Now that your kernel is configured and compiled and the necessary system configuration files are filled in correctly, it is time to install a program that will fire up your kernel when you start the system. Such a program is called a bootloader.

If you have configured your kernel with framebuffer support (or you used genkernel's default kernel configuration), you can activate it by adding a vga and/or a video statement to your bootloader configuration file.

64-bit systems must use the the vesafb driver, and so will need to set the vga statement. The vga statement controls the resolution and color depth of your framebuffer screen for vesafb. As stated in /usr/src/linux/Documentation/fb/vesafb.txt (which gets installed when you install a kernel source package), you need to pass the VESA number corresponding to the requested resolution and color depth to it.

The following table lists the available resolutions and colordepths and matches those against the value that you need to pass on to the vga statement.

The video statement controls framebuffer display options. It needs to be given the framebuffer driver (vesafb for 2.6 kernels, or vesa for 2.4 kernels) followed by the control statements you wish to enable. All variables are listed in /usr/src/linux/Documentation/fb/vesafb.txt, but we'll inform you about three most-used options:

The result of those two statements could be something like vga=0x318 video=vesafb:mtrr,ywrap or video=vesafb:mtrr,ywrap,1024x768-32@85. Remember (or write down) this setting; you will need it shortly.

Now continue by installing GRUB.

The most critical part of understanding GRUB is getting comfortable with how GRUB refers to hard drives and partitions. Your Linux partition /dev/hda1 will most likely be called (hd0,0) under GRUB. Notice the parenthesis around the hd0,0 - they are required.

Hard drives count from zero rather than "a" and partitions start at zero rather than one. Be aware too that with the hd devices, only hard drives are counted, not atapi-ide devices such as cdrom players and burners. Also, the same construct is used with SCSI drives. (Normally they get higher numbers than IDE drives except when the BIOS is configured to boot from SCSI devices.) When you ask the BIOS to boot from a different hard disk (for instance your primary slave), that harddisk is seen as hd0.

Assuming you have a hard drive on /dev/hda, a cdrom player on /dev/hdb, a burner on /dev/hdc, a second hard drive on /dev/hdd and no SCSI hard drive, /dev/hdd7 gets translated to (hd1,6). It might sound tricky and tricky it is indeed, but as we will see, GRUB offers a tab completion mechanism that comes handy for those of you having a lot of hard drives and partitions and who are a little lost in the GRUB numbering scheme.

Having gotten the feel for that, it is time to install GRUB.

To install GRUB, let's first emerge it.

# emerge grub

Although GRUB is now installed, we still need to write up a configuration file for it and install GRUB in the MBR so that GRUB automatically boots your newly created kernel. Create /boot/grub/grub.conf with nano (or, if applicable, another editor):

# nano -w /boot/grub/grub.conf

Now we are going to write up a grub.conf. Below you'll find two possible grub.conf for the partitioning example we use in this guide, with kernel image kernel-2.6.12-gentoo-r6. We've only extensively commented the first grub.conf.

• The first grub.conf is for people who have not used genkernel to build their kernel
• The second grub.conf is for people who have used genkernel to build their kernel

# Which listing to boot as default. 0 is the first, 1 the second etc.
default 0
# How many seconds to wait before the default listing is booted.
timeout 30
# Nice, fat splash-image to spice things up :)
# Comment out if you don't have a graphics card installed
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title=Gentoo Linux 2.6.12
# Partition where the kernel image (or operating system) is located
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/kernel-2.6.12-gentoo-r6 root=/dev/hda3

# The next four lines are only if you dualboot with a Windows system.
# In this case, Windows is hosted on /dev/hda6.
title=Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,5)
makeactive
chainloader +1

default 0
timeout 30
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title=Gentoo Linux 2.6.12-gentoo-r6
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/kernel-2.6.12-gentoo-r6 root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/hda3 udev
initrd /boot/initramfs-genkernel-amd64-2.6.12-gentoo-r6

# Only in case you want to dual-boot
title=Windows XP
root (hd0,5)
makeactive
chainloader +1

If you used a different partitioning scheme and/or kernel image, adjust accordingly. However, make sure that anything that follows a GRUB-device (such as (hd0,0)) is relative to the mountpoint, not the root. In other words, (hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz is in reality /boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz since (hd0,0) is /boot.

Besides, if you chose to use a different partitioning scheme and did not put /boot in a separate partition, the /boot prefix used in the above code samples is really required. If you followed our suggested partitioning plan, the /boot prefix it not required, but a boot symlink makes it work. In short, the above examples should work whether you defined a separate /boot partition or not.

If you need to pass any additional options to the kernel, simply add them to the end of the kernel command. We're already passing one option (root=/dev/hda3 or real_root=/dev/hda3), but you can pass others as well, such as the video statement for framebuffer as we discussed previously.

genkernel users should know that their kernels use the same boot options as is used for the Installation CD. For instance, if you have SCSI devices, you should add doscsi as kernel option.

Now save the grub.conf file and exit. We still need to install GRUB in the MBR (Master Boot Record) though.

The GRUB developers recommend the use of grub-install. However, if for some reason grub-install fails to work correctly you still have the option to manually install GRUB.

Continue with Default: Setting up GRUB using grub-install or Alternative: Setting up GRUB using manual instructions.

To install GRUB you will need to issue the grub-install command. However, grub-install won't work off-the-shelf since we are inside a chrooted environment. We need to update /etc/mtab (the file with information about all mounted filesystems) first: luckily there is an easy way to accomplish this - just copy over /proc/mounts to /etc/mtab:

# cp /proc/mounts /etc/mtab

Now we can install GRUB using grub-install:

# grub-install /dev/hda

If you have more questions regarding GRUB, please consult the GRUB FAQ or the GRUB Manual.

Continue with Rebooting the System.

To start configuring GRUB, you type in grub. You'll be presented with the grub> grub command-line prompt. Now, you need to type in the right commands to install the GRUB boot record onto your hard drive.

# grub

In the example configuration we want to install GRUB so that it reads its information from the boot-partition /dev/hda1, and installs the GRUB boot record on the hard drive's MBR (master boot record) so that the first thing we see when we turn on the computer is the GRUB prompt. Of course, if you haven't followed the example configuration during the installation, change the commands accordingly.

The tab completion mechanism of GRUB can be used from within GRUB. For instance, if you type in "root (" followed by a TAB, you will be presented with a list of devices (such as hd0). If you type in "root (hd0," followed by a TAB, you will receive a list of available partitions to choose from (such as hd0,0).

By using the tab completion, setting up GRUB should be not that hard. Now go on, configure GRUB, shall we? :-)

grub> root (hd0,0)          (Specify where your /boot partition resides)
grub> setup (hd0)           (Install GRUB in the MBR)
grub> quit                  (Exit the GRUB shell)

If you have more questions regarding GRUB, please consult the GRUB FAQ or the GRUB Manual.

Continue with Rebooting the System.

Exit the chrooted environment and unmount all mounted partitions. Then type in that one magical command you have been waiting for: reboot.

# exit
# cd
# umount /mnt/gentoo/boot /mnt/gentoo/proc /mnt/gentoo
# reboot

Of course, don't forget to remove the bootable CD, otherwise the CD will be booted again instead of your new Gentoo system.

Once rebooted in your Gentoo installation, finish up with Finalizing your Gentoo Installation.