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

For alpha-based systems we have gentoo-sources (the default 2.6 kernel source).

# emerge gentoo-sources

When you take a look in /usr/src you should see a symlink called linux pointing to your kernel source. In this case, the installed kernel source points to gentoo-sources-. Your version may be different, so keep this in mind.

# ls -l /usr/src/linux
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           12 Oct 13 11:04 /usr/src/linux -> linux-

Now it is time to configure and compile your kernel source. You can use genkernel for this, which will build a generic kernel as used by the Installation CD. We explain the "manual" configuration first though, as it is the best way to optimize your environment.

If you want to manually configure your kernel, continue now with Default: Manual Configuration. If you want to use genkernel you should read Alternative: Using genkernel instead.

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 you don't even remember that it was difficult ;)

However, one thing is true: you must know your system when you start configuring a kernel manually. Most information can be gathered by emerging pciutils (emerge pciutils) which contains lspci. You will now be able to use lspci within the chrooted environment. You may safely ignore any pcilib warnings (like pcilib: cannot open /sys/bus/pci/devices) that lspci throws out. Alternatively, you can run lspci from a non-chrooted environment. The results are the same. You can also run lsmod to see what kernel modules the Installation CD uses (it might provide you with a nice hint on what to enable).

Now go to your kernel source directory and execute make menuconfig. This will fire up an ncurses-based configuration menu.

# cd /usr/src/linux
# make menuconfig

You will be greeted with several configuration sections. We'll first list some options you must activate (otherwise Gentoo will not function, or not function properly without additional tweaks).

First go to File Systems and select support for the filesystems you use. Don't compile them as modules, otherwise your Gentoo system will not be able to mount your partitions. Also select Virtual memory and /proc file system.

File systems --->
  Pseudo Filesystems --->
    [*] /proc file system support
    [*] Virtual memory file system support (former shm fs)

(Select one or more of the following options as needed by your system)
  <*> Reiserfs support
  <*> Ext3 journalling file system support
  <*> JFS filesystem support
  <*> Second extended fs support
  <*> XFS filesystem support

If you are using PPPoE to connect to the Internet or you are using a dial-up modem, you will need the following options in the kernel:

Device Drivers --->
  Networking 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.

If you require it, don't forget to include support in the kernel for your ethernet card.

The following options are recommended as well:

General setup --->
  <*> SRM environment through procfs
  <*> Configure uac policy via sysctl

Plug and Play configuration --->
  <*> Plug and Play support
  <M>   ISA Plug and Play support

SCSI support --->
  SCSI low-level drivers --->
    <*> SYM53C8XX Version 2 SCSI support (NEW)
    <*> Qlogic ISP SCSI support

Network device support --->
  Ethernet (10 or 100 Mbit) --->
    <M> DECchip Tulip (dc21x4x) PCI support
    <M> Generic DECchip & DIGITAL EtherWORKS PCI/EISA
    <M> EtherExpressPro/100 support (eepro100)
    <M> EtherExpressPro/100 support (e100)
  Ethernet (1000 Mbit) --->
    <M> Alteon AceNIC
      [*] Omit support for old Tigon I
    <M> Broadcom Tigon3
  [*] FDDI driver support
  <M> Digital DEFEA and DEFPA
  <*> PPP support
    <*> PPP Deflate compression

Character devices --->
  [*] Support for console on serial port
  [*] Direct Rendering Manager

File systems --->
  <*> Kernel automounter version 4 support
  Network File Systems --->
    <*> NFS
      [*] NFSv3 client
      <*> NFS server
      [*] NFSv3 server
  Partition Types --->
    [*] Advanced partition selection
    [*] Alpha OSF partition support
  Native Language Support
    <*> NLS ISO 8859-1

Sound --->
  <M> Sound card support
    <M> OSS sound modules
      [*] Verbose initialisation
      [*] Persistent DMA buffers
      <M> 100% Sound Blaster compatibles

When you've finished configuring the kernel, continue with Compiling and Installing.

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

# make && make modules_install
# make boot

When the kernel has finished compiling, copy the kernel image to /boot. Recent kernels might create vmlinux instead of vmlinux.gz. Keep this in mind when you copy your kernel image.

# cp arch/alpha/boot/vmlinux.gz /boot/

Now continue with Kernel Modules.