Gentoo Linux sparc Podręcznik: Instalowanie Gentoo

Wprowadzenie

Witaj

Przede wszystkim, witamy w Gentoo! Zamierzasz wkroczyć w świat wyboru i możliwości. Gentoo polega na wyborach. Podczas instalacji Gentoo, jest to wielokrotnie jasno przedstawione - użytkownicy mogą wybrać co ma zawierać ich kompilacja, jak zainstalować Gentoo, jakiego loggera systemowego użyć, etc.

Gentoo to szybka, nowoczesna metadystrybucja o przejrzystym i elastycznym wyglądzie. Jest zbudowany w oparciu o ekosystem wolnego oprogramowania i nic nie ukrywa przed swoimi użytkownikami. Portage, system zarządzania pakietami, z którego korzysta Gentoo, został napisany w języku Python. Oznacza to, że użytkownik może łatwo przeglądać i modyfikować kod źródłowy. System pakowania Gentoo używa kodu źródłowego (dostępne jest również wsparcie dla wstępnie skompilowanych pakietów), a konfiguracja Gentoo odbywa się za pomocą zwykłych plików tekstowych. Innymi słowy, otwartość wszędzie.

Jest to bardzo ważne, by każdy użytkownik zrozumiał, iż możliwość wyboru jest głównym czynnikiem istnienia Gentoo. Staramy się nie zmuszać użytkowników do robienia czegokolwiek, co im się nie podoba. Jeśli ktoś uważa inaczej, prosimy o zgłoszenie raportu o błędzie.

Jak zbudowana jest instalacja

Instalacja Gentoo może być przedstawiona jako 10-etapowa procedura, odpowiadająca następnym zestawom działań. Wyniki każdego działaia w danym etapie:

Etap	Wynik
1	Użytkownik znajduje się w środowisku roboczym, które jest gotowe do zainstalowania Gentoo.
2	Połączenie internetowe jest gotowe do zainstalowania Gentoo.
3	Dyski twarde są przygotowane do obsługi instalacji Gentoo.
4	Środowisko instalacyjne jest przygotowane, a użytkownik jest gotowy do wykonania chroot w nowym środowisku.
5	Instalowane są podstawowe pakiety, które są takie same we wszystkich instalacjach Gentoo.
6	Jądro Linuksa jest zainstalowane.
7	Większość plików konfiguracyjnych systemu Gentoo jest utworzona.
8	Zainstalowane są niezbędne narzędzia systemowe.
9	Odpowiedni system rozruchowy został zainstalowany i skonfigurowany.
10	Świeżo zainstalowane środowisko Gentoo Linux jest gotowe do eksploracji.

Za każdym razem, gdy w podręczniku przedstawiany jest pewien wybór, staramy się wyjaśnić zalety i wady każdego wyboru. Chociaż podręcznik jest następnie kontynuowany z domyślnym wyborem (oznaczonym jako "Domyślne:" w tytule), inne możliwości również zostaną udokumentowane (oznaczone jako "Alternatywa:" w tytule). Nie myśl, że społeczność Gentoo zaleca ustawienie domyślne. Jest to jednak wybór, którego zdaniem społeczności Gentoo dokona większość użytkowników.

Czasami można wykonać opcjonalny krok. Takie kroki są oznaczone jako „Opcjonalne:” i nie są potrzebne do instalacji Gentoo. Niektóre opcjonalne kroki zależą jednak od wcześniej podjętej decyzji. Instrukcje poinformują czytelnika, gdy nastąpi taka sytuacja, zarówno po podjęciu decyzji, jak i tuż przed opisem opcjonalnego kroku.

Opcje instalacyjne Gentoo

Gentoo można zainstalować na wiele różnych sposobów. Można go pobrać i zainstalować z oficjalnych nośników instalacyjnych Gentoo, takich jak nasze płyty CD i DVD. Nośnik instalacyjny można zainstalować na pamięci USB lub uzyskać do niego dostęp za pośrednictwem środowiska sieciowego. Alternatywnie, Gentoo można zainstalować z nieoficjalnych nośników, takich jak już zainstalowana dystrybucja lub dysk startowy inny niż Gentoo (np. Knoppix).

Ten dokument opisuje instalację przy użyciu oficjalnego nośnika instalacyjnego Gentoo, a w niektórych przypadkach instalację sieciową.

Note
Aby uzyskać pomoc dotyczącą innych podejść do instalacji, w tym używania płyt CD innych niż Gentoo, przeczytaj nasz Alternatywny przewodnik instalacji.

Udostępniamy również dokument Wskazówki i triki dotyczące instalacji Gentoo, który może okazać się przydatny.

Problemy

Jeśli wystąpił problem w instalacji (lub dokumentacji instalacji), odwiedź nasz system śledzenia błędów i sprawdź czy błąd jest już znany. Jeśli nie, utwórz raport o błędzie, abyśmy mogli się tym zająć. Nie bój się programistów, którzy są przypisani do błędów - (zazwyczaj) nie jedzą ludzi.

Chociaż ten dokument jest specyficzny dla architektury, może zawierać również odniesienia do innych architektur. Duża część Podręcznika Gentoo używa tekstu, który jest identyczny dla wszystkich architektur (aby uniknąć powielania). Takie odniesienia zostały ograniczone do minimum, aby uniknąć nieporozumień.

Jeśli istnieje niepewność, czy problem jest problemem użytkownika (błąd popełniony pomimo dokładnego przeczytania dokumentacji), czy wystąpił problem z oprogramowaniem (błąd, który popełniliśmy pomimo dokładnego przetestowania instalacji/dokumentacji), zapraszamy na międzynarodowy kanał #gentoo (webchat) (oraz polski kanał #gentoo-pl (webchat)) w sieci irc.freenode.net. Oczywiście wszyscy są mile widziani, ponieważ nasz kanał czatu obejmuje szerokie spektrum Gentoo.

A propos, jeśli masz dodatkowe pytania dotyczące Gentoo, zajrzyj do artykułu Najczęściej Zadawane Pytania. Istnieje również wątek Najczęściej Zadawane Pytania na Forum Gentoo.

Hardware requirements

Before we start, we first list what hardware requirements are needed to successfully install Gentoo on a sparc box.

Sparc System	Please check the Gentoo Linux/SPARC64 compatibility list or the UltraLinux FAQ
CPU	Currently support is limited to SPARC64 CPUs
Memory	64 MB
Disk space	1.5 GB (excluding swap space)
Swap space	At least 256 MB

Installation method

Below we cover how to install Gentoo Linux on a sparc system using the minimal installation CD. Gentoo also supports installation from a TFTP netboot image. For more information, please see the Sparc/Netboot article for setting up a netboot server, and find the TFTPBoot images on the Gentoo mirrors under experimental/sparc/tftpboot/sparc64/.

Media instalacyjne Gentoo Linux

Minimal installation CD

The Gentoo minimal installation CD is a bootable image: a self-contained Gentoo environment. It allows the user to boot Linux from the CD or other installation media. During the boot process the hardware is detected and the appropriate drivers are loaded. The image is maintained by Gentoo developers and allows anyone to install Gentoo if an active Internet connection is available.

The Minimal Installation CD is called install-sparc-minimal-<release>.iso.

The occasional Gentoo LiveDVD

Occasionally, a special DVD image is crafted which can be used to install Gentoo. The instructions in this chapter target the Minimal Installation CD, so things might be a bit different when booting from the LiveDVD. However, the LiveDVD (or any other bootable Linux environment) supports getting a root prompt by just invoking sudo su - or sudo -i in a terminal.

What are stages then?

A stage3 tarball is an archive containing a profile specific minimal Gentoo environment. Stage3 tarballs are suitable to continue the Gentoo installation using the instructions in this handbook. Previously, the handbook described the installation using one of three stage tarballs. Gentoo does not offer stage1 and stage2 tarballs for download any more since these are mostly for internal use and for bootstrapping Gentoo on new architectures.

Stage3 tarballs can be downloaded from releases/sparc/autobuilds/ on any of the official Gentoo mirrors. Stage files update frequently and are not included in official installation images.

Downloading

Obtain the media

The default installation media that Gentoo Linux uses are the minimal installation CDs, which host a bootable, very small Gentoo Linux environment. This environment contains all the right tools to install Gentoo. The CD images themselves can be downloaded from the downloads page (recommended) or by manually browsing to the ISO location on one of the many available mirrors.

If downloading from a mirror, the minimal installation CDs can be found as follows:

1. Go to the releases/ directory.
2. Select the directory for the relevant target architecture (such as sparc/).
3. Select the autobuilds/ directory.
4. For amd64 and x86 architectures select either the current-install-amd64-minimal/ or current-install-x86-minimal/ directory (respectively). For all other architectures navigate to the current-iso/ directory.

Note
Some target architectures such as arm, mips, and s390 will not have minimal install CDs. At this time the Gentoo Release Engineering project does not support building .iso files for these targets.

Inside this location, the installation media file is the file with the .iso suffix. For instance, take a look at the following listing:

CODE Example list of downloadable files at releases/sparc/autobuilds/current-iso/

[DIR] hardened/                                          05-Dec-2014 01:42    -   
[   ] install-sparc-minimal-20141204.iso                 04-Dec-2014 21:04  208M  
[   ] install-sparc-minimal-20141204.iso.CONTENTS        04-Dec-2014 21:04  3.0K  
[   ] install-sparc-minimal-20141204.iso.DIGESTS         04-Dec-2014 21:04  740   
[TXT] install-sparc-minimal-20141204.iso.DIGESTS.asc     05-Dec-2014 01:42  1.6K  
[   ] stage3-sparc-20141204.tar.bz2                      04-Dec-2014 21:04  198M  
[   ] stage3-sparc-20141204.tar.bz2.CONTENTS             04-Dec-2014 21:04  4.6M  
[   ] stage3-sparc-20141204.tar.bz2.DIGESTS              04-Dec-2014 21:04  720   
[TXT] stage3-sparc-20141204.tar.bz2.DIGESTS.asc          05-Dec-2014 01:42  1.5K

In the above example, the install-sparc-minimal-20141204.iso file is the minimal installation CD itself. But as can be seen, other related files exist as well:

• A .CONTENTS file which is a text file listing all files available on the installation media. This file can be useful to verify if particular firmware or drivers are available on the installation media before downloading it.
• A .DIGESTS file which contains the hash of the ISO file itself, in various hashing formats/algorithms. This file can be used to verify if the downloaded ISO file is corrupt or not.
• A .DIGESTS.asc file which not only contains the hash of the ISO file (like the .DIGESTS file), but also a cryptographic signature of that file. This can be used to both verify if the downloaded ISO file is corrupt or not, as well as verify that the download is indeed provided by the Gentoo Release Engineering team and has not been tampered with.

Ignore the other files available at this location for now - those will come back when the installation has proceeded further. Download the .iso file and, if verification of the download is wanted, download the .DIGESTS.asc file for the .iso file as well. The .CONTENTS file does not need to be downloaded as the installation instructions will not refer to this file anymore, and the .DIGESTS file should contain the same information as the .DIGESTS.asc file, except that the latter also contains a signature on top of it.

Verifying the downloaded files

Note
This is an optional step and not necessary to install Gentoo Linux. However, it is recommended as it ensures that the downloaded file is not corrupt and has indeed been provided by the Gentoo Infrastructure team.

Through the .DIGESTS and .DIGESTS.asc files, the validity of the ISO file can be confirmed using the right set of tools. This verification is usually done in two steps:

1. First, the cryptographic signature is validated to make sure that the installation file is provided by the Gentoo Release Engineering team
2. If the cryptographic signature validates, then the checksum is verified to make sure that the downloaded file itself is not corrupted

Microsoft Windows based verification

On a Microsoft Windows system, chances are low that the right set of tools to verify checksums and cryptographic signatures are in place.

To first verify the cryptographic signature, tools such as GPG4Win can be used. After installation, the public keys of the Gentoo Release Engineering team need to be imported. The list of keys is available on the signatures page. Once imported, the user can then verify the signature of the .DIGESTS.asc file.

Important
This does not verify that the .DIGESTS file is correct, only that the .DIGESTS.asc file is. That also implies that the checksum should be verified against the values in the .DIGESTS.asc file, which is why the instructions above only refer to downloading the .DIGESTS.asc file.

The checksum itself can be verified using the Hashcalc application, although many others exist as well. Most of the time, these tools will show the user the calculated checksum, and the user is requested to verify this checksum with the value that is inside the .DIGESTS.asc file.

Linux based verification

On a Linux system, the most common method for verifying the cryptographic signature is to use the app-crypt/gnupg software. With this package installed, the following commands can be used to verify the cryptographic signature of the .DIGESTS.asc file.

First, download the right set of keys as made available on the signatures page:

user $gpg --keyserver hkps://keys.gentoo.org --recv-keys 0xBB572E0E2D182910

gpg: requesting key 0xBB572E0E2D182910 from hkp server pool.sks-keyservers.net
gpg: key 0xBB572E0E2D182910: "Gentoo Linux Release Engineering (Automated Weekly Release Key) <releng@gentoo.org>" 1 new signature
gpg: 3 marginal(s) needed, 1 complete(s) needed, classic trust model
gpg: depth: 0  valid:   3  signed:  20  trust: 0-, 0q, 0n, 0m, 0f, 3u
gpg: depth: 1  valid:  20  signed:  12  trust: 9-, 0q, 0n, 9m, 2f, 0u
gpg: next trustdb check due at 2018-09-15
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg:         new signatures: 1

Alternatively you can use instead the WKD to download the key:

user $wget -O- https://gentoo.org/.well-known/openpgpkey/hu/wtktzo4gyuhzu8a4z5fdj3fgmr1u6tob?l=releng | gpg --import

--2019-04-19 20:46:32--  https://gentoo.org/.well-known/openpgpkey/hu/wtktzo4gyuhzu8a4z5fdj3fgmr1u6tob?l=releng
Resolving gentoo.org (gentoo.org)... 89.16.167.134
Connecting to gentoo.org (gentoo.org)|89.16.167.134|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 35444 (35K) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: 'STDOUT'
 
     0K .......... .......... .......... ....                 100% 11.9M=0.003s
 
2019-04-19 20:46:32 (11.9 MB/s) - written to stdout [35444/35444]
 
gpg: key 9E6438C817072058: 84 signatures not checked due to missing keys
gpg: /tmp/test2/trustdb.gpg: trustdb created
gpg: key 9E6438C817072058: public key "Gentoo Linux Release Engineering (Gentoo Linux Release Signing Key) <releng@gentoo.org>" imported
gpg: key BB572E0E2D182910: 12 signatures not checked due to missing keys
gpg: key BB572E0E2D182910: 1 bad signature
gpg: key BB572E0E2D182910: public key "Gentoo Linux Release Engineering (Automated Weekly Release Key) <releng@gentoo.org>" imported
gpg: Total number processed: 2
gpg:               imported: 2
gpg: no ultimately trusted keys found

Next verify the cryptographic signature of the .DIGESTS.asc file:

user $gpg --verify install-sparc-minimal-20141204.iso.DIGESTS.asc

gpg: Signature made Fri 05 Dec 2014 02:42:44 AM CET
gpg:                using RSA key 0xBB572E0E2D182910
gpg: Good signature from "Gentoo Linux Release Engineering (Automated Weekly Release Key) <releng@gentoo.org>" [unknown]
gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
gpg:          There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
Primary key fingerprint: 13EB BDBE DE7A 1277 5DFD  B1BA BB57 2E0E 2D18 2910

To be absolutely certain that everything is valid, verify the fingerprint shown with the fingerprint on the Gentoo signatures page.

