User talk:Sakaki/Sakaki's EFI Install Guide

Categories?
Why are the EFI Gentoo End to End Install pages in so many categories? Most of the categories have no relation to this page or the others. This clutters the category pages like Category:Laptops. If there is no objection, I will clean this up. Chithanh (talk) 07:43, 5 September 2014 (UTC)


 * Hi Chithanh - happy in principle for it to be cleaned up, the guide is my first wiki contribution so I'll defer to your knowledge of the proper form! However, you said that "most of the categories have no relation to this page or the others", and I'm not sure I quite understand/agree. This is a 76,000 word manual (which took around 5 months to write) and as such, does cover a lot of ground, more so than the average 2,000 word wiki article. I do agree the 'laptops' tag should be dropped from all (but one of) the pages, but here's the rationale for the rest, with possible changes:
 * The top level page (approx 2,000 words) currently contains a superset of all the categories for the underlying pages. If it should belong to a single one only, then maybe 'Core System' (so at least people have a chance of finding it in the featured docs)? (suggestion: -> 'Core System' only?)
 * Preparing Windows 8 for Dual-Booting (approx 1,900 words) - currently in core system, laptops. Could drop 'laptops' here (and on most of the subsequent pages). (suggestion: -> 'Core System' only?)
 * Creating and Booting the Minimal-Install Image on USB (approx 1,900 words) - currently in core system, laptops. Ditto.
 * Setting Up Networking and Connecting via ssh (approx 1,500 words) - currently in core system, laptops. Ditto.
 * Preparing the LUKS-LVM Filesystem and Boot USB Key (approx 5,400 words) - currently core system, laptops, security. Has detail on setting up LUKS (including XTS etc), hence security. (suggestion: -> 'Core System', 'Security' only)
 * Installing the Gentoo Stage 3 Files (approx 7,500 words) - currently core system, laptops, portage. Contains a large background reading section Gentoo, Portage, Ebuilds and emerge, hence portage. (suggestion: -> 'Core System', 'Portage' only?)
 * Building the Gentoo Base System Minus Kernel (approx 8,900 words) - currently core system, laptops, localization, portage, security. Contains info about (openRC) timezone, locale etc, hence localization. Contains info about bootstrapping and troubleshooting a failed emerge, hence portage, security. (suggestion: -> 'Core System', 'Localization', 'Portage', 'Security' only?)
 * Configuring and Building the Kernel (approx 10,400 words) - currently bootloaders, core system, laptops, initramfs, kernel. Kernel category because has detailed discussion of necessary EFI kernel options and command line params. Initramfs because it discusses how to build one (to get LVM and LUKS going in early boot). Bootloaders, because we are building an EFI stub kernel here and the necessary kernel command line (and config) options are discussed in detail. (suggestion: -> 'Bootloaders', 'Core System', 'Initramfs', 'Kernel' only?)
 * Final Preparations and Reboot into EFI (approx 4,400 words) - currently bootloaders, core system, laptops. Bootloaders because discusses BIOS settings to load EFI stub with secure boot off. This is marginal and could be dropped. (suggestion: -> 'Core System' only?)
 * Configuring systemd and Installing Necessary Tools (approx 7,200 words) - currently bootloaders, core system, laptops, kernel, localization, ssh, security. Discusses setting up the plymouth boot splash (including kernel recompile), hence bootloaders, kernel. Quite a lot of detail about systemd configuration, hence localization. ssh because of discussion of re-establishing ssh, printing host key fingerprints etc. (could be dropped). Security because of the discussion of gpg unlocked LUKS (but is covered in more detail elsewhere, so that could be dropped). (suggestion: -> 'Bootloaders', 'Core System', 'Kernel', 'Localization' only?)
 * Configuring Secure Boot (approx 6,100 words) - currently bootloaders, core system, laptops, kernel, security. Detailed discussion of secure boot process (variables used etc.), hence bootloader, security. Generation of a signed kernel, hence kernel. (suggestion: -> 'Bootloaders', 'Core System', 'Kernel', 'Security' only?)
 * Setting up the GNOME 3 Desktop (approx 7,900 words) - core system, laptops, GNOME, localization, X.Org. Discusses the emerge and setup of GNOME 3, so GNOME. Makes use of an initial X11/twm setup (to check drivers etc), hence X.Org. Discusses keyboard settings etc. in G3, hence localization. (suggestion: -> 'Core System', 'GNOME', 'Localization', 'X.Org' only?)
 * Final Configuration Steps (approx 4,700 words) - currently core system, laptops, kernel, power management. Covers the Pansonic CF-AX3 as an example of setting system-specific kernel options (drivers etc), so laptops probably applies here, as does kernel. Discussion about suspend and hibernate, hence power management. (suggestion: -> retain existing categories?)
 * Using Your New Gentoo System (approx 7,000 words) - currently bootloaders, core system, laptops, GNOME, kernel, portage, power management, security. Contains a set of misc. topics, hence the large number of categories. Covers the dual boot process and migration of the EFI stub kernel onto the windows system partition (requires kernel recompilation), hence bootloaders, security, kernel. Discusses various final setup points for GNOME, hence GNOME. Discusses automating eix-syncs/@world updates and using signed portage tree snapshots for security, hence portage (and security). (suggestion: -> 'Bootloaders', 'Core System', 'GNOME', 'Kernel', 'Portage', Power Management', 'Security' only?)
 * Happy to discuss! sakaki Fri 5 Sep 13:01:33 UTC 2014


 * Hi Chithanh, as the changes to the categories I proposed above are at least moving monotonically in the direction you want, I've gone ahead and implemented them. Hopefully this will save you some time, but please let me know if you think things should be trimmed back further. Best, sakaki Sat 6 Sep 08:52:55 UTC 2014

This is much more than just an EFI install guide
This guide shouldn't be framed as a general "how to install gentoo in EFI mode" guide. This is just one person's favorite install method, favorite packages, favorite disk layout, etc. It should just be called "Sakaki's custom gentoo install". Lots of users are mistakenly using this as a general EFI install guide and getting much more than they bargained for.