1.  Introduction

This guide contains all commands you should use to complete a stage3 installation of Gentoo. You need a connection to the Internet to download the stage3 and Portage snapshots.

New users should read the Handbook as it gives a better overview about the installation process.

Timing output follows all commands that take more than a couple of seconds to finish. Commands were timed on an AMD 2000 1.66 Ghz PC with 512 MB of RAM and two SATA disks connected to a hardware controller.

2.  Quick Install Guide

Installation Media

Download a CD from one of our mirrors. You can find the minimal CD ISO in releases/x86//installcd or the LiveCD ISO in releases/x86//livecd. The minimal installation CD is only useful for Internet-based installations. You can use the LiveCD to perform. a networkless installation as documented in the 2008.0 x86 installation handbook. The minimal CD is recommended.

Burn the CD and boot it.

Booting the CD

Press F2 at the boot screen to find out what boot options exist. You can either start gentoo or gentoo-nofb, the latter disables the framebuffer. If you booted the LiveCD, don't forget to add the nox option to prevent the X graphical environment from starting. Several options allow to enable or disable some features. If all goes well, your hardware will be detected and all modules will be loaded. If the kernel fails to boot properly or if your computer hangs during the boot procedure, you may have to experiment with different configurations. The safest way is probably to use the nodetect option and then load required modules explicitly.

Optional: loading modules

If you used the nodetect option, once booted, load the required modules. You need to enable networking and have access to your disks. The lspci command can help you identify your hardware.

Network Configuration

If your network does not work already, you can use net-setup to configure your network. You might need to load support for your network card using modprobe prior to the configuration. If you have ADSL, use pppoe-setup and pppoe-start. For PPTP support, first edit /etc/ppp/chap-secrets and /etc/ppp/options.pptp and then use pptp .

For wireless access, use iwconfig to set the wireless parameters and then use either net-setup again or run ifconfig, dhcpcd and/or route manually.

If you are behind a proxy, do not forget to initialize your system using export http_proxy, ftp_proxy and RSYNC_PROXY.

Alternatively, you can start networking manually. The following example assigns the IP address 192.168.1.10 to your PC and defines 192.168.1.1 as your router and name server.

The installation CD allows you to start an sshd server, add additional users, run irssi (a command-line chat client) and surf the web using lynx or links.

Optional: connect to your new box over ssh

The most interesting feature is of course sshd. You can start it and then connect from another machine and cut and paste commands from this guide.

Now, set the root password on the liveCD so that you can connect to it from another PC. Please note that allowing root to connect over ssh is not recommended under normal circumstances. If you can't trust your local network, use a long and complex password, you should use it only once as it will disappear after your first reboot.

Now, you can start a terminal on another PC and connect to your new box, follow the rest of this guide in another window, and cut and paste commands.

Preparing the Disks

Use fdisk or cfdisk to create your partition layout. You need at least a swap partition (type 82) and one Linux partition (type 83). The following scenario creates a /boot, a swap and a main partition as used in our handbook. Replace sda with your disk.