With the cryptographic signature validated, next verify the checksum to make sure the downloaded ISO file is not corrupted. The .DIGESTS.asc file contains multiple hashing algorithms, so one of the methods to validate the right one is to first look at the checksum registered in the .DIGESTS.asc file. For instance, to get the SHA512 checksum:

user $grep -A 1 -i sha512 install-sparc-minimal-20141204.iso.DIGESTS.asc

# SHA512 HASH
364d32c4f8420605f8a9fa3a0fc55864d5b0d1af11aa62b7a4d4699a427e5144b2d918225dfb7c5dec8d3f0fe2cddb7cc306da6f0cef4f01abec33eec74f3024  install-sparc-minimal-20141204.iso
--
# SHA512 HASH
0719a8954dc7432750de2e3076c8b843a2c79f5e60defe43fcca8c32ab26681dfb9898b102e211174a895ff4c8c41ddd9e9a00ad6434d36c68d74bd02f19b57f  install-sparc-minimal-20141204.iso.CONTENTS

In the above output, two SHA512 checksums are shown - one for the install-sparc-minimal-20141204.iso file and one for its accompanying .CONTENTS file. Only the first checksum is of interest, as it needs to be compared with the calculated SHA512 checksum which can be generated as follows:

user $sha512sum install-sparc-minimal-20141204.iso

364d32c4f8420605f8a9fa3a0fc55864d5b0d1af11aa62b7a4d4699a427e5144b2d918225dfb7c5dec8d3f0fe2cddb7cc306da6f0cef4f01abec33eec74f3024  install-sparc-minimal-20141204.iso

As both checksums match, the file is not corrupted and the installation can continue.

Burning a disk

Of course, with just an ISO file downloaded, the Gentoo Linux installation cannot be started. The ISO file needs to be burned on a CD to boot from, and in such a way that its content is burned on the CD, not just the file itself. Below a few common methods are described - a more elaborate set of instructions can be found in Our FAQ on burning an ISO file.

Burning with Microsoft Windows 7 and above

Versions of Microsoft Windows 7 and above can both mount and burn ISO images to optical media without the requirement for third-party software. Simply insert a burnable disk, browse to the downloaded ISO files, right click the file in Windows Explorer, and select "Burn disk image".

Burning with Linux

The cdrecord utility from the package app-cdr/cdrtools can burn ISO images on Linux.

To burn the ISO file on the CD in the /dev/sr0 device (this is the first CD device on the system - substitute with the right device file if necessary):

user $cdrecord dev=/dev/sr0 install-sparc-minimal-20141204.iso

Users that prefer a graphical user interface can use K3B, part of the kde-apps/k3b package. In K3B, go to Tools and use Burn CD Image.

Booting

Booting the installation CD

Insert the Gentoo installation CD in the CD-ROM and boot the system. During startup, press Stop + A to enter OpenBootPROM (OBP). Once in the OBP, boot from the CD-ROM:

okboot cdrom

The SILO boot manager (on the installation CD) is then started. Hit Enter for more help. Type in gentoo and press Enter to continue booting the system:

boot:gentoo

Once the Installation CD is booted, a root ("#") prompt will be displayed on the current console. There will also be a root prompt on the serial console (ttyS0).

Extra hardware configuration

When the Installation medium boots, it tries to detect all the hardware devices and loads the appropriate kernel modules to support the hardware. In the vast majority of cases, it does a very good job. However, in some cases it may not auto-load the kernel modules needed by the system. If the PCI auto-detection missed some of the system's hardware, the appropriate kernel modules have to be loaded manually.

In the next example the 8139too module (which supports certain kinds of network interfaces) is loaded:

root #modprobe 8139too

Optional: User accounts

If other people need access to the installation environment, or there is need to run commands as a non-root user on the installation medium (such as to chat using irssi without root privileges for security reasons), then an additional user account needs to be created and the root password set to a strong password.

To change the root password, use the passwd utility:

root #passwd

New password: (Enter the new password)
Re-enter password: (Re-enter the password)

To create a user account, first enter their credentials, followed by the account's password. The useradd and passwd commands are used for these tasks.

In the next example, a user called john is created:

root #useradd -m -G users john

root #passwd john

New password: (Enter john's password)
Re-enter password: (Re-enter john's password)

To switch from the (current) root user to the newly created user account, use the su command:

root #su - john

Optional: Viewing documentation while installing

TTYs

To view the Gentoo handbook during the installation, first create a user account as described above. Then press Alt+F2 to go to a new terminal.

During the installation, the links command can be used to browse the Gentoo handbook - of course only from the moment that the Internet connection is working.

user $links https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:SPARC

To go back to the original terminal, press Alt+F1.

GNU Screen

The Screen utility is installed by default on official Gentoo installation media. It may be more efficient for the seasoned Linux enthusiast to use screen to view installation instructions via split panes rather than the multiple TTY method mentioned above.

Optional: Starting the SSH daemon

To allow other users to access the system during the installation (perhaps to support during an installation, or even do it remotely), a user account needs to be created (as was documented earlier on) and the SSH daemon needs to be started.

To fire up the SSH daemon on an OpenRC init, execute the following command:

root #rc-service sshd start

Note
If users log on to the system, they will see a message that the host key for this system needs to be confirmed (through what is called a fingerprint). This behavior is typical and can be expected for initial connections to an SSH server. However, later when the system is set up and someone logs on to the newly created system, the SSH client will warn that the host key has been changed. This is because the user now logs on to - for SSH - a different server (namely the freshly installed Gentoo system rather than the live environment that the installation is currently using). Follow the instructions given on the screen then to replace the host key on the client system.

To be able to use sshd, the network needs to function properly. Continue with the chapter on Configuring the network.

Automatyczne wykrywanie sieci

Może to po prostu działa?

Jeśli system jest podłączony do sieci Ethernet z serwerem DHCP, jest bardzo prawdopodobne, że sieć została już skonfigurowana automatycznie. Jeśli tak, to wiele poleceń obsługujących sieć na płycie instalacyjnej, takich jak ssh, scp, ping, irssi, wget i links, będzie działać natychmiast.

Ustal nazwy interfejsów

Polecenie ifconfig

Jeśli sieć została skonfigurowana, polecenie ifconfig powinno wyświetlić jeden lub więcej interfejsów sieciowych (oprócz lo). W poniższym przykładzie pojawia się eth0:

root #ifconfig

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:50:BA:8F:61:7A
          inet addr:192.168.0.2  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::50:ba8f:617a/10 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:1498792 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1284980 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:1984 txqueuelen:100
          RX bytes:485691215 (463.1 Mb)  TX bytes:123951388 (118.2 Mb)
          Interrupt:11 Base address:0xe800 

W wyniku przejścia w kierunku przewidywalnych nazw interfejsów sieciowych, nazwa interfejsu eth0 w systemie może się znacznie różnić od starej konwencji nazewnictwa. Najnowsze nośniki instalacyjne mogą pokazywać zwykłe nazwy interfejsów sieciowych, takie jak eno0, ens1 lub enp5s0. Poszukaj interfejsu w danych wyjściowych ifconfig, który ma adres IP powiązany z siecią lokalną.

Tip
Jeśli nie zostały wyświetlone żadne interfejsy, gdy użyto standardowego polecenia ifconfig, spróbuj użyć tego samego polecenia z opcją -a. Ta opcja wymusza na narzędziu wyświetlanie wszystkich interfejsów sieciowych wykrytych przez system, niezależnie od tego, czy są włączone, czy wyłączone. Jeśli ifconfig -a nie daje żadnych wyników, oznacza to, że sprzęt jest uszkodzony lub sterownik interfejsu nie został załadowany do jądra. Obie sytuacje wykraczają poza zakres niniejszego podręcznika. Aby uzyskać pomoc, skontaktuj się z #gentoo (webchat).

Polecenie ip

Jako alternatywę dla ifconfig można użyć polecenia ip do określenia nazw interfejsów. Poniższy przykład przedstawia dane wyjściowe funkcji ip addr (z innego systemu, więc wyświetlane informacje różnią się od poprzedniego przykładu):

root #ip addr

2: eno1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether e8:40:f2:ac:25:7a brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 10.0.20.77/22 brd 10.0.23.255 scope global eno1
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::ea40:f2ff:feac:257a/64 scope link 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

Powyższe dane wyjściowe mogą być nieco bardziej skomplikowane do odczytania niż alternatywne. Nazwa interfejsu w powyższym przykładzie następuje bezpośrednio po numerze; to jest eno1.

W pozostałej części tego podręcznika zakładamy, że działający interfejs sieciowy nosi nazwę eth0.

Opcjonalnie: Konfiguracja serwera proxy

Jeśli dostęp do Internetu odbywa się za pośrednictwem serwera proxy, podczas instalacji konieczne jest skonfigurowanie informacji o serwerze proxy. Definiowanie proxy jest bardzo łatwe: wystarczy zdefiniować zmienną, która zawiera informacje o serwerze proxy.

W większości przypadków wystarczy zdefiniować zmienne za pomocą nazwy hosta serwera. Na przykład zakładamy, że serwer proxy nazywa się proxy.gentoo.org, a port to 8080.

Aby skonfigurować HTTP proxy (dla ruchu HTTP i HTTPS):

root #export http_proxy="http://proxy.gentoo.org:8080"

Aby skonfigurować FTP proxy:

root #export ftp_proxy="ftp://proxy.gentoo.org:8080"

Aby skonfigurować RSYNC proxy:

root #export RSYNC_PROXY="proxy.gentoo.org:8080"

Jeśli serwer proxy wymaga nazwy użytkownika i hasła, użyj następującej składni zmiennej:

CODE Dodawanie nazwy użytkownika i hasła do zmiennej proxy

http://nazwa_użytkownika:hasło@proxy.gentoo.org:8080

Testowanie sieci

Spróbuj spingować serwer DNS twojego dostawcy internetu (znajdujący się w /etc/resolv.conf), jak również wybraną stronę internetową. Zapewnia to, że sieć działa poprawnie i że pakiety sieciowe docierają do sieci, rozpoznawanie nazw DNS działa poprawnie itp.

root #ping -c 3 www.gentoo.org

Jeśli wszystko zadziała, to pozostałą część tego rozdziału można pominąć i przejść od razu do następnego kroku instrukcji instalacji (Przygotowanie dysków).

Automatyczna konfiguracja sieci

Jeśli sieć nie zadziała od razu, niektóre nośniki instalacyjne pozwalają użytkownikowi na użycie net-setup (dla sieci zwykłych lub bezprzewodowych), pppoe-setup (dla użytkowników ADSL) lub pptp (dla użytkowników PPTP).

Jeśli nośnik instalacyjny nie zawiera żadnego z tych narzędzi, przejdź do Ręcznej konfiguracja sieci.

• Regular Ethernet users should continue with Default: Using net-setup
• ADSL users should continue with Alternative: Using PPP
• PPTP users should continue with Alternative: Using PPTP

Domyślnie: Używając net-setup

Najprostszym sposobem skonfigurowania sieci, jeśli nie została skonfigurowana automatycznie, jest uruchomienie skryptu net-setup:

root #net-setup eth0

net-setup zada kilka pytań dotyczących środowiska sieciowego. Kiedy wszystko zostanie zrobione, połączenie sieciowe powinno działać. Przetestuj połączenie sieciowe zgodnie z wcześniejszym opisem. Jeśli testy wypadną pozytywnie, gratulujemy! Pomiń resztę tej sekcji i przejdź do Przygotowanie dysków.

Jeśli sieć nadal nie działa, przejdź do Ręcznej konfiguracji sieci.

Alternatywa: Używając PPP

Zakładając, że do połączenia z Internetem potrzebne jest PPPoE, płyta instalacyjna (dowolna wersja) ułatwiła sprawę, dołączając ppp. Użyj dostarczonego skryptu pppoe-setup, aby skonfigurować połączenie. Podczas konfiguracji urządzenie Ethernet, które jest podłączone do modemu ADSL, zostanie zapytane o nazwę użytkownika i hasło, adresy IP serwerów DNS oraz o to, czy podstawowa zapora jest potrzebna, czy nie.

root #pppoe-setup

root #pppoe-start

Jeśli coś pójdzie nie tak, sprawdź dokładnie, czy nazwa użytkownika i hasło są poprawne, patrząc na etc/ppp/pap-secrets lub /etc/ppp/chap-secrets i upewnij się, że używasz odpowiedniego urządzenia Ethernet. Jeśli urządzenie Ethernet nie istnieje, należy załadować odpowiednie moduły sieciowe. W takim przypadku przejdź do Ręcznej konfiguracji sieci, ponieważ zostanie tam wyjaśnione, jak załadować odpowiednie moduły sieciowe.

Jeśli wszystko zadziałało, przejdź do Przygotowania dysku.

Alternatywa: Używając PPTP

Jeśli potrzebna jest obsługa PPTP, użyj pptpclient, który jest dostarczany na instalacyjnych dyskach CD. Jednak najpierw upewnij się, że konfiguracja jest prawidłowa. Edytuj /etc/ppp/pap-secrets lub /etc/ppp/chap-secrets, aby zawierały poprawną kombinację nazwy użytkownika i hasła:

root #nano -w /etc/ppp/chap-secrets

Następnie dostosuj /etc/ppp/options.pptp, jeśli jest to konieczne:

root #nano -w /etc/ppp/options.pptp

Po wykonaniu wszystkich czynności uruchom pptp (wraz z opcjami, których nie można ustawić w options.pptp), aby połączyć się z serwerem:

root #pptp <adres ip serwera>

Teraz przejdź do Przygotowanie dysków.

Ręczna konfiguracja sieci

Ładowanie odpowiednich modułów sieciowych

Podczas uruchamiania płyty instalacyjnej CD, próbuje ona wykryć wszystkie urządzenia sprzętowe i ładuje odpowiednie moduły jądra (sterowniki) do obsługi sprzętu. W zdecydowanej większości wypadków sprawdza się bardzo dobrze. Jednak w niektórych przypadkach może ona nie ładować automatycznie potrzebnych modułów jądra.

Jeśli wykonanie net-setup lub pppoe-setup nie powiodło się, to możliwe, że karta sieciowa nie została znaleziona podczas ładowania obrazu instalacyjnego. Oznacza to, że użytkownicy mogą być zmuszeni do ręcznego ładowania odpowiednich modułów jądra.

Aby dowiedzieć się, jakie moduły jądra są dostarczane dla sieci, użyj polecenia ls:

root #ls /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net

Jeśli został znaleziony sterownik dla urządzenia sieciowego, użyj modprobe, aby załadować moduł jądra. Na przykład, aby załadować moduł pcnet32:

root #modprobe pcnet32

Aby sprawdzić, czy została wykryta karta sieciowa, użyj ifconfig. Wykryta karta sieciowa spowodowałaby coś takiego (ponownie, eth0 to tylko przykład):

root #ifconfig eth0

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr FE:FD:00:00:00:00  
          BROADCAST NOARP MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

Jeśli jednak zostanie wyświetlony następujący błąd, karta sieciowa nie została wykryta:

root #ifconfig eth0

eth0: error fetching interface information: Device not found

Dostępne nazwy interfejsów sieciowych w systemie można wyświetlić w systemie plików /sys:

root #ls /sys/class/net

dummy0  eth0  lo  sit0  tap0  wlan0

W powyższym przykładzie znaleziono 6 interfejsów. eth0 to najprawdopodobniej (przewodowa) karta sieciowa Ethernet, podczas gdy wlan0 to karta bezprzewodowa.

