Project:RelEng/LiveDVD/12.0/FAQ

Introduction
The Gentoo hybrid LiveDVD is made by the community for the community. It was created with the help of Gentoo developers from around the world and users alike. Thank you all for your contributions and suggestions!

Your Gentoo LiveDVD Team

Please note that this is simply a list of common questions. Please read the Handbook and man pages to gain a greater understanding of how Gentoo works. For answers to questions which may not be answered here, please visit the forums, Bugzilla or on Freenode.

Download the correct ISO for your hardware
The ISO will work on 32-bit x86 or 64-bit x86_64. If your architecture is, boot with the default. If your arch is, boot with gentoo64.

The ISO is only for x86_64. Boot with the default.

Root privileges
How do I become root?

You can use passwd to change the password for the user you are logged into. As root, you can change any user password by issuing the command passwd  For extra options and setting, please man passwd.

Can I copy the image to a USB stick?
Yes. To determine your device before you plug it in, open a terminal and read. First determine the device:

Copy the image:

Can I resume the autologin?
To resume the KDM autologin, you need to press the key and wait for the timeout to pass or press the  key to login.

Can I install firmware for my wireless card?
Yes. You just need to copy the firmware to and reload your wireless card's kernel modules. The example below installs the firmware for a Ralink RT2501USB wireless LAN chipset. It requires non-free firmware, which cannot be included on the Live DVD because of license issues. The firmware is copied from a 2GB USB stick.

To install the firmware, first mount the USB stick:

Copy the firmware:

Reload modules so that the firmware is included:

Time to insert modules amd load firmware

Restart wicd to pickup the interface:

How can I set up and enable persistence?
For USB Linux users, a persistent Linux install is one that allows it's user to save data changes back to the USB storage device instead of leaving the information in system RAM. This data can then be recovered and used again on subsequent boots, even when booting from different machines.

Booting with the 'persistence' boot option will allow you to retain your $HOME changes on a separate removable device or if you have space left on the USB that the image is booting from, you can then create a partition on there then:


 * Create a FS (extfs, reiserfs, xfs, etc.)
 * Create an empty file named

This partition will be used to create a loopback image that will allow persistent data on reboots.

There is an optional boot parameter which can set the image size you wish for $HOME which is  for example, will make a 300M size image for your persistent data. The minimum requirement is 256M for now which is the default setting.

Is there a list of packages on the DVD?
Yes:


 * Gentoo 12.0 hybrid package list
 * Gentoo 12.0 amd64 package list

What if my question has not been answered?
Come join us on our IRC channel,. You can also help us fix some bugs!