Project:Documentation/Overview

Welcome to the Gentoo Documentation Resources. This page will give you a quick overview on various guides and documents in this wiki that we carefully follow up on and edit where needed. The documents are structured through the category within the wiki. Of course, far from all pages in the wiki are linked here, so do try out the search functionality on this site, or browse through the categories themselves.

If you find bugs in our documentation or have proposals, please use the page' Discussion tab.

Important

Documents listed here are not necessarily created by the documentation team - community documents or project documents that are well written and managed will be included in the list as well.

Documentation overview

Core system

A full overview of all documents in this category can be found at Core system.

Page	Abstract
AMD64/FAQ	This is the Gentoo Linux/AMD64 Frequently Asked Questions
Alpha/FAQ	This FAQ is intended to answer some of the most frequently asked questions relating to Gentoo/Alpha and Linux/Alpha in general.
Genkernel	genkernel is used to automate the build process of the kernel and initramfs.
IPv6 router guide	This guide explains how to use an IPv6 setup and routing on a Gentoo Linux system.
Installation alternatives	This HOWTO is meant to be a repository of alternative Gentoo installation methods, for those with special installation needs such as lack of a cdrom or a computer that can't boot CDs.
Kernel/Configuration	This article describes the manual configuration and setup of the Linux kernel. For an authomatic method, see the genkernel article.
Kernel/Overview	This document gives you an overview on all kernel sources that Gentoo provides through Portage.
Kernel/Removal	This article describes the removal of old kernels.
Kernel/Upgrade	This article describes the steps to upgrade to a new kernel.
LILO	LILO is a simple boot loader to load Linux and other operating systems.
LVM	LVM allows administrators to create meta devices that provide an abstraction layer between a file system and the physical storage that is used underneath.
Localization/HOWTO	This guide should help users localize their Gentoo Linux distribution to any European locale. It uses Germany as a case-study, since it is translated from the German doc. Includes configuration for use of the euro currency symbol.
MIPS/FAQ	This FAQ is intended to answer some of the most frequently asked questions relating to Gentoo/MIPS and Linux/MIPS in general.
NVidia/nvidia-drivers	nvidia-drivers is the proprietary graphics driver for nVidia graphic cards. An open source alternative is nouveao.
PPC/FAQ	The Gentoo/PPC FAQ is a collection of questions and answers collected from the Gentoo/PPC mailing lists and from IRC.
Q applets	The q applets are a collection of small and fast portage helper tools written in C. This guide covers some common uses of these helper tools, also known as the app-portage/portage-utils package.
Syslinux	Syslinux is a package that contains a family of bootloaders. The package includes SYSLINUX (for FAT file systems), EXTLINUX (for Linux file systems), PXELINUX (for network PXE boot) and ISOLINUX (for CD/DVDs)
Udev	udev is the device manager for the Linux kernel. It manages device nodes in /dev and handles all user space actions when adding/removing devices.
Upgrading GCC	This document will guide the user through the process of upgrading GCC.

Hardware

A full overview of all documents in this category can be found at Hardware.

Page	Abstract
ATI FAQ	This FAQ should help users avoid some common installation and configuration issues related to DRI and X11 for AMD/ATI boards.
NVidia/nvidia-drivers	nvidia-drivers is the proprietary graphics driver for nVidia graphic cards. An open source alternative is nouveao.

Software

A full overview of all documents in this category can be found at Software.

Page	Abstract
BIND/Tutorial	This guide will teach you how install and configure BIND for your domain and your local network.
Dnsmasq	Dnsmasq is a lightweight DHCP/DNS server for small and medium sized networks.
Eselect/User guide	eselect is a modular framework for writing configuration utilities. This guide introduces the reader to the tool and its design principles.
Infrastructure/Rsync	This document explains how to set up a official rsync mirror and your own local mirror.
MySQL/First Steps	This is an introduction to MySQL and its use of databases, tables and privileges.
MySQL/Startup Guide	This document helps a user set up and use MySQL.
PostgreSQL/QuickStart	This is a quick start guide to PostgreSQL. It covers emerging PostgreSQL and configuring it. This is complementary to the official documentation, but does not supplant it.
Q applets	The q applets are a collection of small and fast portage helper tools written in C. This guide covers some common uses of these helper tools, also known as the app-portage/portage-utils package.
SSH	SSH (Secure Shell) is an encrypted terminal program that replaces the classic telnet tool on Unix-like operating systems.
Sudo	The sudo command provides a simple and secure way to configure privilege escalation, e.g. letting normal users to execute certain (or all) commands as root or some different user, possibly without giving a password.
Udev	udev is the device manager for the Linux kernel. It manages device nodes in /dev and handles all user space actions when adding/removing devices.

