Handbook Talk:AMD64/Full/Installation

5.4 Viewing Documentation During Install
The documentation recommends creating a new user account and logging in on a separate virtual tty to load links with the install docs, then switching back and forth between a command tty and the docs tty. This will work but it's clumsy, slow, and aggravating. A better solution is to use "screen" which is already included on the minimal install CD. The docs can be viewed side-by-side with one or more command shells on the same terminal with the following commands:


 * screen links Gentoo.org
 * ^A ^C
 * ^A | (for vertical split) or ^A S (for horizontal split)

Each "screen" can be split further into more windows. I would suggest including these instructions in the install docs in addition to or instead of the virtual terminal switching method.


 * I can make mention of this as an option and add a link to our article on Screen, although I would not summarize logging in on multiple tty's "clumsy, slow, and aggravating". It is the simplest way of proceeding. Screen takes knowledge that many newcomers many not immediately possess. Seasoned system admins will probably think of using screen without it being mentioned. --Maffblaster (talk) 22:08, 26 January 2017 (UTC)


 * It is now mentioned as a possibility for seasoned Linux enthusiasts (who know how to use it). Closing discussion. --Maffblaster (talk) 22:59, 26 January 2017 (UTC)

Choosing the right profile
While not a recommendation, this section suggests using "no-multilib" for a pure 64-bit environment. I think this should be followed by the disclaimer on the AMD64 FAQ:

--Astronome (talk) 23:29, 6 February 2016 (UTC)


 * I added a small section noting the caveats of no-multilib. Should be better now. --Maffblaster (talk) 18:20, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

Optional: Selecting mirrors
If you use >=sys-apps/portage-2.2.16, you not have to use As, the SYNC variable in make.conf is deprecated and no longer used by portage. You will should use If you want to be updated from other mirror, you can run select mirror and paste received URI here /mnt/gentoo/etc/portage/repos.conf/gentoo.conf in variable "sync-uri" example: sync-uri = rsync://rsync.ru.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage

More info https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Portage/Sync P.S. Sorry my bad english.


 * The repos.conf method is now explained in the Handbook. --Maffblaster (talk) 18:22, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

Unpacking the stage tarball
Is "--xattrs" required on some versions of tar to keep the extended attributes when extracting the archive or is this a mistake and as the manpage says, is only used to "save the user/root xattrs to the archive" (while when extracting, one would have to specify "--no-xattrs" to bypass them).


 * Where do you see that in the GNU tar man page? Seems like bad information to me. I tested your theory using tar v1.29 and verified the  option must be added both for compression and extraction in order for  handle extended attributes properly. See this link for someone else who tested.  --Maffblaster (talk) 06:27, 24 January 2017 (UTC)

Setting the date and time
Is there a reason Handbook doesn't suggest "ntpdate pool.ntp.org" instead of typing date manually?


 * It is less thinking and more accurate to use ntpd. --Maffblaster (talk) 18:23, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

Typo "there are e a"
There's an apparent typo on a whole series of these wiki pages. I created and validated wiki account for myself, but alas, it doesn't (yet) give me the option to edit the pages - so apparently I can't correct it.

Anyway, the error: "there are e a couple" should apparently be: "there are a couple" on at least these pages:

(Above posted by Michael Paoli, fixed for wikification)


 * Thanks, corrected. --SwifT (talk) 14:41, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

systemd needed for Banshee Too!
About the optional systemd and Gnome, could you mention that systemd is also required for programs like Banshee that highly depend on Gnome architecture. — The preceding unsigned comment was added by Gary987 (talk • contribs) 12 May 2015


 * It would seem Banshee is no longer available in the main ebuild repository, however I get the point. I have made a note of this in the Handbook's systemd section (here). Thanks for the tip! --Maffblaster (talk) 03:32, 5 March 2017 (UTC)

404 link on Introduction
The link to the Gentoo AMD64 project site (https://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/base/amd64/), on the Hardware Requirements section of the Introduction, leads to a 404 error.


 * Link has been long since fixed. Thanks! --Maffblaster (talk) 22:28, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

Minor typo & systemd creep
Correct "on a amd64" to "on an amd64" if possible.

I'm here to do a clean openRC installation. Let's keep systemd in check.

The "--make-rslave" operation creeps in without mention of it being optional, if it is, and without yet mention that it is because of systemd.