Zakładając, że karta sieciowa została wykryta, spróbuj ponownie net-setup lub pppoe-setup (powinno teraz działać), ale dla napalonych ludzi wyjaśniamy również jak skonfigurować sieć ręcznie.

Wybierz jedną z następujących sekcji w zależności od konfiguracji sieci:

• Using DHCP for automatic IP retrieval
• Preparing for wireless access if a wireless network is used
• Understanding network terminology explains the basics about networking
• Using ifconfig and route explains how to set up networking manually

Używając DHCP

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) umożliwia automatyczne otrzymywanie informacji sieciowych (adres IP, maska sieci, adres rozgłoszeniowy, brama, serwery nazw itp.). Działa to tylko wtedy, gdy w sieci znajduje się serwer DHCP (lub jeśli dostawca usług internetowych zapewnia usługę DHCP). Aby interfejs sieciowy odbierał te informacje automatycznie, użyj dhcpcd:

root #dhcpcd eth0

Niektórzy administratorzy sieci wymagają, aby system używał nazwy hosta i nazwy domeny podanych przez serwer DHCP. W takim przypadku użyj:

root #dhcpcd -HD eth0

Jeśli zadziałało (spróbuj spingować jakiś serwer internetowy, taki jak 8.8.8.8 Google lub 1.1.1.1 Cloudflare), wtedy wszystko zostało ustawione i możesz kontynuować. Pomiń resztę tej sekcji i przejdź do Przygotowanie dysków.

Przygotowanie do dostępu bezprzewodowego

Note
Support for the iw command might be architecture-specific. If the command is not available see if the net-wireless/iw package is available for the current architecture. The iw command will be unavailable unless the net-wireless/iw package has been installed.

When using a wireless (802.11) card, the wireless settings need to be configured before going any further. To see the current wireless settings on the card, one can use iw. Running iw might show something like:

root #iw dev wlp9s0 info

Interface wlp9s0
	ifindex 3
	wdev 0x1
	addr 00:00:00:00:00:00
	type managed
	wiphy 0
	channel 11 (2462 MHz), width: 20 MHz (no HT), center1: 2462 MHz
	txpower 30.00 dBm

Aby sprawdzić bieżące połączenie:

root #iw dev wlp9s0 link

Not connected.

lub

root #iw dev wlp9s0 link

Connected to 00:00:00:00:00:00 (on wlp9s0)
	SSID: GentooNode
	freq: 2462
	RX: 3279 bytes (25 packets)
	TX: 1049 bytes (7 packets)
	signal: -23 dBm
	tx bitrate: 1.0 MBit/s

Note
Some wireless cards may have a device name of wlan0 or ra0 instead of wlp9s0. Run ip link to determine the correct device name.

For most users, there are only two settings needed to connect, the ESSID (aka wireless network name) and, optionally, the WEP key.

• Najpierw upewnij się, że interfejs jest aktywny:

root #ip link set dev wlp9s0 up

• Aby połączyć się z otwartą siecią o nazwie "GentooNode":

root #iw dev wlp9s0 connect -w GentooNode

• Aby połączyć się za pomocą szesnastkowego klucza WEP, poprzedź klucz przedrostkiem d::

root #iw dev wlp9s0 connect -w GentooNode key 0:d:1234123412341234abcd

• Aby połączyć się za pomocą klucza ASCII WEP:

root #iw dev wlp9s0 connect -w GentooNode key 0:jakies-haslo

Informacja
Jeśli sieć bezprzewodowa jest wymaga szyfrowania WPA lub WPA2, należy użyć wpa_supplicant. Więcej informacji na temat konfigurowania sieci bezprzewodowych w Gentoo Linux można znaleźć w rozdziale Sieć bezprzewodowa w Podręczniku Gentoo.

Confirm the wireless settings by using iw dev wlp9s0 link. Once wireless is working, continue configuring the IP level networking options as described in the next section (Understanding network terminology) or use the net-setup tool as described previously.

Zrozumienie terminologii sieciowej

Note
If the IP address, broadcast address, netmask and nameservers are known, then skip this subsection and continue with Using ifconfig and route.

If all of the above fails, the network will need to be configured manually. This is not difficult at all. However, some knowledge of network terminology and basic concepts might be necessary. After reading this section, users will know what a gateway is, what a netmask serves for, how a broadcast address is formed and why systems need nameservers.

In a network, hosts are identified by their IP address (Internet Protocol address). Such an address is perceived as a combination of four numbers between 0 and 255. Well, at least when using IPv4 (IP version 4). In reality, such an IPv4 address consists of 32 bits (ones and zeros). Let's view an example:

CODE Przykład adresu IPv4

Adres IP (liczby):    192.168.0.2
Adres IP (bity):      11000000 10101000 00000000 00000010
                        -------- -------- -------- --------
                           192      168       0        2

Note
The successor of IPv4, IPv6, uses 128 bits (ones and zeros). In this section, the focus is on IPv4 addresses.

Such an IP address is unique to a host as far as all accessible networks are concerned (i.e. every host that one wants to be able to reach must have a unique IP address). In order to distinguish between hosts inside and outside a network, the IP address is divided in two parts: the network part and the host part.

The separation is written down with the netmask, a collection of ones followed by a collection of zeros. The part of the IP that can be mapped on the ones is the network-part, the other one is the host-part. As usual, the netmask can be written down as an IP address.

CODE Przykład separacji sieci i hosta

Adres IP:            192      168      0         2
                   11000000 10101000 00000000 00000010
Maska podsieci:    11111111 11111111 11111111 00000000
                      255      255     255       0
                  +--------------------------+--------+
                              Sieć              Host

Innymi słowy, 192.168.0.14 jest częścią przykładowej sieci, ale 192.168.1.2 nie.

The broadcast address is an IP address with the same network-part as the network, but with only ones as host-part. Every host on the network listens to this IP address. It is truly meant for broadcasting packets.

CODE Adres rozgłoszeniowy

Adres IP:           192      168      0         2
                 11000000 10101000 00000000 00000010
Rozgłoszeniowy:  11000000 10101000 00000000 11111111
                    192      168      0       255
                +--------------------------+--------+
                            Sieć             Host

To be able to surf on the Internet, each computer in the network must know which host shares the Internet connection. This host is called the gateway. Since it is a regular host, it has a regular IP address (for instance 192.168.0.1).

Previously we stated that every host has its own IP address. To be able to reach this host by a name (instead of an IP address) we need a service that translates a name (such as dev.gentoo.org) to an IP address (such as 64.5.62.82). Such a service is called a name service. To use such a service, the necessary name servers need to be defined in /etc/resolv.conf.

In some cases, the gateway also serves as a nameserver. Otherwise the nameservers provided by the ISP need to be entered in this file.

To summarize, the following information is needed before continuing:

Network item	Example
The system IP address	192.168.0.2
Netmask	255.255.255.0
Broadcast	192.168.0.255
Gateway	192.168.0.1
Nameserver(s)	195.130.130.5, 195.130.130.133

Using ifconfig and route

Employing tools from the sys-apps/net-tools package, setting up the network manually generally consists of three steps:

1. Assign an IP address using the ifconfig command.
2. Set up routing to the gateway using the route command.
3. Finish up by placing valid nameserver IPs in the /etc/resolv.conf file.

To assign an IP address, the IP address, broadcast address, and netmask are needed. Execute the following command, substituting ${IP_ADDR} with the target IP address, ${BROADCAST} with the target broadcast address, and ${NETMASK} with the target netmask:

root #ifconfig eth0 ${IP_ADDR} broadcast ${BROADCAST} netmask ${NETMASK} up

To configure routing using route, substitute the ${GATEWAY} value with the appropriate gateway IP address:

root #route add default gw ${GATEWAY}

Now open the /etc/resolv.conf file using a text editor:

root #nano -w /etc/resolv.conf

Fill in the nameserver(s) using the following as a template substituting ${NAMESERVER1} and ${NAMESERVER2} with nameserver IP addresses as necessary. More than one nameserver can be added:

FILE /etc/resolv.confDefault resolv.conf template

nameserver ${NAMESERVER1}
nameserver ${NAMESERVER2}

Now test the network by pinging an Internet server (like Google's 8.8.8.8 or Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1). Once connected, continue with Preparing the disks.

Introduction to block devices

Block devices

Let's take a good look at disk-oriented aspects of Gentoo Linux and Linux in general, including block devices, partitions, and Linux filesystems. Once the ins and outs of disks are understood, partitions and filesystems can be established for installation.

To begin, let's look at block devices. SCSI and Serial ATA drives are both labeled under device handles such as: /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc, etc. On more modern machines, PCI Express based NVMe solid state disks have device handles such as /dev/nvme0n1, /dev/nvme0n2, etc.

The following table will help readers determine where to find a certain type of block device on the system:

Type of device	Default device handle	Editorial notes and considerations
SATA, SAS, SCSI, or USB flash	/dev/sda	Found on hardware from roughly 2007 until the present, this device handle is perhaps the most commonly used in Linux. These types of devices can be connected via the SATA bus, SCSI, USB bus as block storage. As example, the first partition on the first SATA device is called /dev/sda1.
NVM Express (NVMe)	/dev/nvme0n1	The latest in solid state technology, NVMe drives are connected to the PCI Express bus and have the fastest transfer block speeds on the market. Systems from around 2014 and newer may have support for NVMe hardware. The first partition on the first NVMe device is called /dev/nvme0n1p1.
MMC, eMMC, and SD	/dev/mmcblk0	embedded MMC devices, SD cards, and other types of memory cards can be useful for data storage. That said, many systems may not permit booting from these types of devices. It is suggested to not use these devices for active Linux installations; rather consider using them to transfer files, which is their design goal. Alternatively they could be useful for short-term backups.

The block devices above represent an abstract interface to the disk. User programs can use these block devices to interact with the disk without worrying about whether the drives are SATA, SCSI, or something else. The program can simply address the storage on the disk as a bunch of contiguous, randomly-accessible 4096-byte (4K) blocks.

Partitions

Although it is theoretically possible to use the entire disk to house a Linux system, this is almost never done in practice. Instead, full disk block devices are split up in smaller, more manageable block devices. These are known as partitions or slices.

The first partition on the first SCSI disk is /dev/sda1, the second /dev/sda2 and so on.

The third partition on Sun systems is set aside as a special "whole disk" slice. This partition must not contain a file system.

Users who are used to the DOS partitioning scheme should note that Sun disklabels do not have "primary" and "extended" partitions. Instead, up to eight partitions are available per drive, with the third of these being reserved.

Designing a partition scheme

How many partitions and how big?

The design of disk partition layout is highly dependent on the demands of the system and the file system(s) applied to the device. If there are lots of users, then it is advised to have /home on a separate partition which will increase security and make backups and other types of maintenance easier. If Gentoo is being installed to perform as a mail server, then /var should be a separate partition as all mails are stored inside the /var directory. Game servers may have a separate /opt partition since most gaming server software is installed therein. The reason for these recommendations is similar to the /home directory: security, backups, and maintenance.

In most situations on Gentoo, /usr and /var should be kept relatively large in size. /usr hosts the majority of applications available on the system and the Linux kernel sources (under /usr/src). By default, /var hosts the Gentoo ebuild repository (located at /var/db/repos/gentoo) which, depending on the file system, generally consumes around 650 MiB of disk space. This space estimate excludes the /var/cache/distfiles and /var/cache/binpkgs directories, which will gradually fill with source files and (optionally) binary packages respectively as they are added to the system.

How many partitions and how big very much depends on considering the trade-offs and choosing the best option for the circumstance. Separate partitions or volumes have the following advantages:

• Choose the best performing filesystem for each partition or volume.
• The entire system cannot run out of free space if one defunct tool is continuously writing files to a partition or volume.
• If necessary, file system checks are reduced in time, as multiple checks can be done in parallel (although this advantage is realized more with multiple disks than it is with multiple partitions).
• Security can be enhanced by mounting some partitions or volumes read-only, nosuid (setuid bits are ignored), noexec (executable bits are ignored), etc.

However, multiple partitions have certain disadvantages as well:

• If not configured properly, the system might have lots of free space on one partition and little free space on another.
• A separate partition for /usr/ may require the administrator to boot with an initramfs to mount the partition before other boot scripts start. Since the generation and maintenance of an initramfs is beyond the scope of this handbook, we recommend that newcomers do not use a separate partition for /usr/.
• There is also a 15-partition limit for SCSI and SATA unless the disk uses GPT labels.

Note
If you intend to uses Systemd, /usr/ must be available on boot, either as part of the root filesystem or mounted via an initramfs.

What about swap space?

There is no perfect value for swap space size. The purpose of the space is to provide disk storage to the kernel when internal memory (RAM) is under pressure. A swap space allows for the kernel to move memory pages that are not likely to be accessed soon to disk (swap or page-out), which will free memory in RAM for the current task. Of course, if the pages swapped to disk are suddenly needed, they will need to be put back in memory (page-in) which will take considerably longer than reading from RAM (as disks are very slow compared to internal memory).

When a system is not going to run memory intensive applications or has lots of RAM available, then it probably does not need much swap space. However do note in case of hibernation that swap space is used to store the entire contents of memory (likely on desktop and laptop systems rather than on server systems). If the system requires support for hibernation, then swap space larger than or equal to the amount of memory is necessary.

As a general rule, the swap space size is recommended to be twice the internal memory (RAM). For systems with multiple hard disks, it is wise to create one swap partition on each disk so that they can be utilized for parallel read/write operations. The faster a disk can swap, the faster the system will run when data in swap space must be accessed. When choosing between rotational and solid state disks, it is better for performance to put swap on the SSD. Also, swap files can be used as an alternative to swap partitions; this is mostly interesting for systems with very limited disk space.

Default partition scheme

The table below suggests a suitable starting point for most systems. Note that this is only an example, so feel free to use different partitioning schemes.

Note
A separate /boot partition is generally not recommended on SPARC, as it complicates the bootloader configuration.

Partition	Filesystem	Size	Mount Point	Description
/dev/sda1	ext4	<2 GB	/	Root partition. For SPARC64 systems with OBP versions 3 or less, this must be less than 2 GB in size, and the first partition on the disk. More recent OBP versions can deal with larger root partitions and, as such, can support having /usr, /var and other locations on the same partition.
/dev/sda2	swap	512 MB	none	Swap partition. For bootstrap and certain larger compiles, at least 512 MB of RAM (including swap) is required.
/dev/sda3	none	Whole disk	none	Whole disk partition. This is required on SPARC systems.
/dev/sda4	ext4	at least 2 GB	/usr	/usr partition. Applications are installed here. By default this partition is also used for Portage data (which takes around 500 MB excluding source code).
/dev/sda5	ext4	at least 1 GB	/var	/var partition. Used for program-generated data. By default Portage uses this partition for temporary space whilst compiling. Certain larger applications such as Mozilla and LibreOffice.org can require over 1 GB of temporary space here when building.
/dev/sda6	ext4	remaining space	/home	/home partition. Used for users' home directories.

Using fdisk to partition the disk

The following parts explain how to create the example partition layout described previously, namely:

Partition	Description
/dev/sda1	/
/dev/sda2	swap
/dev/sda3	whole disk slice
/dev/sda4	/usr
/dev/sda5	/var
/dev/sda6	/home

Change the partition layout as required. Remember to keep the root partition entirely within the first 2 GB of the disk for older systems. There is also a 15-partition limit for SCSI and SATA.