Desktop

A full overview of all documents in this category can be found at Desktop.

Page	Abstract
ATI FAQ	This FAQ should help users avoid some common installation and configuration issues related to DRI and X11 for AMD/ATI boards.
Fluxbox	This howto will show you how to set up the Fluxbox window manager for X11.
NVidia/nvidia-drivers	nvidia-drivers is the proprietary graphics driver for nVidia graphic cards. An open source alternative is nouveao.
Openbox/HOWTO	This guide shows you how to install the Openbox window manager, and references many potential programs to be used in conjunction with an Openbox session.
Xorg/Configuration	Xorg is the X Window server which allows users to have a graphical environment at their fingertips. This HOWTO explains what Xorg is, how to install it and what the various configuration options are.
Xorg/Hardware 3D acceleration guide	This document is a guide to getting 3D acceleration working using the DRM with Xorg in Gentoo Linux.

Server and security

A full overview of all documents in this category can be found at Server & Security.

Page	Abstract
AIDE	AIDE stands for Advanced Intrusion Detection Environment and is an application that scans files and other resources and stores information about these files in a database. Rescanning the system can then identify (possibly unwanted) modifications and report those.
Apache	The Apache HTTP Server is an efficient and extensible web server and one of the most popular ones used on the Internet.
BIND/Tutorial	This guide will teach you how install and configure BIND for your domain and your local network.
Centralized authentication using OpenLDAP	This guide introduces the basics of LDAP and shows you how to setup OpenLDAP for authentication purposes between a group of Gentoo boxes.
GNOME/Configuration	A frequently used environment is GNOME. This HOWTO tries to describe all aspects of GNOME, including installation, configuration, usage, ...
Gentoo installation tips and tricks	The Gentoo installation allows for very flexible approaches to the various installation methods. As it is almost impossible to insert every single tip or trick in the installation instructions this document tries to deal with all submitted tips and tricks for reference purposes.
GnuPG	This small guide will teach you the basics of using GnuPG, a tool for secure communication.
Hardened/FAQ	Frequently Asked Questions that arise on the #gentoo-hardened IRC channel and the gentoo-hardened mailing list.
Hardened/Introduction to Hardened Gentoo	This guide is meant for anyone unsure about the offerings of the Hardened Gentoo project, how to use them together, and what their respective roles in the project are.
Home Router	This document details how to turn an old Gentoo machine into a router for connecting your home network to the internet.
Kernel/Gentoo Kernel Configuration Guide	This document aims to introduce the concepts of manual kernel configuration, and to detail some of the most common configuration pitfalls.
Keychain	This document describes how to use SSH shared keys along with the keychain program. It assumes basic knowledge of public key cryptography.
Mailfiltering Gateway	This guide is step-by-step guide for installing spam fighting technologies for Postfix. Among them Amavisd-new using Spamassassin and ClamAV, greylisting and SPF.
Mutt	This guide shows you how to begin using the powerful command line e-mail client mutt.
MySQL/First Steps	This is an introduction to MySQL and its use of databases, tables and privileges.
Nginx	nginx is a robust, small and high performance web server and reverse proxy server.
OpenRC/Baselayout 1 to 2 migration	This guide shows you how to migrate from baselayout-1 to baselayout-2 and OpenRC.
Puppet	Puppet is a configuration management system written in Ruby. It can be used for automating machine deployments.
SSH	SSH (Secure Shell) is an encrypted terminal program that replaces the classic telnet tool on Unix-like operating systems.
Sparc/FAQ	This FAQ is designed to help answer the most commonly asked questions about Gentoo/SPARC and Linux on SPARC architecture. Feel free to send revisions and corrections to the Gentoo/SPARC team or the doc team.
Sparc/Netboot	Guide for setting up a netboot server for use with the Gentoo/SPARC netboot installation images.
Sparc/OBP Reference	The OpenBoot PROM (OBP) Reference provides a list of useful OBP commands that can help when booting, configuring and performing diagnostics upon Sun SPARC hardware and clones.
Upgrading Gentoo	This document explains how new Gentoo releases affect existing installs.

Project and community

A full overview of all documents in this category can be found at Project & Community.

Page	Abstract
Eselect/User guide	eselect is a modular framework for writing configuration utilities. This guide introduces the reader to the tool and its design principles.
Porting	A howto for porting Gentoo to new/alternative platforms

Gentoo.org guides

The previous documentation list, in so far the documents have not been moved to the wiki yet, can still be found on the gentoo.org site.