If these operations are unnecessary without systemd, then please move the "--make-rslave" operations into, and/or under, the note. For example:

Note The --make-rslave operations are needed for systemd support later in the installation. root #mount --make-rslave /mnt/gentoo/sys root #mount --make-rslave /mnt/gentoo/dev


 * It is in intention to support systemd as an optional init system. systemd is probably, at the time of writing, the most popular system in existence, although the majority of Gentoo users probably are not using it. The  option passed to  does not conflict with any options needed for those choosing either init system (OpenRC or systemd), and therefore is fine either way. Typos are corrected by now. --Maffblaster (talk) 01:34, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

Re: Banshee
Banshee is software that is loaded with commercial interests, namely Amazon.com. If it has dependency issues then those should be dealt with at the Banshee development site, not here.


 * Agreed. --Maffblaster (talk) 01:35, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

Configuring the network
The Handbook heavily relies on the assumption that the network interface name is eth0, which is highly unlikely with the new udev naming rules. Recommending the use of from a Gentoo-based installation medium or if coming from a different installation medium would allow users still unfamiliar with Gentoo to avoid errors during setup.


 * Agreed...I solved this by simply running
 * Likely works for 95% of all users with a single network card that doesn't change slots
 * Likely works for 95% of all users with a single network card that doesn't change slots


 * For the purposes of the Handbook, it shouldn't matter what the network interface is named. It's just a handle created by udev. The Handbook does mention the command now. I'm not sure what the point of using  would get the readers? If you still feel like there's more to this discussion then re-open it. Seems like we covered all the bases. --Maffblaster (talk) 06:36, 24 January 2017 (UTC)

Installing the sources
This command execution recommends to control its status in another terminal by doing: But we have previously chrooted into /mnt/gentoo/. So I suggest to specify that if we log into another terminal we should tail the file inside the mounted folder by doing:


 * Hi, I don't think instructions on how to the  file needs to be mentioned in the Handbook. Hopefully the reader will be able to figure this out on their own by reading the message from the gentoo-sources ebuild. If you'd like to re-open and write up a mock wording for me to copy/paste into the Handbook I will consider it! Kind regards, --Maffblaster (talk) 06:40, 24 January 2017 (UTC)

Kernel config for USB support
This section is out of date:

I believe the relevant options have been moved to:

--Astronome (talk) 19:35, 20 July 2016 (UTC)


 * Hi, Thanks for the tip, and you are correct the example used in the Handbooks is certainly out of date! I have updated it! Thank you kindly for the productive feedback. Cheers, --Maffblaster (talk) 04:31, 5 March 2017 (UTC)

Kernel config for efi stub
Please edit configuration of kernel for efi support, else kernel not load a root file system.


 * The Handbook team is trying to move away from supporting the UEFI stub kernel functionality as it is less flexible than using a bootloader to load the kernel into memory. That kind of of stuff can be left out of the Handbook and be included in other kernel related articles around the wiki. --Maffblaster (talk) 21:13, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

Link to "other arches" on download page
In the "Download the media" section which discusses the "minimal installation CDs", the link to "the [//www.gentoo.org/downloads/#other-arches downloads page] (recommended)" is to the "Advanced Choices and other Architectures" section of that page. Shouldn't it be to the top of the page (no section anchor) where links to download the "normal" amd64 Minimal Installation CD, LiveDVD, and Stage 3 files are to be found? - dcljr (talk) 18:32, 13 April 2016 (UTC)


 * The link has been updated. --Maffblaster (talk) 21:14, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

Remove Parted
Remove Parted from handbook! fdisk have support GPT layout, and part of coreutils (default)


 * I need to revise the disk section. I'll add this as a possibility to review. After reworking the disk section it parted may or may not be used. That's all I can say for now. Thanks! --Maffblaster (talk) 18:28, 13 January 2017 (UTC)


 * I don't see why parted should be removed if it *works great*. --Vieri (talk) 12:12, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

EFI partition mount
I see the Handbook mentions that Grub2 can't be used, and efibootmgr should be used instead. However, using grub2 is a suitable option.