Firing up fdisk

Start fdisk with the disk as argument:

root #fdisk /dev/sda

Command (m for help):

To view the available partitions, type in p:

Command (m for help):p

Disk /dev/sda (Sun disk label): 64 heads, 32 sectors, 8635 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 bytes
  
   Device Flag    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1             0       488    499712   83  Linux native
/dev/sda2           488       976    499712   82  Linux swap
/dev/sda3             0      8635   8842240    5  Whole disk
/dev/sda4           976      1953   1000448   83  Linux native
/dev/sda5          1953      2144    195584   83  Linux native
/dev/sda6          2144      8635   6646784   83  Linux native

Note the Sun disk label in the output. If this is missing, the disk is using the DOS-partitioning, not the Sun partitioning. In this case, use s to ensure that the disk has a Sun partition table:

Command (m for help):s

Building a new sun disklabel. Changes will remain in memory only,
until you decide to write them. After that, of course, the previous
content won't be recoverable.
  
Drive type
   ?   auto configure
   0   custom (with hardware detected defaults)
   a   Quantum ProDrive 80S
   b   Quantum ProDrive 105S
   c   CDC Wren IV 94171-344
   d   IBM DPES-31080
   e   IBM DORS-32160
   f   IBM DNES-318350
   g   SEAGATE ST34371
   h   SUN0104
   i   SUN0207
   j   SUN0327
   k   SUN0340
   l   SUN0424
   m   SUN0535
   n   SUN0669
   o   SUN1.0G
   p   SUN1.05
   q   SUN1.3G
   r   SUN2.1G
   s   IOMEGA Jaz
Select type (? for auto, 0 for custom): 0
Heads (1-1024, default 64): 
Using default value 64
Sectors/track (1-1024, default 32): 
Using default value 32
Cylinders (1-65535, default 8635): 
Using default value 8635
Alternate cylinders (0-65535, default 2): 
Using default value 2
Physical cylinders (0-65535, default 8637): 
Using default value 8637
Rotation speed (rpm) (1-100000, default 5400): 10000
Interleave factor (1-32, default 1): 
Using default value 1
Extra sectors per cylinder (0-32, default 0): 
Using default value 0

The right values can be found in the documentation of the hard disk itself. The 'auto configure' option does not usually work.

Deleting existing partitions

It's time to delete any existing partitions. To do this, type d and hit Enter. Give the partition number to delete. To delete a pre-existing /dev/sda1, type:

Command (m for help):d

Partition number (1-4): 1

Do not delete partition 3 (whole disk). This is required. If this partition does not exist, follow the "Creating a Sun Disklabel" instructions above.

After deleting all partitions except the Whole disk slice,a partition layout similar to the following should show up:

Command (m for help):p

Disk /dev/sda (Sun disk label): 64 heads, 32 sectors, 8635 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 bytes
  
   Device Flag    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda3             0      8635   8842240    5  Whole disk

Creating the root partition

Next create the root partition. To do this, type n to create a new partition, then type 1 to create the partition. When prompted for the first cylinder, hit Enter. When prompted for the last cylinder, type +512M to create a partition 512 MB in size. Make sure that the entire root partition fits within the first 2 GB of the disk. The output of these steps is as follows:

Command (m for help):n

Partition number (1-8): 1
First cylinder (0-8635): (press Enter)
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (0-8635, default 8635): +512M

When listing the partitions (through p), the following partition printout is shown:

Command (m for help):p

Disk /dev/sda (Sun disk label): 64 heads, 32 sectors, 8635 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 bytes
  
   Device Flag    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1             0       488    499712   83  Linux native
/dev/sda3             0      8635   8842240    5  Whole disk

Creating a swap partition

Next, let's create the swap partition. To do this, type n to create a new partition, then 2 to create the second partition, /dev/sda2 in our case. When prompted for the first cylinder, hit Enter. When prompted for the last cylinder, type +512M to create a partition 512 MB in size. After this, type t to set the partition type, 2 to select the partition just created and then type in 82 to set the partition type to "Linux Swap". After completing these steps, typing p should display a partition table that looks similar to this:

root #Command (m for help):

root #p

Disk /dev/sda (Sun disk label): 64 heads, 32 sectors, 8635 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 bytes
  
   Device Flag    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1             0       488    499712   83  Linux native
/dev/sda2           488       976    499712   82  Linux swap
/dev/sda3             0      8635   8842240    5  Whole disk

Creating the usr, var and home partitions

Finally, let's create the /usr, /var and /home partitions. As before, type n to create a new partition, then type 4 to create the third partition (we do not count the whole disk as being a partition), /dev/sda4 in our case. When prompted for the first cylinder, hit Enter. When prompted for the last cylinder, enter +2048M to create a partition 2 GB in size. Repeat this process for /dev/sda5 and sda6, using the desired sizes. When finished, the partition table will look similar to the following:

Command (m for help):p

Disk /dev/sda (Sun disk label): 64 heads, 32 sectors, 8635 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 bytes
  
   Device Flag    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1             0       488    499712   83  Linux native
/dev/sda2           488       976    499712   82  Linux swap
/dev/sda3             0      8635   8842240    5  Whole disk
/dev/sda4           976      1953   1000448   83  Linux native
/dev/sda5          1953      2144    195584   83  Linux native
/dev/sda6          2144      8635   6646784   83  Linux native

Save and exit

Save the partition layout and exit fdisk by typing w:

Command (m for help):w

Creating file systems

Introduction

Now that the partitions have been created, it is time to place a filesystem on them. In the next section the various file systems that Linux supports are described. Readers that already know which filesystem to use can continue with Applying a filesystem to a partition. The others should read on to learn about the available filesystems...

Filesystems

Linux supports several dozen filesystems, although many of them are only wise to deploy for specific purposes. Only certain filesystems may be found found stable on the sparc architecture - it is advised to read up on the filesystems and their support state before selecting a more experimental one for important partitions. ext4 is the recommended all-purpose all-platform filesystem.

btrfs

A next generation filesystem that provides many advanced features such as snapshotting, self-healing through checksums, transparent compression, subvolumes, and integrated RAID. Kernels prior to 5.4.y are not guaranteed to be safe to use with btrfs in production because fixes for serious issues are only present in the more recent releases of the LTS kernel branches. Filesystem corruption issues are common on older kernel branches, with anything older than 4.4.y being especially unsafe and prone to corruption. Corruption is more likely on older kernels (than 5.4.y) when compression is enabled. RAID 5/6 and quota groups unsafe on all versions of btrfs. Furthermore, btrfs can counter-intuitively fail filesystem operations with ENOSPC when df reports free space due to internal fragmentation (free space pinned by DATA + SYSTEM chunks, but needed in METADATA chunks). Additionally, a single 4K reference to a 128M extent inside btrfs can cause free space to be present, but unavailable for allocations. This can also cause btrfs to return ENOSPC when free space is reported by df. Installing sys-fs/btrfsmaintenance and configuring the scripts to run periodically can help to reduce the possibility of ENOSPC issues by rebalancing btrfs, but it will not eliminate the risk of ENOSPC when free space is present. Some workloads will never hit ENOSPC while others will. If the risk of ENOSPC in production is unacceptable, you should use something else. If using btrfs, be certain to avoid configurations known to have issues. With the exception of ENOSPC, information on the issues present in btrfs in the latest kernel branches is available at the btrfs wiki status page.

ext2

This is the tried and true Linux filesystem but doesn't have metadata journaling, which means that routine ext2 filesystem checks at startup time can be quite time-consuming. There is now quite a selection of newer-generation journaled filesystems that can be checked for consistency very quickly and are thus generally preferred over their non-journaled counterparts. Journaled filesystems prevent long delays when the system is booted and the filesystem happens to be in an inconsistent state.

ext3

The journaled version of the ext2 filesystem, providing metadata journaling for fast recovery in addition to other enhanced journaling modes like full data and ordered data journaling. It uses an HTree index that enables high performance in almost all situations. In short, ext3 is a very good and reliable filesystem.

ext4

Initially created as a fork of ext3, ext4 brings new features, performance improvements, and removal of size limits with moderate changes to the on-disk format. It can span volumes up to 1 EB and with maximum file size of 16TB. Instead of the classic ext2/3 bitmap block allocation ext4 uses extents, which improve large file performance and reduce fragmentation. Ext4 also provides more sophisticated block allocation algorithms (delayed allocation and multiblock allocation) giving the filesystem driver more ways to optimize the layout of data on the disk. Ext4 is the recommended all-purpose all-platform filesystem.

f2fs

The Flash-Friendly File System was originally created by Samsung for the use with NAND flash memory. As of Q2, 2016, this filesystem is still considered immature, but it is a decent choice when installing Gentoo to microSD cards, USB drives, or other flash-based storage devices.

JFS

IBM's high-performance journaling filesystem. JFS is a light, fast, and reliable B+tree-based filesystem with good performance in various conditions.

ReiserFS

A B+tree-based journaled filesystem that has good overall performance, especially when dealing with many tiny files at the cost of more CPU cycles. ReiserFS version 3 is included in the mainline Linux kernel, but is not recommended to be used when initially installing a Gentoo system. Newer versions of the ReiserFS filesystem exist, however they require additional patching of the mainline kernel to be utilized.

XFS

A filesystem with metadata journaling which comes with a robust feature-set and is optimized for scalability. XFS seems to be less forgiving to various hardware problems, but has been continuously upgraded to include modern features.

VFAT

Also known as FAT32, is supported by Linux but does not support standard UNIX permission settings. It is mostly used for interoperability with other operating systems (Microsoft Windows or Apple's OSX) but is also a necessity for some system bootloader firmware (like UEFI).

NTFS

This "New Technology" filesystem is the flagship filesystem of Microsoft Windows since Windows NT 3.1. Similar to vfat above it does not store UNIX permission settings or extended attributes necessary for BSD or Linux to function properly, therefore it should not be used as a root filesystem. It should only be used for interoperability with Microsoft Windows systems (note the emphasis on only).

Applying a filesystem to a partition

To create a filesystem on a partition or volume, there are user space utilities available for each possible filesystem. Click the filesystem's name in the table below for additional information on each filesystem:

Filesystem	Creation command	On minimal CD?	Package
btrfs	mkfs.btrfs	Yes	sys-fs/btrfs-progs
ext2	mkfs.ext2	Yes	sys-fs/e2fsprogs
ext3	mkfs.ext3	Yes	sys-fs/e2fsprogs
ext4	mkfs.ext4	Yes	sys-fs/e2fsprogs
f2fs	mkfs.f2fs	Yes	sys-fs/f2fs-tools
jfs	mkfs.jfs	Yes	sys-fs/jfsutils
reiserfs	mkfs.reiserfs	Yes	sys-fs/reiserfsprogs
xfs	mkfs.xfs	Yes	sys-fs/xfsprogs
vfat	mkfs.vfat	Yes	sys-fs/dosfstools
NTFS	mkfs.ntfs	Yes	sys-fs/ntfs3g

For instance, to have the root partition (/dev/sda1) as ext4 as used in the example partition structure, the following commands would be used:

root #mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1

When using ext2, ext3, or ext4 on a small partition (less than 8 GiB), then the file system must be created with the proper options to reserve enough inodes. This can be done using one of the following commands, respectively:

root #mkfs.ext2 -T small /dev/<device>

root #mkfs.ext3 -T small /dev/<device>

root #mkfs.ext4 -T small /dev/<device>

This will generally quadruple the number of inodes for a given file system as its "bytes-per-inode" reduces from one every 16kB to one every 4kB.

Now create the filesystems on the newly created partitions (or logical volumes).

Activating the swap partition

mkswap is the command that is used to initialize swap partitions:

root #mkswap /dev/sda2

To activate the swap partition, use swapon:

root #swapon /dev/sda2

Create and activate the swap with the commands mentioned above.

Mounting the root partition

Now that the partitions are initialized and are housing a filesystem, it is time to mount those partitions. Use the mount command, but don't forget to create the necessary mount directories for every partition created. As an example we mount the root partition:

root #mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/gentoo

Note
If /tmp/ needs to reside on a separate partition, be sure to change its permissions after mounting:

root #chmod 1777 /mnt/gentoo/tmp

This also holds for /var/tmp.

Later in the instructions the proc filesystem (a virtual interface with the kernel) as well as other kernel pseudo-filesystems will be mounted. But first we install the Gentoo installation files.

Installing a stage tarball

Setting the date and time

Before installing Gentoo, it is a good idea to be sure the date and time are set correctly. A mis-configured clock may lead to strange results: base system files should be extracted with accurate time stamps. In fact, due to several websites and services using encrypted communications (SSL/TLS), it might not be possible to download the installation files at all if the system clock is too far skewed!

Verify the current date and time by running the date command:

root #date

Mon Oct  3 13:16:22 PDT 2016

If the date/time displayed is wrong, update it using one of the methods below.

Note
Motherboards that do not include a Real-Time Clock (RTC) should be configured to automatically sync the system clock with a time server. This is also true for systems that do include a RTC, but have a failed battery.

Automatic

Official Gentoo installation media includes the ntpd command (available through the net-misc/ntp package). Official media includes a configuration file pointing to ntp.org time servers. It can be used to automatically sync the system clock to UTC time using a time server. Using this method requires a working network configuration and may not be available on all architectures.

Warning
Automatic time sync comes at a price. It will reveal the system's IP address and related network information to a time server (in the case of the example below ntp.org). Users with privacy concerns should be aware of this before setting the system clock using the below method.

root #ntpd -q -g

Manual

The date command can also be used to perform a manual set on the system clock. Use the MMDDhhmmYYYY syntax (Month, Day, hour, minute and Year).

UTC time is recommended for all Linux systems. Later on during the installation a timezone will be defined. This will modify the display of the clock to local time.

For instance, to set the date to October 3rd, 13:16 in the year 2016:

root #date 100313162016

Choosing a stage tarball

Multilib (32 and 64-bit)

Choosing a base tarball for the system can save a considerable amount of time later on in the installation process, specifically when it is time to choose a system profile. The selection of a stage tarball will directly impact future system configuration and can save a headache or two later on down the line. The multilib tarball uses 64-bit libraries when possible, and only falls back to the 32-bit versions when necessary for compatibility. This is an excellent option for the majority of installations because it provides a great amount of flexibility for customization in the future. Those who desire their systems to be capable of easily switching profiles should download the multilib tarball option for their respective processor architecture.

Most users should not use the 'advanced' tarballs options; they are for specific software or hardware configurations.

No-multilib (pure 64-bit)

Selecting a no-multilib tarball to be the base of the system provides a complete 64-bit operating system environment. This effectively renders the ability to switch to multilib profiles improbable, but possible. Those who are just starting out with Gentoo should not choose a no-multilib tarball unless it is absolutely necessary.

Warning
Be aware, migrating from a no-multilib to a multilib system requires an extremely well-working knowledge of Gentoo and the lower-level toolchain (it may even cause our Toolchain developers to shudder a little). It is not for the faint of heart and is beyond the scope of this guide.

OpenRC

OpenRC is a dependency-based init system (responsible for starting up system services once the kernel has booted) that maintains compatibility with the system provided init program, normally located in /sbin/init. It is Gentoo's native and original init system, but is also deployed by a few other Linux distributions and BSD systems.

OpenRC does not function as a replacement for the /sbin/init file by default and is 100% compatible with Gentoo init scripts. This means a solution can be found to run the dozens of daemons in the Gentoo ebuild repository.

