Project:Prefix/Bootstrap

Bootstrapping is the process required to get Prefixed Portage installed on your system. For several years since its existence, the Gentoo Prefix team has documented the exact process for bootstrapping a system, on a per platform basis. Those instructions often became outdated and differed in subtle ways between platforms. Because maintenance of this became too high and errors became too much a barrier for new users to join, the Gentoo Prefix team has switched to an almost fully automated bootstrap process. The old step-by-step, and package-by-package instructions are no longer supported, and all users are highly encouraged to use the automated bootstrap process.

Bootstrap script
The script contains all the necessary bits to bootstrap a Gentoo Prefix system. It uses a trial-and-error approach to avoid having to make assumptions about the system being bootstrapped at where possible.

Simply running the script, launches the interactive installer. This installer will ask for some information, and discuss some options based on the system being bootstrapped on. Running this interactive installer is the easiest way to bootstrap a Gentoo Prefix system, since it caters for the entire process up to the point where the Prefix can be used.

In case the interactive installer is not desired due to automation, or what reason else, the process of bootstrapping can be performed in roughly 4 stages. These stages are performed by the interactive installer. Running these stages manually is not recommended, and only meant for special cases, such as debugging problems, e.g. when the interactive installer fails to finish the bootstrap.

Systems without Bash already available
The requires a working version of the GNU Bourne Again SHell. For systems that do not include, a binary will need to be bootstrapped by downloading the  script. Systems that often lack are the *BSD systems such as FreeBSD. ,, , or for the download if they are available. Downloading the script with a web-browser, and/or copying via scp/ftp/NFS will also work.

Bootstrapping Prefix
Download the Gentoo Prefix. Like mentioned above, various methods can be employed to obtain the script and ready it for execution. Once in position, preform the following commands:

That's all! The script will guide you through the full process, and tells you how to start your freshly bootstrapped Gentoo Prefix system if it successfully runs up til the end. In normal cases, you don't need any more than just this. You can stop reading here if this works fine for you.

Performing a Gentoo Prefix manually
If you want or need to perform a Gentoo Prefix bootstrap manually, follow the instructions for bootstrapping on UNIX-like systems.