The EFI partition should be mounted to /boot/efi:


 * 1) mkdir /mnt/gentoo/boot/efi
 * 2) mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/gentoo/boot/efi

ILMostro (talk)


 * Hi, I saw your message in IRC. We are still very much active in monitoring and updating the wiki, although we're not always able to immediately respond on IRC. I agree, GRUB2 is a suitable option for EFI on Gentoo. I use it myself. With that being said we have to be careful with how much we try to support in the various handbooks. The purpose of it is to help users get Gentoo installed; not to walk them through all the configuration options (Gentoo is far too flexible for that!). :)


 * I don't remember the Handbook ever saying GRUB2 can't be used for EFI on systems, but I will take a look and fix anything that doesn't seem right. Kind regards, --Maffblaster (talk) 02:05, 21 June 2016 (UTC)

GPT or MBR
It's definitely possible to dual-boot with Windows using GPT on a BIOS-based system. I'm able to do so with the following GRUB entry:

--Astronome (talk) 03:17, 21 January 2017 (UTC)


 * Hi Astronome, if you're serious about having your discussions looked after please remember to use the Talk template. We can't really track what work is left for us to do without them.


 * With that being said, to confirm: does the disk have a GPT partition table, or is it an MSDOS table? Also, is your copy of Windows installed in MSDOS mode? Kind regards, --Maffblaster (talk) 06:47, 24 January 2017 (UTC)

Mounting the necessary filesystems
I've always found this part confusing. Should this

be changed to this?

Otherwise, if you're following the instructions exactly, your PWD will be and you'll be mounting  to itself. --Astronome (talk) 19:55, 21 January 2017 (UTC)


 * Yes, it's a good point. We should have the on the second mention of proc. I'll update this. --Maffblaster (talk) 06:47, 24 January 2017 (UTC)


 * This assertion is wrong (but doesn't hurt). man mount:
 * The proc  filesystem  is not associated with a special device, and when mounting it, an arbitrary keyword, such as proc can be used instead of a device specification.  (The customary choice none is less fortunate: the error message `none busy' from umount can be confusing.).


 * It was probably "proc" due to it being suggested to use that in the man page as that arbitrary keyword (but you can use "asdf" or whatever, pretty much anything except for "none'). That argument is the first one - that of the device node to use, -t proc doesn't have one, so it's ignored (unless special "none" is encountered). In "mount -t proc proc /mnt/gentoo/proc" the first "proc" is the type given with -t, "proc" is the device node and /mnt/gentoo/proc is the path - there is no proc path and no way this would have mounted itself (device node != directory). --Leio (talk) 15:26, 26 January 2017 (UTC)


 * That's funny, I was editing this page at the same time as you to say the same thing :) --Astronome (talk) 15:52, 26 January 2017 (UTC)


 * So it doesn't really matter. It could be  or it could be  .  doesn't care. If there's nothing left to do here please close this discussion. --Maffblaster (talk) 21:52, 26 January 2017 (UTC)


 * Well fine. --Astronome (talk) 02:29, 27 January 2017 (UTC)

GPG verification when behind a firewall
If the default gpg port cannot be opened in the firewall then you might want to use something like:

BTW the user can also specify any other keyserver such as: hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80

This may be useful when some servers don't respond.

The following handbook section could be updated to reflect this:

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:AMD64/Full/Installation#Linux_based_verification

--Vieri (talk) 16 February 2017


 * Hi, I'm rocking version 2.1.19 and it would seem the syntax you used to specify a specific port has been deprecated. I couldn't get it to work by trying your example above. Also, from the man page , "The scheme is the type of keyserver: "hkp" for the HTTP (or compatible) keyservers". This indicates to me that HTTP is the default, so there is no need to specify port 80 in the example... Kind regards, --Maffblaster (talk) 03:59, 5 March 2017 (UTC)


 * No, hkp uses port 11371 by default. What the OP neglected to mention is that not all keyservers support port 80. The general solution is to use the p80 pool at . However, I think that it would be more preferable still to use the hkps pool at  . This has the advantage of using HTTPS on the standard port of 443. Incidentally, portage and gemato are both inflexible in this regard. --kerframil (talk) 02:36, 21 July 2018 (UTC)


 * Thanks, added that URI. --Grknight (talk) 15:30, 7 November 2018 (UTC)

improve suggested partitions and use of grub-install
In my opinion, the handbook (amd64) is a bit confusing regarding partitioning.

First of all, I think it should try to keep the "parted" and "fdisk" examples as coherent as possible. Furthermore, it would be preferable (more complete) to explain how to install Gentoo to a device that can then be booted both with UEFI and Legacy BIOS. Emphasis should be put on GPT, letting go MBR.

So here are my suggestions.