For historical reasons only, this manual focusses on installation and configuration using OpenRC. Rewriting and enhancing it to also explain a Systemd installation (see below) is planned.

systemd

systemd is a modern SysV-style init and rc replacement for Linux systems. By now it is in use in a majority of Linux distributions. systemd is supported in Gentoo and works just fine; it is widely configurable. Unfortunately, the corresponding installation handbook sections to a large extent still need to be written or are work in progress.

Note
It is possible to switch a running Gentoo installation from OpenRC to systemd and back. However, this requires some effort and is outside the scope of the installation manual. Depending on what you want to use in your installation, please make sure you select the right stage tarball.

Downloading the stage tarball

Go to the Gentoo mount point where the root file system is mounted (most likely /mnt/gentoo):

root #cd /mnt/gentoo

Depending on the installation medium, the only tool necessary to download a stage tarball is a web browser.

Graphical browsers

Those using environments with fully graphical web browsers will have no problem copying a stage file URL from the main website's download section. Simply select the appropriate tab, right click the link to the stage file, then Copy Link to copy the link to the clipboard, then paste the link to the wget utility on the command-line to download the stage tarball:

root #wget <PASTED_STAGE_URL>

Command-line browsers

More traditional readers or 'old timer' Gentoo users, working exclusively from command-line may prefer using links, a non-graphical, menu-driven browser. To download a stage, surf to the Gentoo mirror list like so:

root #links https://www.gentoo.org/downloads/mirrors/

To use an HTTP proxy with links, pass on the URL with the -http-proxy option:

root #links -http-proxy proxy.server.com:8080 https://www.gentoo.org/downloads/mirrors/

Next to links there is also the lynx browser. Like links it is a non-graphical browser but it is not menu-driven.

root #lynx https://www.gentoo.org/downloads/mirrors/

If a proxy needs to be defined, export the http_proxy and/or ftp_proxy variables:

root #export http_proxy="http://proxy.server.com:port"

root #export ftp_proxy="http://proxy.server.com:port"

On the mirror list, select a mirror close by. Usually HTTP mirrors suffice, but other protocols are available as well. Move to the releases/sparc/autobuilds/ directory. There all available stage files are displayed (they might be stored within subdirectories named after the individual sub-architectures). Select one and press d to download.

After the stage file download completes, it is possible to verify the integrity and validate the contents of the stage tarball. Those interested should proceed to the next section.

Those not interested in verifying and validating the stage file can close the command-line browser by pressing q and can move directly to the Unpacking the stage tarball section.

Verifying and validating

Note
Some tarballs are being delivered via xz compression. When downloading a tarball ending in .tar.xz, be sure to adjust the tarball filename from .tar.bz2 in the following commands.

Like with the minimal installation CDs, additional downloads to verify and validate the stage file are available. Although these steps may be skipped, these files are provided for users who care about the legitimacy of the file(s) they just downloaded.

• A .CONTENTS file that contains a list of all files inside the stage tarball.
• A .DIGESTS file that contains checksums of the stage file in different algorithms.
• A .DIGESTS.asc file that, like the .DIGESTS file, contains checksums of the stage file in different algorithms, but is also cryptographically signed to ensure it is provided by the Gentoo project.

Use openssl and compare the output with the checksums provided by the .DIGESTS or .DIGESTS.asc files.

For instance, to validate the SHA512 checksum:

root #openssl dgst -r -sha512 stage3-sparc-<release>.tar.?(bz2|xz)

Another way is to use the sha512sum command:

root #sha512sum stage3-sparc-<release>.tar.?(bz2|xz)

To validate the Whirlpool checksum:

root #openssl dgst -r -whirlpool stage3-sparc-<release>.tar.?(bz2|xz)

Compare the output of these commands with the value registered in the .DIGESTS(.asc) files. The values need to match, otherwise the downloaded file might be corrupt (or the digests file is).

Just like with the ISO file, it is also possible to verify the cryptographic signature of the .DIGESTS.asc file using gpg to make sure the checksums have not been tampered with:

root #gpg --verify stage3-sparc-<release>.tar.?(bz2|xz){.DIGESTS.asc,}

The fingerprints of the OpenPGP keys used for signing release media can be found on the release media signatures page of the Gentoo webserver.

Unpacking the stage tarball

Now unpack the downloaded stage onto the system. We use tar to proceed:

root #tar xpvf stage3-*.tar.xz --xattrs-include='*.*' --numeric-owner

Make sure that the same options (xpf and --xattrs-include='*.*') are used. The x stands for extract, the p for preserve permissions and the f to denote that we want to extract a file (not standard input). --xattrs-include='*.*' is to include preservation of the the extended attributes in all namespaces stored in the archive. Finally, --numeric-owner is used to ensure that the user and group IDs of the files being extracted from the tarball will remain the same as Gentoo's release engineering team intended (even if adventurous users are not using official Gentoo installation media).

Now that the stage file is unpacked, proceed with Configuring the compile options.

Configuring compile options

Introduction

To optimize Gentoo, it is possible to set a couple of variables which impacts the behavior of Portage, Gentoo's officially supported package manager. All those variables can be set as environment variables (using export) but that isn't permanent. To keep the settings, Portage reads in the /etc/portage/make.conf file, a configuration file for Portage.

Note
A commented listing of all possible variables can be found in /mnt/gentoo/usr/share/portage/config/make.conf.example. For a successful Gentoo installation only the variables that are mentioned below need to be set.

Fire up an editor (in this guide we use nano) to alter the optimization variables we will discuss hereafter.

root #nano -w /mnt/gentoo/etc/portage/make.conf

From the make.conf.example file it is obvious how the file should be structured: commented lines start with "#", other lines define variables using the VARIABLE="content" syntax. Several of those variables are discussed next.

CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS

The CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS variables define the optimization flags for GCC C and C++ compilers respectively. Although those are defined generally here, for maximum performance one would need to optimize these flags for each program separately. The reason for this is because every program is different. However, this is not manageable, hence the definition of these flags in the make.conf file.

In make.conf one should define the optimization flags that will make the system the most responsive generally. Don't place experimental settings in this variable; too much optimization can make programs behave bad (crash, or even worse, malfunction).

We will not explain all possible optimization options. To understand them all, read the GNU Online Manual(s) or the gcc info page (info gcc - only works on a working Linux system). The make.conf.example file itself also contains lots of examples and information; don't forget to read it too.

A first setting is the -march= or -mtune= flag, which specifies the name of the target architecture. Possible options are described in the make.conf.example file (as comments). A commonly used value is native as that tells the compiler to select the target architecture of the current system (the one users are installing Gentoo on).

A second one is the -O flag (that is a capital O, not a zero), which specifies the gcc optimization class flag. Possible classes are s (for size-optimized), 0 (zero - for no optimizations), 1, 2 or even 3 for more speed-optimization flags (every class has the same flags as the one before, plus some extras). -O2 is the recommended default. -O3 is known to cause problems when used system-wide, so we recommend to stick to -O2.

Another popular optimization flag is -pipe (use pipes rather than temporary files for communication between the various stages of compilation). It has no impact on the generated code, but uses more memory. On systems with low memory, gcc might get killed. In that case, do not use this flag.

Using -fomit-frame-pointer (which doesn't keep the frame pointer in a register for functions that don't need one) might have serious repercussions on the debugging of applications.

When the CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS variables are defined, combine the several optimization flags in one string. The default values contained in the stage3 archive that is unpacked should be good enough. The following one is just an example:

CODE Example CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS variables

# Compiler flags to set for all languages
COMMON_FLAGS="-O2 -mcpu=ultrasparc -pipe"
# Use the same settings for both variables
CFLAGS="${COMMON_FLAGS}"
CXXFLAGS="${COMMON_FLAGS}"

Tip
Although the GCC optimization article has more information on how the various compilation options can affect a system, the Safe CFLAGS article may be a more practical place for beginners to start optimizing their systems.

MAKEOPTS

The MAKEOPTS variable defines how many parallel compilations should occur when installing a package. A good choice is the number of CPUs (or CPU cores) in the system plus one, but this guideline isn't always perfect.

Warning
Using a large number of jobs can significantly impact memory consumption. A good recommendation is to have at least 2 GiB of RAM for every job specified (so, e.g. -j6 requires at least 12 GiB). To avoid running out of memory, lower the number of jobs to fit the available memory.

Tip
When using parallel emerges (--jobs), the effective number of jobs run can grow exponentially (up to make jobs multiplied by emerge jobs). This can be worked around by running a localhost-only distcc configuration that will limit the number of compiler instances per host.

CODE Example MAKEOPTS declaration in make.conf

MAKEOPTS="-j2"

Ready, set, go!

Update the /mnt/gentoo/etc/portage/make.conf file to match personal preference and save (nano users would hit Ctrl+x).

Then continue with Installing the Gentoo base system.

Chrooting

Optional: Selecting mirrors

Distribution files

In order to download source code quickly it is recommended to select a fast mirror. Portage will look in the make.conf file for the GENTOO_MIRRORS variable and use the mirrors listed therein. It is possible to surf to the Gentoo mirror list and search for a mirror (or mirrors) that is close to the system's physical location (as those are most frequently the fastest ones). However, we provide a nice tool called mirrorselect which provides users with a nice interface to select the mirrors needed. Just navigate to the mirrors of choice and press Spacebar to select one or more mirrors.

root #mirrorselect -i -o >> /mnt/gentoo/etc/portage/make.conf

Gentoo ebuild repository

A second important step in selecting mirrors is to configure the Gentoo ebuild repository via the /etc/portage/repos.conf/gentoo.conf file. This file contains the sync information needed to update the package repository (the collection of ebuilds and related files containing all the information Portage needs to download and install software packages).

Configuring the repository can be done in a few simple steps. First, if it does not exist, create the repos.conf directory:

root #mkdir --parents /mnt/gentoo/etc/portage/repos.conf

Next, copy the Gentoo repository configuration file provided by Portage to the (newly created) repos.conf directory:

root #cp /mnt/gentoo/usr/share/portage/config/repos.conf /mnt/gentoo/etc/portage/repos.conf/gentoo.conf

Take a peek with a text editor or by using the cat command. The inside of the file should be in .ini format and look like this:

FILE /mnt/gentoo/etc/portage/repos.conf/gentoo.conf

[DEFAULT]
main-repo = gentoo
 
[gentoo]
location = /var/db/repos/gentoo
sync-type = rsync
sync-uri = rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage
auto-sync = yes
sync-rsync-verify-jobs = 1
sync-rsync-verify-metamanifest = yes
sync-rsync-verify-max-age = 24
sync-openpgp-key-path = /usr/share/openpgp-keys/gentoo-release.asc
sync-openpgp-key-refresh-retry-count = 40
sync-openpgp-key-refresh-retry-overall-timeout = 1200
sync-openpgp-key-refresh-retry-delay-exp-base = 2
sync-openpgp-key-refresh-retry-delay-max = 60
sync-openpgp-key-refresh-retry-delay-mult = 4

The default sync-uri variable value listed above will determine a mirror location based on a rotation. This will aid in easing bandwidth stress on Gentoo's infrastructure and will provide a fail-safe in case a specific mirror is offline. It is recommended the default URI is retained unless a local, private Portage mirror will be used.

Tip
For those interested, the official specification for Portage's plug-in sync API can be found in the Portage project's Sync article.

Copy DNS info

One thing still remains to be done before entering the new environment and that is copying over the DNS information in /etc/resolv.conf. This needs to be done to ensure that networking still works even after entering the new environment. /etc/resolv.conf contains the name servers for the network.

To copy this information, it is recommended to pass the --dereference option to the cp command. This ensures that, if /etc/resolv.conf is a symbolic link, that the link's target file is copied instead of the symbolic link itself. Otherwise in the new environment the symbolic link would point to a non-existing file (as the link's target is most likely not available inside the new environment).

root #cp --dereference /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/gentoo/etc/

Mounting the necessary filesystems

In a few moments, the Linux root will be changed towards the new location. To make sure that the new environment works properly, certain filesystems need to be made available there as well.

The filesystems that need to be made available are:

• /proc/ which is a pseudo-filesystem (it looks like regular files, but is actually generated on-the-fly) from which the Linux kernel exposes information to the environment
• /sys/ which is a pseudo-filesystem, like /proc/ which it was once meant to replace, and is more structured than /proc/
• /dev/ is a regular file system, partially managed by the Linux device manager (usually udev), which contains all device files
• /run/ is a temporary file system used for files generated at runtime, such as PID files or locks

The /proc/ location will be mounted on /mnt/gentoo/proc/ whereas the others are bind-mounted. The latter means that, for instance, /mnt/gentoo/sys/ will actually be /sys/ (it is just a second entry point to the same filesystem) whereas /mnt/gentoo/proc/ is a new mount (instance so to speak) of the filesystem.

root #mount --types proc /proc /mnt/gentoo/proc

root #mount --rbind /sys /mnt/gentoo/sys

root #mount --make-rslave /mnt/gentoo/sys

root #mount --rbind /dev /mnt/gentoo/dev

root #mount --make-rslave /mnt/gentoo/dev

root #mount --bind /run /mnt/gentoo/run

root #mount --make-slave /mnt/gentoo/run

Note
The --make-rslave operations are needed for systemd support later in the installation.

Warning
When using non-Gentoo installation media, this might not be sufficient. Some distributions make /dev/shm a symbolic link to /run/shm/ which, after the chroot, becomes invalid. Making /dev/shm/ a proper tmpfs mount up front can fix this:

root #test -L /dev/shm && rm /dev/shm && mkdir /dev/shm

root #mount --types tmpfs --options nosuid,nodev,noexec shm /dev/shm

Also ensure that mode 1777 is set:

root #chmod 1777 /dev/shm /run/shm

Entering the new environment

Now that all partitions are initialized and the base environment installed, it is time to enter the new installation environment by chrooting into it. This means that the session will change its root (most top-level location that can be accessed) from the current installation environment (installation CD or other installation medium) to the installation system (namely the initialized partitions). Hence the name, change root or chroot.

This chrooting is done in three steps:

1. The root location is changed from / (on the installation medium) to /mnt/gentoo/ (on the partitions) using chroot
2. Some settings (those in /etc/profile) are reloaded in memory using the source command
3. The primary prompt is changed to help us remember that this session is inside a chroot environment.

root #chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash

root #source /etc/profile

root #export PS1="(chroot) ${PS1}"

From this point, all actions performed are immediately on the new Gentoo Linux environment. Of course it is far from finished, which is why the installation still has some sections left!

Tip
If the Gentoo installation is interrupted anywhere after this point, it should be possible to 'resume' the installation at this step. There is no need to repartition the disks again! Simply mount the root partition and run the steps above starting with copying the DNS info to re-enter the working environment. This is also useful for fixing bootloader issues. More information can be found in the chroot article.

Configuring Portage

Installing a Gentoo ebuild repository snapshot from the web

Next step is to install a snapshot of the Gentoo ebuild repository. This snapshot contains a collection of files that informs Portage about available software titles (for installation), which profiles the system administrator can select, package or profile specific news items, etc.

The use of emerge-webrsync is recommended for those who are behind restrictive firewalls (it uses HTTP/FTP protocols for downloading the snapshot) and saves network bandwidth. Readers who have no network or bandwidth restrictions can happily skip down to the next section.

This will fetch the latest snapshot (which is released on a daily basis) from one of Gentoo's mirrors and install it onto the system:

root #emerge-webrsync

Note
During this operation, emerge-webrsync might complain about a missing /var/db/repos/gentoo/ location. This is to be expected and nothing to worry about - the tool will create the location.

