Gentoo Linux x86 Quick Install Guide no /dev/sda3 Steven Wagner The Quick Install guide covers the Gentoo install process in a non-verbose manner. Its purpose is to allow users to perform a stage3 install in no time. Users should already have prior experience with installing Gentoo Linux if they want to follow this guide. 28 2013-01-16 Introduction

This guide contains all the 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. The Quick Install guide is designed for experienced users who just need a checklist to follow.

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. 

(The following specs and the timing information should help you determine
a rough estimate of the time you need to complete your install)

# grep bogo /proc/cpuinfo
bogomips       : 3337.81

# hdparm -tT /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:   1100 MB in  2.00 seconds = 549.97 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  224 MB in  3.01 seconds =  74.36 MB/sec

# grep MemTotal /proc/meminfo
MemTotal:       509248 kB
Quick Install Guide
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. Most systems ignore the bootable flag, but a few need it. Set this flag on your boot partition with fdisk's a command. 

livecd ~ # fdisk /dev/sda

(The rest of this guide uses the following partitioning scheme)
livecd ~ # fdisk -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 599.9 GB, 599978409984 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 72943 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1          12       96358+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2              13         110      787185   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3             111       72943   585031072+  83  Linux

Use mkfs.ext2, mkfs.ext3, mkfs.ext4, mkreiserfs, mkfs.xfs and mkfs.jfs to create file systems on your Linux partitions. Initialize your swap partition using mkswap and swapon. 

(ext2 is all you need on the /boot partition)
livecd ~ # mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda1

(Let's use ext3 on the main partition)
livecd ~ # mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda3

(Create and activate swap)
livecd ~ # mkswap /dev/sda2 && swapon /dev/sda2

Mount the freshly created file systems on /mnt/gentoo. Create directories for the other mount points (like /mnt/gentoo/boot) if you need them and mount them too. 

livecd ~ # mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/gentoo
livecd ~ # mkdir /mnt/gentoo/boot
livecd ~ # mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/gentoo/boot
livecd ~ # cd /mnt/gentoo
Kernel Configuration

Install a kernel source (usually gentoo-sources), configure it, compile it and copy the arch/i386/boot/bzImage file to /boot. 

livecd etc # time emerge gentoo-sources

real  2m51.435s
user  0m58.220s
sys   0m29.890s
livecd etc # cd /usr/src/linux
livecd linux # make menuconfig
(Configure your kernel)
livecd linux # time make -j2

(Elapsed time depends highly on the options you selected)
real  3m51.962s
user  3m27.060s
sys   0m24.310s

livecd linux # make modules_install
livecd linux # cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/kernel

Optionally build an initramfs to boot from: 

# emerge genkernel
# genkernel --install --no-ramdisk-modules initramfs
Reboot

Exit the chrooted environment, unmount all file systems and reboot: 

livecd conf.d # exit
livecd / # umount -l /mnt/gentoo/dev{/shm,/pts,}
livecd / # umount -l /mnt/gentoo{/proc,/boot,/sys,}
livecd / # reboot
(Don't forget to remove the CD)