1) the "fdisk alternative" described at https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:AMD64/Full/Installation#Alternative:_Using_fdisk_to_partition_the_disk warns that fdisk might still have bugs when supporting GPT (-t gpt). However, it does use an example partitioning scheme with bios boot and boot (see below).

2) the "fdisk alternative" starts with this partitioning scheme:   /dev/sda1 	BIOS boot partition    /dev/sda2 	Boot partition and then ends telling the user to mark partition 1 (BIOS boot) for UEFI and create partition 2 as "boot".

The end results is: [BIOS boot] /dev/sda1            1         3      5198+  ef  EFI (FAT-12/16/32) [boot/grub] /dev/sda2  *         3        14    105808+  83  Linux [swap]     /dev/sda3            15        81    506520   82  Linux swap [root]     /dev/sda4            82      3876  28690200   83  Linux

3) in this section (https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:AMD64/Full/Installation#Applying_a_filesystem_to_a_partition) the handbook suggests to format partition 2 as ext2:


 * 1) mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda2

4) in this other section (https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:AMD64/Full/Installation#Using_UEFI) the handbook *suggests* to do the following:


 * 1) mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/sda2

This suggestion is incoherent with point 2. It also doesn't guide the user to a UEFI installation.

5) There's one thing the user should be aware of and is not clearly stated in the handbook. For a UEFI installation, the live install system (or the liveCD) must boot via UEFI, not Legacy BIOS. In fact, it can happen that the BIOS will silently fail to boot a UEFI device and switch to booting via Legacy BIOS. Also, it should be clear to the reader that the current Gentoo Minimal CD is UNABLE to boot with UEFI (work in progress). Either use the LiveDVD or another system such as SystemRescueCD. In any case, the handbook should suggest to check for the existance of /sys/firmware/efi as soon as the live system has booted. The user cannot install to a UEFI-bootable HDD if the live medium hasn't been booted with UEFI. In particular, the user will fail to grub-install with EFI, as suggested in the handbook.

6) The default partitioning scheme described at https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:AMD64/Full/Installation#Default_partitioning_scheme differs with point 2 because:   [BIOS boot]         /dev/sda1 	(bootloader) 	2M 	BIOS boot partition    [boot/grub or UEFI] /dev/sda2 	ext2 (or fat32 if UEFI is being used) 	128M 	Boot/EFI system partition

7) The parted instructions at https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:AMD64/Full/Installation#Default:_Using_parted_to_partition_the_disk suggest to install BIOS boot on partition 1 and boot on partition 2. In case the user wants to boot with UEFI, the handbook suggests to set UEFI on partition 2 (boot). This is incoherent with point 2.

8) Finally, I think it would be better if the handbook could explain how to install to a UEFI&BIOS-aware device.

There should be two scenarios:

a) user wants to boot with ONLY UEFI or ONLY Legacy BIOS:

in this case, use:

a1) if Legacy BIOS:

- boot with BIOS (not UEFI)

- check /sys/firmware/efi does not exist

- partitions: [BIOS boot] /dev/sda1 [boot/grub] /dev/sda2 (ext2) - filesystem: - install bootloader:
 * 1) mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda2
 * 2) mount /dev/sda2 /boot
 * 1) grub-install /dev/sda

a2) if UEFI:

- boot with UEFI (not BIOS)

- check /sys/firmware/efi exists

- partitions: [BIOS boot] /dev/sda1 [UEFI]     /dev/sda2 (fat32) - filesystem: - install bootloader: (actually, grub-install /dev/sda should be enough)
 * 1) mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/sda2
 * 2) mount /dev/sda2 /boot
 * 1) grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot /dev/sda

b) user wants to boot with BOTH UEFI AND Legacy BIOS:

b1) grub and efi on different partitions:

- boot with UEFI (not BIOS)

- check /sys/firmware/efi exists

- partitions: [BIOS boot] /dev/sda1 [UEFI]     /dev/sda2 (fat32) [boot/grub] /dev/sda3 (ext2) - filesystem: - install bootloader: ( actually, grub-install --efi-directory=/boot/efi /dev/sda should be enough)
 * 1) mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/sda2
 * 2) mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda3
 * 3) mount /dev/sda3 /boot
 * 4) mkdir /boot/efi
 * 5) mount /dev/sda2 /boot/efi
 * 1) grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi /dev/sda
 * 1) grub-install --target=i386-pc /dev/sda

b2) grub and efi on same partition:

- boot with UEFI (not BIOS)