From this point onward, Portage might mention that certain updates are recommended to be executed. This is because system packages installed through the stage file might have newer versions available; Portage is now aware of new packages because of the repository snapshot. Package updates can be safely ignored for now; updates can be delayed until after the Gentoo installation has finished.

Opcjonalne: Aktualizowanie repozytorium Gentoo

It is possible to update the Gentoo ebuild repository to the latest version. The previous emerge-webrsync command will have installed a very recent snapshot (usually recent up to 24h) so this step is definitely optional.

Suppose there is a need for the last package updates (up to 1 hour), then use emerge --sync. This command will use the rsync protocol to update the Gentoo ebuild repository (which was fetched earlier on through emerge-webrsync) to the latest state.

root #emerge --sync

On slow terminals, like some framebuffers or serial consoles, it is recommended to use the --quiet option to speed up the process:

root #emerge --sync --quiet

Reading news items

When the Gentoo ebuild repository is synchronized, Portage may output informational messages similar to the following:

* IMPORTANT: 2 news items need reading for repository 'gentoo'.

* Use eselect news to read news items.

News items were created to provide a communication medium to push critical messages to users via the Gentoo ebuild repository. To manage them, use eselect news. The eselect application is a Gentoo-specific utility that allows for a common management interface for system administration. In this case, eselect is asked to use its news module.

For the news module, three operations are most used:

• With list an overview of the available news items is displayed.
• With read the news items can be read.
• With purge news items can be removed once they have been read and will not be reread anymore.

root #eselect news list

root #eselect news read

More information about the news reader is available through its manual page:

root #man news.eselect

Choosing the right profile

A profile is a building block for any Gentoo system. Not only does it specify default values for USE, CFLAGS, and other important variables, it also locks the system to a certain range of package versions. These settings are all maintained by Gentoo's Portage developers.

To see what profile the system is currently using, run eselect using the profile module:

root #eselect profile list

Available profile symlink targets:
  [1]   default/linux/sparc/ *
  [2]   default/linux/sparc//desktop
  [3]   default/linux/sparc//desktop/gnome
  [4]   default/linux/sparc//desktop/kde

Note
The output of the command is just an example and evolves over time.

Note
When using systemd, please make sure the profile name contains systemd. Otherwise, please make sure the profile name does not contain systemd.

As can be seen, there are also desktop subprofiles available for some architectures.

Warning
Profile upgrades are not to be taken lightly. When selecting the initial profile, make sure to use profile corresponding to the same version as the one initially used by stage3 (e.g. ). Each new profile version is announced through a news item containing migration instructions. Make sure to read it and follow them before switching to a newer profile.

After viewing the available profiles for the sparc architecture, users can select a different profile for the system:

root #eselect profile set 2

Note
The developer subprofile is specifically for Gentoo Linux development and is not meant to be used by casual users.

Updating the @world set

At this point, it is wise to update the system's @world set so that a base can be established.

This following step is necessary so the system can apply any updates or USE flag changes which have appeared since the stage3 was built and from any profile selection:

root #emerge --ask --verbose --update --deep --newuse @world

Tip
If a full scale desktop environment profile has been selected this process could greatly extend the amount of time necessary for the install process. Those in a time crunch can work by this 'rule of thumb': the shorter the profile name, the less specific the system's @world set; the less specific the @world set, the fewer packages the system will require. In other words:

• Selecting default/linux/amd64/ will require very few packages to be updated, whereas
• Selecting default/linux/amd64//desktop/gnome/systemd will require many packages to be installed since the init system is changing from OpenRC to systemd, and the GNOME desktop environment framework will be installed.

Configuring the USE variable

USE is one of the most powerful variables Gentoo provides to its users. Several programs can be compiled with or without optional support for certain items. For instance, some programs can be compiled with support for GTK+ or with support for Qt. Others can be compiled with or without SSL support. Some programs can even be compiled with framebuffer support (svgalib) instead of X11 support (X-server).

Most distributions compile their packages with support for as much as possible, increasing the size of the programs and startup time, not to mention an enormous amount of dependencies. With Gentoo users can define what options a package should be compiled with. This is where USE comes into play.

In the USE variable users define keywords which are mapped onto compile-options. For instance, ssl will compile SSL support in the programs that support it. -X will remove X-server support (note the minus sign in front). gnome gtk -kde -qt5 will compile programs with GNOME (and GTK+) support, and not with KDE (and Qt) support, making the system fully tweaked for GNOME (if the architecture supports it).

The default USE settings are placed in the make.defaults files of the Gentoo profile used by the system. Gentoo uses a (complex) inheritance system for its profiles, which we will not dive into at this stage. The easiest way to check the currently active USE settings is to run emerge --info and select the line that starts with USE:

root #emerge --info | grep ^USE

USE="X acl alsa amd64 berkdb bindist bzip2 cli cracklib crypt cxx dri ..."

Note
The above example is truncated, the actual list of USE values is much, much larger.

A full description on the available USE flags can be found on the system in /var/db/repos/gentoo/profiles/use.desc.

root #less /var/db/repos/gentoo/profiles/use.desc

Inside the less command, scrolling can be done using the ↑ and ↓ keys, and exited by pressing q.

As an example we show a USE setting for a KDE-based system with DVD, ALSA, and CD recording support:

root #nano -w /etc/portage/make.conf

FILE /etc/portage/make.confEnabling flags for a KDE/Plasma-based system with DVD, ALSA, and CD recording support

USE="-gtk -gnome qt5 kde dvd alsa cdr"

When a USE value is defined in /etc/portage/make.conf it is added to the system's USE flag list. USE flags can be globally removed by adding a - minus sign in front of the value in the the list. For example, to disable support for X graphical environments, -X can be set:

FILE /etc/portage/make.confIgnoring default USE flags

USE="-X acl alsa"

Warning
Although possible, setting -* (which will disable all USE values except the ones specified in make.conf) is strongly discouraged and unwise. Ebuild developers choose certain default USE flag values in ebuilds in order to prevent conflicts, enhance security, and avoid errors, and other reasons. Disabling all USE flags will negate default behavior and may cause major issues.

Optional: Configuring the ACCEPT_LICENSE variable

All of the Gentoo packages are tagged with the license(s) the package falls under. This allows users to select software by specific licenses or groups of licenses prior to installing it.

Important
The LICENSE variable in an ebuild is only a guideline for Gentoo developers and users. It is not a legal statement, and there is no guarantee that it will reflect reality. So don't rely on it, but check the package itself in depth, including all files that you use.

Portage uses the ACCEPT_LICENSE variable to determine which packages to allow without prompting the user for the licenses previously accepted. Exceptions can be made per-package in /etc/portage/package.license as well.

The license groups defined in the Gentoo repository, managed by the Gentoo Licenses project, are:

Group Name	Description
@GPL-COMPATIBLE	GPL compatible licenses approved by the Free Software Foundation
@FSF-APPROVED	Free software licenses approved by the FSF (includes @GPL-COMPATIBLE)
@OSI-APPROVED	Licenses approved by the Open Source Initiative
@MISC-FREE	Misc licenses that are probably free software, i.e. follow the Free Software Definition but are not approved by either FSF or OSI
@FREE-SOFTWARE	Combines @FSF-APPROVED, @OSI-APPROVED and @MISC-FREE
@FSF-APPROVED-OTHER	FSF-approved licenses for "free documentation" and "works of practical use besides software and documentation" (including fonts)
@MISC-FREE-DOCS	Misc licenses for free documents and other works (including fonts) that follow the free definition but are NOT listed in @FSF-APPROVED-OTHER
@FREE-DOCUMENTS	Combines @FSF-APPROVED-OTHER and @MISC-FREE-DOCS
@FREE	Metaset of all licenses with the freedom to use, share, modify and share modifications. Combines @FREE-SOFTWARE and @FREE-DOCUMENTS
@BINARY-REDISTRIBUTABLE	Licenses that at least permit free redistribution of the software in binary form. Includes @FREE
@EULA	License agreements that try to take away your rights. These are more restrictive than "all-rights-reserved" or require explicit approval

Gentoo comes with a predefined value in the profiles, for example:

user $portageq envvar ACCEPT_LICENSE

@FREE

This can be customized system wide by changing /etc/portage/make.conf. The default value will only accept licenses that are explicitly approved by the Free Software Foundation, the Open Source Initiative, or that follow the Free Software Definition:

FILE /etc/portage/make.confCustomizing ACCEPT_LICENSE

ACCEPT_LICENSE="-* @FREE"

Per package overrides can then be added if necessary and desired, for example:

FILE /etc/portage/package.license/kernelSample license acceptance

app-arch/unrar unRAR
sys-kernel/linux-firmware @BINARY-REDISTRIBUTABLE
sys-firmware/intel-microcode intel-ucode

Timezone

Select the timezone for the system. Look for the available timezones in /usr/share/zoneinfo/:

root #ls /usr/share/zoneinfo

Suppose the timezone of choice is Europe/Brussels.

OpenRC

We write the timezone name into the /etc/timezone file.

root #echo "Europe/Brussels" > /etc/timezone

Please avoid the /usr/share/zoneinfo/Etc/GMT* timezones as their names do not indicate the expected zones. For instance, GMT-8 is in fact GMT+8.

Next, reconfigure the sys-libs/timezone-data package, which will update the /etc/localtime file for us, based on the /etc/timezone entry. The /etc/localtime file is used by the system C library to know the timezone the system is in.

root #emerge --config sys-libs/timezone-data

systemd

A slightly different approach is employed when using systemd. A symbolic link is generated:

root #ln -sf ../usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Brussels /etc/localtime

Later, when systemd is running, the timezone and related settings can be configured with the timedatectl command.

Configure locales

Note
This step does not apply to users of the musl libc. Users who do not know what that means should perform this step.

Locale generation

Most users will want to use only one or two locales on their system.

Locales specify not only the language that the user should use to interact with the system, but also the rules for sorting strings, displaying dates and times, etc. Locales are case sensitive and must be represented exactly as described. A full listing of available locales can be found in the /usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED file.

Supported system locales must be defined in the /etc/locale.gen file.

root #nano -w /etc/locale.gen

The following locales are an example to get both English (United States) and German (Germany/Deutchland) with the accompanying character formats (like UTF-8).

FILE /etc/locale.genEnabling US and DE locales with the appropriate character formats

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

Warning
We strongly suggest adding at least one UTF-8 locale because many applications may require it to build properly.

The next step is to run the locale-gen command. This command generates all locales specified in the /etc/locale.gen file.

root #locale-gen

To verify that the selected locales are now available, run locale -a.

Locale selection

Once done, it is now time to set the system-wide locale settings. Again we use eselect for this, now with the locale module.

With eselect locale list, the available targets are displayed:

root #eselect locale list

Available targets for the LANG variable:
  [1]  C
  [2]  C.utf8
  [3]  en_US
  [4]  en_US.iso88591
  [5]  en_US.utf8
  [6]  de_DE
  [7]  de_DE.iso88591
  [8]  de_DE.iso885915
  [9]  de_DE.utf8
  [10] POSIX
  [ ]  (free form)

With eselect locale set <NUMBER> the correct locale can be selected:

root #eselect locale set 9

Manually, this can still be accomplished through the /etc/env.d/02locale file and for Systemd the /etc/locale.conf file:

FILE /etc/env.d/02localeManually setting system locale definitions

LANG="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="C.UTF-8"

Setting the locale will avoid warnings and errors during kernel and software compilations later in the installation.

Now reload the environment:

root #env-update && source /etc/profile && export PS1="(chroot) ${PS1}"

A full Localization guide to provide additional guidance through the locale selection process. Another interesting article is the UTF-8 guide for very specific information to enable UTF-8 on the system.

Optional: Installing firmware and/or microcode

Before getting to configuring kernel sections, it is beneficial to be aware that some devices require additional firmware to be installed on the system before they will operate correctly. This is often the case for network interfaces, especially wireless network interfaces commonly used in both desktop and laptop computers. Modern video chips from vendors like AMD, Nvidia, and Intel, often need external firmware files to be fully functional. Most firmware for modern hardware is available in the sys-kernel/linux-firmware package. On systems using graphics cards from these vendors, it is wise to emerge this firmware package in order to have it available before configuring and compiling the kernel.

root #emerge --ask sys-kernel/linux-firmware

In addition to discrete graphics hardware and network interfaces, CPUs also can require firmware updates. Typically this kind of firmware is referred to as microcode. Newer revisions of microcode are sometimes necessary to patch instability, security concerns, or other bugs in CPU hardware.

Microcode updates for AMD CPUs are typically distributed with the aforementioned linux-firmware package. Microcode for Intel CPUs can be found in the sys-firmware/intel-microcode package, which will need to be installed separately. See the Microcode article for more information on how to apply microcode updates.

Kernel configuration and compilation

Now it is time to configure and compile the kernel sources. There are three approaches for this:

1. The kernel is manually configured and built.
2. A tool called genkernel is used to automatically build and install the Linux kernel.
3. A Distribution Kernel is used to automatically build and install the Linux kernel like any other package.

Manual configuration is explained as the default choice since it is the best way to optimize an environment.

The core around which all distributions are built is the Linux kernel. It is the layer between the user programs and the system hardware. Gentoo provides its users several possible kernel sources. A full listing with description is available at the Kernel overview page.

Installing the sources

When manually installing and compiling the kernel for sparc-based systems, Gentoo recommends the sys-kernel/gentoo-sources package.

Choose an appropriate kernel source and install it using emerge:

root #emerge --ask sys-kernel/gentoo-sources

This will install the Linux kernel sources in /usr/src/ using the specific kernel version in the path. It will not create a symbolic link by itself without USE=symlink being enabled on the chosen kernel sources package.

It is conventional for a /usr/src/linux symlink to be maintained, such that it refers to whichever sources correspond with the currently running kernel. However, this symbolic link will not be created by default. An easy way to create the symbolic link is to utilize eselect's kernel module.

For further information regarding the purpose of the symlink, and how to manage it, please refer to Kernel/Upgrade.

First, list all installed kernels:

root #eselect kernel list

Available kernel symlink targets:
  [1]   linux-3.16.5-gentoo

In order to create a symbolic link called linux, use:

root #eselect kernel set 1

root #ls -l /usr/src/linux

lrwxrwxrwx    1 root   root    12 Oct 13 11:04 /usr/src/linux -> linux-3.16.5-gentoo

Manual configuration

Introduction

Manually configuring a kernel is often seen as the most difficult procedure a Linux user ever has to perform. Nothing is less true - after configuring a couple of kernels no one remembers that it was difficult!

However, one thing is true: it is vital to know the system when a kernel is configured manually. Most information can be gathered by emerging sys-apps/pciutils which contains the lspci command:

root #emerge --ask sys-apps/pciutils

Note
Inside the chroot, it is safe to ignore any pcilib warnings (like pcilib: cannot open /sys/bus/pci/devices) that lspci might throw out.

Another source of system information is to run lsmod to see what kernel modules the installation CD uses as it might provide a nice hint on what to enable.

Now go to the kernel source directory and execute make menuconfig. This will fire up menu-driven configuration screen.

root #cd /usr/src/linux

root #make menuconfig

The Linux kernel configuration has many, many sections. Let's first list some options that must be activated (otherwise Gentoo will not function, or not function properly without additional tweaks). We also have a Gentoo kernel configuration guide on the Gentoo wiki that might help out further.

