~amd64 & ~x86" and just using "amd64 x86 "

or do i need to edit something else along the guide



# /usr/portage/scripts/bootstrap.sh &&
source /etc/profile &&
if [ $(grep "CHOST=\"x86_64-pc-linux-gnu\"" /etc/make.conf) ]; then sed -i 's/amd64 x86/~amd64 ~x86/' /etc/make.conf ;fi &&
emerge gcc-config linux-headers glibc binutils gcc portage &&
env-update && source /etc/profile &&
emerge linux-headers glibc binutils gcc &&
emerge -O libperl sysvinit expat gettext python &&
emerge --deep system &&
emerge syslog-ng grub hotplug vixie-cron reiserfsprogs reiser4progs sysfsutils udev dhcpcd &&
emerge -O ntp &&
rc-update add syslog-ng default &&
rc-update add net.eth0 default &&
rc-update add vixie-cron default &&
rc-update add sshd default &&
rc-update add hotplug default

[likewhoa]

just take out the long "if [ $(grep "CHOST=\"x86_64-pc-linux-gnu\"" /etc/make.conf) ]; ...." out the one-liner and edit the make.conf to have "amd64 x86" instead of "~amd64 ~x86" and you should have a stable system build. you might still run into problems so be warned. :D

[likewhoa]

SaFrOuT i noticed you tried to used a combination of stable+unstable keywords on your next attempt and i would have told you _not_ to because using stable arch "amd64" with unstable "x86" will bring you problems. you either use stable or unstable keywords, not a mixture of the two.

[Okda]

sorry i am not sure that i understand ur reply

isn't using "amd64 x86" considered stable, while the unstable is using "~amd64 ~x86" ???

or being stable means to use only "amd64" without even the "x86" ?

[likewhoa]

sorry i am not sure that i understand ur reply

isn't using "amd64 x86" considered stable, while the unstable is using "~amd64 ~x86" ???

or being stable means to use only "amd64" without even the "x86" ?
I was replying to your comment on forums.gentoo.org about using "amd64 ~x86" which will create problems in the long run. what i mean is you either use both unstable i.e "~amd64 ~x86" or both stable keywords, not a mix of the two.

[Okda]

ic

it seems that i mistyped it, i sure used in my second trial "amd64 x86"

thanks a lot for ur help

[Okda]

Updating your profile for NPTL

The Gentoo 2006.1 stage1 tarball comes with a no-nptl profile by default, but we don't want this because we just want bleeding edge performance out of
our massively overclocked systems. pay attention to which profile you will need to switch to. We will also rehash the $path environment after switching to our new profile.

Switching to a 32bit profile.


# unlink /etc/make.profile
# ln -s /usr/portage/profiles/default-linux/x86/2006.1 /etc/make.profile
# gcc-config 1
# env-update
# source /etc/profile


my problem is that i didn't understand this part correctly
sorry for the bothering while it was my own fault
so when i want to ause a 4bit system i should choose a profile like the one below ?
default-linux/amd64/2006.1
or
default-linux/amd64/2006.1/desktop

EDIT:

also one last question, is it safe to leave x86in the accept_keywords in the make.conf ?

[likewhoa]

YES. just make sure you follow the guide correctly and read the underline wording :D

BTW if you had listened to me on http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2053490&postcount=26
you would not have wasted so much time seeing that it was 13 post ago.

I have revised the Guide with a (64BIT only) on the section where you would switch profiles. please read this part as you'll need to perform this command in order to take advantage of the new Linux Native POSIX Threads Library. The 64BIT stage1 tarball come with a default profile with "no-nptl" so that step will allow NPTL to be enabled in USE flags. When using the 32bit Profile you'll won't need to switch to this "NPTL" enabled profile because the 32bit profile allready uses a profile that enabled Native POSIX Threads Library. Good luck on your next attempt. Post any further errors but this time start with or include "emerge --info" in your thread. :)

to answer your question above on which profile to choose,.. just choose the one pointed in the guide as the DESKTOP profile will bring in to many USE flags into the mix and will just cause problems in this early stage.

[likewhoa]

SaFrOuT how did your next attempt go?

[Okda]

SaFrOuT how did your next attempt go?


yesterday the one big lienear command without the IF condition ended without any problems

i am now starting to config the rc file and gonna install the kernel

thanks for everything

[likewhoa]

cool glad it when well. make sure to checkout gentoo.org/doc for some Official Guides on setting up your Video Card,Desktop Environment and Various other things. Enjoy :)

[Okda]

got this error msg, is it ok to ignore it ?





livecd linux# modules-update
* updating /etc/modules.conf [ok]
*updating /etc/modprobe.conf [ok]
* warning : could not generate /etc/modules.conf ! [!!]
* updating /etc/modules.conf by hand [ok]

[likewhoa]

yes that warning is nothing to worry about. :)

[Okda]

well i finished and when rebooting, i got a kernel panic saying that i didn't specify the root partition correctly

so it seems i missed something in the /etc/fstab

gonna check it later tonight

[likewhoa]

check your grub line, this is not an fstab issue but rather a grub.conf issue.

[makatee]

I feel so at home with fellow Gentoo'ers ;) Pretty nice write up by the way :clap:

[likewhoa]

thanks, I figure an unofficial guide would fit nice here. :)