- check /sys/firmware/efi exists

- partitions: [BIOS boot]     /dev/sda1 [UEFI/boot/grub] /dev/sda2 (fat32) - filesystem: - install bootloader: ( actually, grub-install /dev/sda should be enough)
 * 1) mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/sda2
 * 2) mount /dev/sda2 /boot
 * 1) grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot /dev/sda
 * 1) grub-install --target=i386-pc /dev/sda

--Vieri (talk) 11:17, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

As I'm reading through this doco I'm writing a bunch of suggestions, some of which are sure to be misguided, so the only discussion I require is "yes/no/maybe later". Hopefully some of this helps but I know not all of it will be implemented. Anyways: Prior to "Introduction to block devices" it would be nice if there was a title that said something like preparing the disk, since that is what is referred to above in the document. DavidC (talk) 17:57, 18 November 2017 (UTC)

I'd probably get the user to chroot a couple terminals at least because then they would be able to do some reading while something is going on it another window, or easily compare say the output of lspci to what they're inputing in makeconfig, etc. DavidC (talk) 15:13, 19 November 2017 (UTC)

I am lost at https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:AMD64/Full/Installation#Introduction_to_block_devices. Looking at "If that is the case, it might be..." I understand what "that" case is, but when it says "In this case, launch..." I do not understand what "this" case is. Perhaps after "using the MBR format." A sentence could be added directing MBR users to "Default partitioning scheme". Someone suggested this be split into 3 sections "bios with mbr, efi with gpt, bios with gpt" DavidC (talk) 19:37, 18 November 2017 (UTC)

"links https://www.gentoo.org/downloads/mirrors/" So if you follow the first link for Canadians, you end up going to a LONG list of files and it's not entirely clear what to download (even if you follow it all the way to Gentoo, so it's probably best just to link people straight to https://gentoo.org/downloads/. DavidC (talk) 19:58, 18 November 2017 (UTC)

"variables which impacts" --> "impact" DavidC (talk) 20:02, 18 November 2017 (UTC)

"To keep the settings, Portage reads in the /etc/portage/make.conf file" ok so this line is talking about what is currently /mnt/gentoo/etc/... but the light blue section afterwards refers to /mnt/gentoo/usr/share/... explicitly, as does the black section starting with nano -w, so there should be consistency across all those three things. DavidC (talk) 20:14, 18 November 2017 (UTC)

After "root #eselect locale set 9", the shell tells the user to run something like. /etc/profile, which results in removing the custom prompt "(chroot)" and it's a little disconcerting. So I think the best option here is to tell the user not to follow the prompting of the shell before giving the set 9 command. Further, afterwards there is a black box that has maybe 3 commands in it separated by & and those commands could easily be given as a series of single lines, which would probably be better. DavidC (talk) 14:53, 19 November 2017 (UTC)

In the USE flag section, it might be a good idea to suggest something like  | grep ^USE >>  so that people can see their profile USE flags at the same time that they're putting in their custom values; they would have to comment it out if they did that, though. DavidC (talk) 15:08, 19 November 2017 (UTC)

" [*] Maintain a devtmpfs filesystem to mount at /dev" You can not unselect this, therefore this section can be removed safely. DavidC (talk) 15:19, 19 November 2017 (UTC)

"Executable file formats / Emulations --->" Put a blank line prior to this to strongly indicate that it's denested. DavidC (talk) 16:04, 19 November 2017 (UTC)

"Pseudo Filesystems --->" needs to be nested one step inwards. DavidC (talk) 16:10, 19 November 2017 (UTC)

There seems to be a lot of random traversal of the kernel configuration. It would be beneficial to group all sections together which access similar hierarchies. It would probably also be good to include the hotkeys in this menu so that the user can traverse it more quickly. DavidC (talk) 16:14, 19 November 2017 (UTC)

"Please read /usr/share/doc/netifrc-*/net.example.bz2 for a list of all available options." The document does not say how to do this. Also in this section, observe: " But don't fear, everything is explained below." This breaks style, but I like it. DavidC (talk) 20:01, 19 November 2017 (UTC)

For grub-install with EFI, please include the 2 steps for EFI vars. Otherwise, grub-install will silently fail. From https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Efibootmgr#Creating_a_boot_entry:

root #mount | grep efivars efivarfs on /sys/firmware/efi/efivars type efivarfs (ro,relatime)

root #mount -o remount,rw -t efivarfs efivarfs /sys/firmware/efi/efivars

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