Activating required options

When using sys-kernel/gentoo-sources, it is strongly recommend the Gentoo-specific configuration options be enabled. These ensure that a minimum of kernel features required for proper functioning is available:

KERNEL Enabling Gentoo-specific options

Gentoo Linux --->
  Generic Driver Options --->
    [*] Gentoo Linux support
    [*]   Linux dynamic and persistent device naming (userspace devfs) support
    [*]   Select options required by Portage features
        Support for init systems, system and service managers  --->
          [*] OpenRC, runit and other script based systems and managers
          [*] systemd

Naturally the choice in the last two lines depends on the selected init system (OpenRC vs. systemd). It does not hurt to have support for both init systems enabled.

When using sys-kernel/vanilla-sources, the additional selections for init systems will be unavailable. Enabling support is possible, but goes beyond the scope of the handbook.

Make sure that every driver that is vital to the booting of the system (such as SCSI controller, etc.) is compiled in the kernel and not as a module, otherwise the system will not be able to boot completely.

Next select the exact processor type. It is also recommended to enable MCE features (if available) so that users are able to be notified of any hardware problems. On some architectures (such as x86_64), these errors are not printed to dmesg, but to /dev/mcelog. This requires the app-admin/mcelog package.

Also select Maintain a devtmpfs file system to mount at /dev so that critical device files are already available early in the boot process (CONFIG_DEVTMPFS and CONFIG_DEVTMPFS_MOUNT):

KERNEL Enabling devtmpfs support

Device Drivers --->
  Generic Driver Options --->
    [*] Maintain a devtmpfs filesystem to mount at /dev
    [*]   Automount devtmpfs at /dev, after the kernel mounted the rootfs

Verify SCSI disk support has been activated (CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SD):

KERNEL Enabling SCSI disk support

Device Drivers --->
   SCSI device support  --->
      <*> SCSI disk support

Now go to File Systems and select support for the filesystems that will be used by the system. Do not compile the file system that is used for the root filesystem as module, otherwise the system may not be able to mount the partition. Also select Virtual memory and /proc file system. Select one or more of the following options as needed by the system (CONFIG_EXT2_FS, CONFIG_EXT3_FS, CONFIG_EXT4_FS, CONFIG_MSDOS_FS, CONFIG_VFAT_FS, CONFIG_PROC_FS, and CONFIG_TMPFS):

KERNEL Selecting necessary file systems

File systems --->
  <*> Second extended fs support
  <*> The Extended 3 (ext3) filesystem
  <*> The Extended 4 (ext4) filesystem
  <*> Reiserfs support
  <*> JFS filesystem support
  <*> XFS filesystem support
  <*> Btrfs filesystem support
  DOS/FAT/NT Filesystems  --->
    <*> MSDOS fs support
    <*> VFAT (Windows-95) fs support
 
  Pseudo Filesystems --->
    [*] /proc file system support
    [*] Tmpfs virtual memory file system support (former shm fs)

If PPPoE is used to connect to the Internet, or a dial-up modem, then enable the following options (CONFIG_PPP, CONFIG_PPP_ASYNC, and CONFIG_PPP_SYNC_TTY):

KERNEL Selecting PPPoE necessary drivers

Device Drivers --->
  Network device support --->
    <*> PPP (point-to-point protocol) support
    <*>   PPP support for async serial ports
    <*>   PPP support for sync tty ports

The two compression options won't harm but are not definitely needed, neither does the PPP over Ethernet option, that might only be used by ppp when configured to do kernel mode PPPoE.

Don't forget to include support in the kernel for the network (Ethernet or wireless) cards.

Most systems also have multiple cores at their disposal, so it is important to activate Symmetric multi-processing support (CONFIG_SMP):

KERNEL Activating SMP support

Processor type and features  --->
  [*] Symmetric multi-processing support

Note
In multi-core systems, each core counts as one processor.

If USB input devices (like keyboard or mouse) or other USB devices will be used, do not forget to enable those as well (CONFIG_HID_GENERIC and CONFIG_USB_HID, CONFIG_USB_SUPPORT, CONFIG_USB_XHCI_HCD, CONFIG_USB_EHCI_HCD, CONFIG_USB_OHCI_HCD):

KERNEL Activating USB support for input devices

Device Drivers --->
  HID support  --->
    -*- HID bus support
    <*>   Generic HID driver
    [*]   Battery level reporting for HID devices
      USB HID support  --->
        <*> USB HID transport layer
  [*] USB support  --->
    <*>     xHCI HCD (USB 3.0) support
    <*>     EHCI HCD (USB 2.0) support
    <*>     OHCI HCD (USB 1.1) support

Architecture specific options

Activate the correct bus-support:

KERNEL Activating SBUS/UPA

Console drivers --->
  Frame-buffer support --->
    [*] SBUS and UPA framebuffers             
      [*] Creator/Creator3D support     (Only for UPA slot adapter used in many Ultras)
    [*] CGsix (GX,TurboGX) support      (Only for SBUS slot adapter used in many SPARCStations)

Of course enable support for the OBP:

KERNEL Activating OBP Support

Misc Linux/SPARC drivers --->
  [*]  /dev/openprom device support

Enable SCSI-specific support:

KERNEL Activating SCSI-specific support

SCSI support --->
  SCSI low-level drivers --->
    <*> Sparc ESP Scsi Driver             (Only for SPARC ESP on-board SCSI adapter)
    <*> PTI Qlogic, ISP Driver            (Only for SBUS SCSI controllers from PTI or QLogic)
    <*> SYM53C8XX Version 2 SCSI support  (Only for Ultra 60 on-board SCSI adapter)

To support the network card, select one of the following:

KERNEL Activating networking support

Network device support --->
  Ethernet (10 or 100Mbit) --->
    <*> Sun LANCE support                   (Only for SPARCStation, older Ultra systems, and as Sbus option)
    <*> Sun Happy Meal 10/100baseT support  (Only for Ultra; also supports "qfe" quad-ethernet on PCI and Sbus)
    <*> DECchip Tulip (dc21x4x) PCI support (For some Netras, like N1)
  Ethernet (1000Mbit) --->
    <*> Broadcom Tigon3 support (Modern Netra, Sun Fire machines)

With a 4-port Ethernet machine (10/100 or 10/100/1000) the port order is different from the one used by Solaris. Use sys-apps/ethtool to check the port link status.

When using a qla2xxx disk controller, install sys-block/qla-fc-firmware and add support for loading external firmware.

KERNEL Enabling external firmware

Device Drivers  --->
   Generic Driver Options  --->
   ()  External firmware blobs to build into the kernel binary
   ()  Firmware blobs root directory

Set "External firmware blobs" to ql2200_fw.bin and "Firmware blobs root directory" to /lib/firmware/.

Compiling and installing

With the kernel configured, it is time to compile and install it. Exit the configuration and start the compilation process:

root #make && make modules_install

Note
It is possible to enable parallel builds using make -jX with X being the number of parallel tasks that the build process is allowed to launch. This is similar to the instructions about /etc/portage/make.conf earlier, with the MAKEOPTS variable.

When the kernel has finished compiling, check the size of the resulting file:

root #ls -lh arch/sparc/boot/image

-rw-r--r--    1 root     root         2.4M Oct 25 14:38 image

If the (uncompressed) size is bigger than 7.5 MB, reconfigure the kernel until it doesn't exceed these limits. One way of accomplishing this is by having most kernel drivers compiled as modules. Ignoring this can lead to a non-booting kernel.

Also, if the kernel is just a tad too big, try stripping it using the strip command:

root #strip -R .comment -R .note arch/sparc/boot/image

Finally copy the kernel image to /boot/.

root #cp arch/sparc/boot/image /boot/kernel-3.16.5-gentoo

Optional: Building an initramfs

In certain cases it is necessary to build an initramfs - an initial ram-based file system. The most common reason is when important file system locations (like /usr/ or /var/) are on separate partitions. With an initramfs, these partitions can be mounted using the tools available inside the initramfs.

Without an initramfs, there is a risk that the system will not boot properly as the tools that are responsible for mounting the file systems require information that resides on unmounted file systems. An initramfs will pull in the necessary files into an archive which is used right after the kernel boots, but before the control is handed over to the init tool. Scripts on the initramfs will then make sure that the partitions are properly mounted before the system continues booting.

Important
If using genkernel, it should be used for both building the kernel and the initramfs. When using genkernel only for generating an initramfs, it is crucial to pass --kernel-config=/path/to/kernel.config to genkernel or the generated initramfs may not work with a manually built kernel. Note that manually built kernels go beyond the scope of support for the handbook. See the kernel configuration article for more information.

To install an initramfs, install sys-kernel/dracut first, then have it generate an initramfs:

root #emerge --ask sys-kernel/dracut

root #dracut --kver=3.16.5-gentoo

The initramfs will be stored in /boot/. The resulting file can be found by simply listing the files starting with initramfs:

root #ls /boot/initramfs*

Now continue with Kernel modules.

Alternative: Using genkernel

If a manual configuration looks too daunting, then consider using genkernel. It will configure and build the kernel automatically.

genkernel works by configuring a kernel nearly identically to the way the installation CD kernel is configured. This means that when genkernel is used to build the kernel, the system will generally detect hardware it was built for support with at boot-time, just like the installation CD does. genkernel may be a useful solution for those users who may not be comfortable compiling their own kernels. Note that genkernel does not automatically generate a custom kernel configuration the hardware on which it is being run.

Now, let's see how to use genkernel. First, emerge the sys-kernel/genkernel ebuild:

root #emerge --ask sys-kernel/genkernel

Next, edit the /etc/fstab file so that the line containing /boot/ as second field has the first field pointing to the right device. If the partitioning example from the handbook is followed, then this device is most likely with the ext4 file system. This would make the entry in the file look like so:

root #nano -w /etc/fstab

FILE /etc/fstabConfiguring the /boot mountpoint

/boot	ext4	defaults	0 2

Note
Further in the Gentoo installation, /etc/fstab will be configured again. The /boot setting is needed right now as the genkernel application reads in this configuration.

Now, compile the kernel sources by running genkernel all. Be aware though, as genkernel compiles a kernel that supports almost all hardware, this compilation will take quite a while to finish!

Note
If the root partition/volume doesn't use ext4 as filesystem it might be necessary to manually configure the kernel using genkernel --menuconfig all and add support for this particular filesystem in the kernel (i.e. not as a module). Users of LVM2 will probably want to add --lvm as an argument as well.

root #genkernel all

Once genkernel completes, a kernel, full set of modules and initial ram disk (initramfs) will be created. We will use the kernel and initrd when configuring a boot loader later in this document. Write down the names of the kernel and initrd as this information is used when the boot loader configuration file is edited. The initrd will be started immediately after booting to perform hardware autodetection (just like on the installation CD) before the "real" system starts up.

root #ls /boot/vmlinu* /boot/initramfs*

Kernel modules

Configuring the modules

Note
Hardware modules are optional to be listed manually. udev will normally load all hardware modules that are detected to be connected in most cases. However, it is not harmful for automatically detected modules to be listed. Sometimes exotic hardware requires help to load their drivers.

List the modules that need to be loaded automatically in /etc/modules-load.d/*.conf files one module per line. Extra options for the modules, if necessary, should be set in /etc/modprobe.d/*.conf files.

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

root #find /lib/modules/<kernel version>/ -type f -iname '*.o' -or -iname '*.ko' | less

For instance, to automatically load the 3c59x.ko module (which is the driver for a specific 3Com network card family), edit the /etc/modules-load.d/network.conf file and enter the module name in it. The actual file name is insignificant to the loader.

root #mkdir -p /etc/modules-load.d

root #nano -w /etc/modules-load.d/network.conf

FILE /etc/modules-load.d/network.confForce loading 3c59x module

3c59x

Continue the installation with Configuring the system.

Filesystem information

About fstab

Under Linux, all partitions used by the system must be listed in /etc/fstab. This file contains the mount points of those partitions (where they are seen in the file system structure), how they should be mounted and with what special options (automatically or not, whether users can mount them or not, etc.)

Creating the fstab file

The /etc/fstab file uses a table-like syntax. Every line consists of six fields, separated by whitespace (space(s), tabs or a mixture). Each field has its own meaning:

1. The first field shows the block special device or remote filesystem to be mounted. Several kinds of device identifiers are available for block special device nodes, including paths to device files, filesystem labels and UUIDs, and partition labels and UUIDs.
2. The second field shows the mount point at which the partition should be mounted.
3. The third field shows the filesystem used by the partition.
4. The fourth field shows the mount options used by mount when it wants to mount the partition. As every filesystem has its own mount options, users are encouraged to read the mount man page (man mount) for a full listing. Multiple mount options are comma-separated.
5. The fifth field is used by dump to determine if the partition needs to be dumped or not. This can generally be left as 0 (zero).
6. The sixth field is used by fsck to determine the order in which filesystems should be checked if the system wasn't shut down properly. The root filesystem should have 1 while the rest should have 2 (or 0 if a filesystem check isn't necessary).

Important
The default /etc/fstab file provided by Gentoo is not a valid fstab file but instead more of a template.

root #nano -w /etc/fstab

In the remainder of the text, we use the default /dev/sd* block device files as partition.

Filesystem labels and UUIDs

Both MBR (BIOS) and GPT include support for filesystem labels and filesystem UUIDs. These attributes can be defined in /etc/fstab as alternatives for the mount command to use when attempting to find and mount block devices. Filesystem labels and UUIDs are identified by the LABEL and UUID prefix and can be viewed with the blkid command:

root #blkid

Warning
If the filesystem inside a partition is wiped, then the filesystem label and the UUID values will be subsequently altered or removed.

Because of uniqueness, readers that are using an MBR-style partition table are recommended to use UUIDs over labels to define mountable volumes in /etc/fstab.

Partition labels and UUIDs

Users who have gone the GPT route have a couple more 'robust' options available to define partitions in /etc/fstab. Partition labels and partition UUIDs can be used to identify the block device's individual partition(s), regardless of what filesystem has been chosen for the partition itself. Partition labels and UUIDs are identified by the PARTLABEL and PARTUUID prefixes respectively and can be viewed nicely in the terminal by running the blkid command:

root #blkid

While not always true for partition labels, using a UUID to identify a partition in fstab provides a guarantee that the bootloader will not be confused when looking for a certain volume, even if the filesystem would be changed in the future. Using the older default block device files (/dev/sd*N) for defining the partitions in fstab is risky for systems that are restarted often and have SATA block devices added and removed regularly.

The naming for block device files depends on a number of factors, including how and in what order the disks are attached to the system. They also could show up in a different order depending on which of the devices are detected by the kernel first during the early boot process. With this being stated, unless one intends to constantly fiddle with the disk ordering, using default block device files is a simple and straightforward approach.

Add the rules that match the previously decided partitioning scheme and append rules for devices such as CD-ROM drive(s), and of course, if other partitions or drives are used, for those too.

Below is a more elaborate example of an /etc/fstab file:

FILE /etc/fstabA full /etc/fstab example

/dev/sda2   none         swap    sw                   0 0
/dev/sda1   /            ext4    noatime              0 1
  
/dev/cdrom  /mnt/cdrom   auto    noauto,user          0 0

When auto is used in the third field, it makes the mount command guess what the filesystem would be. This is recommended for removable media as they can be created with one of many filesystems. The user option in the fourth field makes it possible for non-root users to mount the CD.

To improve performance, most users would want to add the noatime mount option, which results in a faster system since access times aren't registered (those are not needed generally anyway). This is also recommended for solid state drive (SSD) users, who should also enable the discard mount option (ext4 and btrfs only for now) which makes the TRIM command work.

Double-check the /etc/fstab file, save and quit to continue.

Networking information

Host and domain information

One of the choices the user has to make is name his/her PC. This seems to be quite easy, but lots of users are having difficulties finding the appropriate name for their Linux PC. To speed things up, know that the decision is not final - it can be changed afterwards. In the examples below, the hostname tux is used within the domain homenetwork.

OpenRC

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

# Set the hostname variable to the selected host name
hostname="tux"

Second, if a domain name is needed, set it in /etc/conf.d/net. This is only necessary if the ISP or network administrator says so, or if the network has a DNS server but not a DHCP server. Don't worry about DNS or domain names if the system uses DHCP for dynamic IP address allocation and network configuration.

Note
The /etc/conf.d/net file does not exist by default, so needs to be created.

root #nano -w /etc/conf.d/net

# Set the dns_domain_lo variable to the selected domain name
dns_domain_lo="homenetwork"

Note
If no domain name is configured, then users will notice they get "This is hostname.(none)" messages at their login screen. This should then be fixed by editing /etc/issue and deleting the string .\O from that file.

If a NIS domain is needed (users that do not know this will not need one), define that one too:

root #nano -w /etc/conf.d/net

# Set the nis_domain_lo variable to the selected NIS domain name
nis_domain_lo="my-nisdomain"

Note
For more information on configuring DNS and NIS, please read the examples provided in /usr/share/doc/netifrc-*/net.example.bz2 which can be read using bzless. Also, it might be interesting to install net-dns/openresolv to help manage the DNS/NIS setup.

systemd

To set the system hostname on systemd, run hostnamectl.

For setting the hostname to "tux", one would run:

root #hostnamectl hostname tux

Network

dhcpcd (any init system)

An alternative to using neticrc is dhcpcd. See Dhcpcd for more details.

To install:

root #emerge --ask net-misc/dhcpcd

To enable and then start the service on OpenRC systems:

root #rc-update add dhcpcd default

root #rc-service dhcpcd start

To enable and start the service on systemd systems:

root #systemctl enable --now dhcpcd

netifrc (primarily OpenRC)

Tip
This is one particular way of setting up the network using Netifrc on OpenRC. Other methods exist for simpler setups like Dhcpcd.

There are many options available for configuring network interfaces. This section covers a only a few methods. Choose the one which seems best suited to the setup needed.

Configuring the network

During the Gentoo Linux installation, networking was already configured. However, that was for the installation CD itself and not for the installed environment. Right now, the network configuration is made for the installed Gentoo Linux system.

Note
More detailed information about networking, including advanced topics like bonding, bridging, 802.1Q VLANs or wireless networking is covered in the Gentoo Network Configuration section.

All networking information is gathered in /etc/conf.d/net. It uses a straightforward yet perhaps not intuitive syntax. But don't fear, everything is explained below. A fully commented example that covers many different configurations is available in /usr/share/doc/netifrc-*/net.example.bz2.

First install net-misc/netifrc:

root #emerge --ask --noreplace net-misc/netifrc

DHCP is used by default. For DHCP to work, a DHCP client needs to be installed. This is described later in Installing Necessary System Tools.

If the network connection needs to be configured because of specific DHCP options or because DHCP is not used at all, then open /etc/conf.d/net:

root #nano -w /etc/conf.d/net

Set both config_eth0 and routes_eth0 to enter IP address information and routing information:

Note
This assumes that the network interface will be called eth0. This is, however, very system dependent. It is recommended to assume that the interface is named the same as the interface name when booted from the installation media if the installation media is sufficiently recent. More information can be found in Network Interface Naming.

FILE /etc/conf.d/netStatic IP definition

config_eth0="192.168.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 brd 192.168.0.255"
routes_eth0="default via 192.168.0.1"

To use DHCP, define config_eth0:

FILE /etc/conf.d/netDHCP definition

config_eth0="dhcp"

Please read /usr/share/doc/netifrc-*/net.example.bz2 for a list of all available options. Be sure to also read up on the DHCP client man page if specific DHCP options need to be set.

If the system has several network interfaces, then repeat the above steps for config_eth1, config_eth2, etc.

Now save the configuration and exit to continue.

Automatically start networking at boot

To have the network interfaces activated at boot, they need to be added to the default runlevel.

root #cd /etc/init.d

root #ln -s net.lo net.eth0

root #rc-update add net.eth0 default

If the system has several network interfaces, then the appropriate net.* files need to be created just like we did with net.eth0.

If after booting the system we find out that the assumption about the network interface name (which is currently documented as eth0) was wrong, then execute the following steps to rectify this:

1. Update the /etc/conf.d/net file with the correct interface name (like enp3s0 instead of eth0).
2. Create new symbolic link (like /etc/init.d/net.enp3s0).
3. Remove the old symbolic link (rm /etc/init.d/net.eth0).
4. Add the new one to the default runlevel.
5. Remove the old one using rc-update del net.eth0 default.

The hosts file

Next inform Linux about the network environment. This is defined in /etc/hosts and helps in resolving host names to IP addresses for hosts that aren't resolved by the nameserver.

root #nano -w /etc/hosts

FILE /etc/hostsFilling in the networking information

# This defines the current system and must be set
127.0.0.1     tux.homenetwork tux localhost
  
# Optional definition of extra systems on the network
192.168.0.5   jenny.homenetwork jenny
192.168.0.6   benny.homenetwork benny

Save and exit the editor to continue.

Optional: Get PCMCIA working

PCMCIA users should now install the sys-apps/pcmciautils package.

root #emerge --ask sys-apps/pcmciautils

System information

Root password

Set the root password using the passwd command.

root #passwd

The root Linux account is an all-powerful account, so pick a strong password. Later an additional regular user account will be created for daily operations.

Init and boot configuration

OpenRC

When using OpenRC with Gentoo, it uses /etc/rc.conf to configure the services, startup, and shutdown of a system. Open up /etc/rc.conf and enjoy all the comments in the file. Review the settings and change where needed.

root #nano -w /etc/rc.conf

Next, open /etc/conf.d/keymaps to handle keyboard configuration. Edit it to configure and select the right keyboard.

root #nano -w /etc/conf.d/keymaps

Take special care with the keymap variable. If the wrong keymap is selected, then weird results will come up when typing on the keyboard.

Finally, edit /etc/conf.d/hwclock to set the clock options. Edit it according to personal preference.

root #nano -w /etc/conf.d/hwclock

If the hardware clock is not using UTC, then it is necessary to set clock="local" in the file. Otherwise the system might show clock skew behavior.

systemd

It's recommended to run systemd-firstboot --prompt --setup-machine-id to ensure the system is setup correctly, but the necessary steps can be run individually too.

System logger

Some tools are missing from the stage3 archive because several packages provide the same functionality. It is now up to the user to choose which ones to install.

The first tool to decide on has to provide logging facilities for the system. Unix and Linux have an excellent history of logging capabilities - if needed, everything that happens on the system can be logged in log files. This happens through the system logger.

Gentoo offers several system logger utilities. A few of these include:

• app-admin/sysklogd - Offers the traditional set of system logging daemons. The default logging configuration works well out of the box which makes this package a good option for beginners.
• app-admin/syslog-ng - An advanced system logger. Requires additional configuration for anything beyond logging to one big file. More advanced users may choose this package based on its logging potential; be aware additional configuration is a necessity for any kind of smart logging.
• app-admin/metalog - A highly-configurable system logger.

Others are available through Portage as well - the number of available packages increases on a daily basis.

Tip
If sysklogd or syslog-ng are going to be used, it is recommended to install and configure logrotate afterwards as those system loggers don't provide any rotation mechanism for the log files.

Tip
systemd provides its own logging facility called the "journal". Installing a separate syslog provider is optional on systems running systemd, and may require additional configuration to have the syslog daemon read messages from the journal.

To install the system logger of choice, emerge it and have it added to the default runlevel using rc-update. The following example installs app-admin/sysklogd:

root #emerge --ask app-admin/sysklogd

root #rc-update add sysklogd default

Optional: Cron daemon

Next is the cron daemon. Although it is optional and not required for every system, it is wise to install one.

A cron daemon executes scheduled commands. It is very handy if some command needs to be executed regularly (for instance daily, weekly or monthly).

Gentoo offers several possible cron daemons, including sys-process/bcron, sys-process/dcron, sys-process/fcron, and sys-process/cronie. Installing one of them is similar to installing a system logger. The following example uses sys-process/cronie:

root #emerge --ask sys-process/cronie

root #rc-update add cronie default

If dcron is used, an additional initialization command needs to be executed:

root #crontab /etc/crontab

If fcron is used, an additional emerge step is required:

root #emerge --config sys-process/fcron

Optional: File indexing

In order to index the file system to provide faster file location capabilities, install sys-apps/mlocate.

root #emerge --ask sys-apps/mlocate

Optional: Remote access

To be able to access the system remotely after installation, add the sshd init script to the default runlevel:

root #rc-update add sshd default

If serial console access is needed (which is possible in case of remote servers), uncomment the serial console section in /etc/inittab:

root #nano -w /etc/inittab

# SERIAL CONSOLES
s0:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 9600 ttyS0 vt100
s1:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 9600 ttyS1 vt100

Filesystem tools

Depending on the filesystems used, it is necessary to install the required file system utilities (for checking the filesystem integrity, creating additional file systems etc.). Note that tools for managing ext2, ext3, or ext4 filesystems (sys-fs/e2fsprogs) are already installed as a part of the @system set.

The following table lists the tools to install if a certain filesystem is used:

Filesystem	Package
Ext2, 3, and 4	sys-fs/e2fsprogs
XFS	sys-fs/xfsprogs
ReiserFS	sys-fs/reiserfsprogs
JFS	sys-fs/jfsutils
VFAT (FAT32, ...)	sys-fs/dosfstools
Btrfs	sys-fs/btrfs-progs
ZFS	sys-fs/zfs

Tip
For more information on filesystems in Gentoo see the filesystem article.

Networking tools

If there is no need for any additional networking tools, continue immediately with the section on Configuring a bootloader.

Installing a DHCP client

Important
Although optional, the majority of users will find that they need a DHCP client to connect to the DHCP server on their network. Please take this opportunity to install a DHCP client. If this step is forgotten, then the system might not be able to get on the network thus making it impossible to download a DHCP client afterward.

In order for the system to automatically obtain an IP address for one or more network interface(s) using netifrc scripts, it is necessary to install a DHCP client. We recommend the use of net-misc/dhcpcd although many other DHCP clients are available through the Gentoo repository:

root #emerge --ask net-misc/dhcpcd

More information on dhcpcd can be found in the dhcpcd article.

Optional: Installing a PPPoE client

If PPP is used to connect to the internet, install the net-dialup/ppp package:

root #emerge --ask net-dialup/ppp

Optional: Install wireless networking tools

If the system will be connecting to wireless networks, install the net-wireless/iw package for Open or WEP networks and/or the net-wireless/wpa_supplicant package for WPA or WPA2 networks. iw is also a useful basic diagnostic tool for scanning wireless networks.

root #emerge --ask net-wireless/iw net-wireless/wpa_supplicant

Now continue with Configuring the bootloader.

Handbook:SPARC/Blocks/Bootloader/pl

Ponowne uruchomienie systemu

Wyjdź z środowiska chroot i odmontuj wszystkie zamontowane partycje. Następnie wpisz magiczne polecenie, które inicjuje ostateczny, prawdziwy test: reboot.

root #exit

cdimage ~#cd

cdimage ~#umount -l /mnt/gentoo/dev{/shm,/pts,}

cdimage ~#umount -R /mnt/gentoo

cdimage ~#reboot

Nie zapomnij usunąć medium instalacyjnego, w przeciwnym razie zamiast nowego systemu Gentoo może zostać ponownie uruchomione medium instalacyjne.

Po uruchomieniu świeżo zainstalowanego środowiska Gentoo, kontynuuj Finalizowanie instalacji Gentoo.

User administration

Adding a user for daily use

Working as root on a Unix/Linux system is dangerous and should be avoided as much as possible. Therefore it is strongly recommended to add a user for day-to-day use.

The groups the user is member of define what activities the user can perform. The following table lists a number of important groups:

Group	Description
audio	Be able to access the audio devices.
cdrom	Be able to directly access optical devices.
floppy	Be able to directly access floppy devices.
games	Be able to play games.
portage	Be able to access portage restricted resources.
usb	Be able to access USB devices.
video	Be able to access video capturing hardware and doing hardware acceleration.
wheel	Be able to use su.

For instance, to create a user called larry who is member of the wheel, users, and audio groups, log in as root first (only root can create users) and run useradd:

Login:root

Password: (Enter the root password)

root #useradd -m -G users,wheel,audio -s /bin/bash larry

root #passwd larry

Password: (Enter the password for larry)
Re-enter password: (Re-enter the password to verify)

If a user ever needs to perform some task as root, they can use su - to temporarily receive root privileges. Another way is to use the sudo package which is, if correctly configured, very secure.

Disk cleanup

Removing tarballs

With the Gentoo installation finished and the system rebooted, if everything has gone well, we can now remove the downloaded stage3 tarball from the hard disk. Remember that they were downloaded to the / directory.

root #rm /stage3-*.tar.*

Where to go from here

Documentation

Not sure where to go from here? There are many paths to explore... Gentoo provides its users with lots of possibilities and therefore has lots of documented (and less documented) features to explore here on the wiki and on other Gentoo related sub-domains (see the Gentoo online section below).

Readers should definitely take a look at the next part of the Gentoo Handbook entitled Working with Gentoo which explains how to keep the software up to date, install additional software packages, details on USE flags, the OpenRC init system, and various other informative topics relating to managing a Gentoo system post-installation.

Apart from the handbook, readers should also feel encouraged to explore other corners of the Gentoo wiki to find additional, community-provided documentation. The Gentoo wiki team also offers a documentation topic overview which lists a selection of wiki articles by category. For instance, it refers to the localization guide to make a system feel more at home (particularly useful for users who speak English as a second language).

Gentoo online

Important
Readers should note that all official Gentoo sites online are governed by Gentoo's code of conduct. Being active in the Gentoo community is a privilege, not a right, and users should be aware that the code of conduct exists for a reason.

With the exception of the Libera.Chat hosted internet relay chat (IRC) network and the mailing lists, most Gentoo websites require an account on a per site basis in order to ask questions, open a discussion, or enter a bug.

Forums and IRC

Every user is welcome on our Gentoo forums or on one of our internet relay chat channels. It is easy to search for the forums to see if an issue experienced on a fresh Gentoo install has been discovered in the past and resolved after some feedback. The likelihood of other users experiencing the installation issues by first-time Gentoo can be surprising. It is advised users search the forums and the wiki before asking for assistance in Gentoo support channels.

Mailing lists

Several mailing lists are available to the community members who prefer to ask for support or feedback over email rather than create a user account on the forums or IRC. Users will need to follow the instructions in order to subscribe to specific mailing lists.

Bugs

Sometimes after reviewing the wiki, searching the forums, and seeking support in the IRC channel or mailing lists there is no known solution to a problem. Generally this is a sign to open a bug on Gentoo's Bugzilla site.

Development guide

Readers who desire to learn more about developing Gentoo can take a look at the Development guide. This guide provides instructions on writing ebuilds, working with eclasses, and provides definitions for many general concepts behind Gentoo development.

Closing thoughts

Gentoo is a robust, flexible, and excellently maintained distribution. The developer community is happy to hear feedback on how to make Gentoo an even better distribution.

As a reminder, any feedback for this handbook should follow the guidelines detailed in the How do I improve the Handbook? section at the beginning of the handbook.

We look forward to seeing how our users will choose to implement Gentoo!