en/handbook/hb-install-alpha-medium.xml

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<sections>

<version>2.8</version>
<date>2005-10-09</date>

<section>
<title>Hardware Requirements</title>
<subsection>
<title>Introduction</title>
<body>

<p>
Before we start, we first list what hardware requirements you need to
successfully install Gentoo on your box. 
</p>

</body>
</subsection>
<subsection>
<title>Hardware Requirements</title>
<body>

<table>
<tr>
  <th>CPU</th>
  <ti>
    Please check with the <uri
    link="http://www.alphalinux.org/faq/FAQ-5.html">Alpha/Linux FAQ</uri>
  </ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <th>Memory</th>
  <ti>64 MB</ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <th>Diskspace</th>
  <ti>1.5 GB (excluding swap space)</ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <th>Swap space</th>
  <ti>At least 256 MB</ti>
</tr>
</table>

</body>
</subsection>
</section>
<!-- Copy/paste from the hb-install-x86-medium.xml file.  -->
<!-- START -->
<section>
<title>The Gentoo Installation Approaches</title>
<subsection>
<title>Introduction</title>
<body>

<p>
Gentoo Linux can be installed using one of three <e>stage</e> tarball files.
A stage file is a tarball (compressed archive) that contains a minimal
environment.
</p>

<ul>
  <li>
     A stage1 file contains nothing more than a compiler, Portage (Gentoo's
     software management system) and a couple of packages on which the compiler
     or Portage depends.
   </li>
   <li>
     A stage2 file contains a so-called bootstrapped system, a minimal
     environment from which one can start building all other necessary
     applications that make a Gentoo environment complete.
   </li>
   <li>
     A stage3 file contains a prebuilt minimal system which is almost fully
     deployable. It only lacks a few applications where you, the Gentoo user,
     needs to choose which one you want to install.
   </li>
</ul>

<p>
To help you decide what stage file you want to use, we have written down the
major advantages and disadvantages of each stage file.
</p>

</body>
</subsection>
<subsection>
<title>A Stage1 Approach</title>
<body>

<p>
A <e>stage1</e> is used when you want to bootstrap and build the entire system 
from scratch.
</p>

<p>
This approach builds core system packages that are vital to your system and is
used by Gentoo developers to prepare the Gentoo release media. It is a great
installation method for those who would like to learn more about the inner
workings of bootstrapping, toolchains and the like.
</p>

<p>
However, if you do not plan to tweak the bootstrapping instructions in the
<path>bootstrap.sh</path> script written by the Gentoo developers, then a 
stage1 approach has no benefits for you. 
</p>

<table>
<tr>
  <th>Stage1</th>
  <th>Pros and Cons</th>
</tr>
<tr>
  <th>+</th>
  <ti>
    Allows you to have total control over the installation routine, bootstrap
    sequence, etc.
  </ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <th>+</th>
  <ti>Suitable for powerusers and developers who know what they are doing</ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <th>-</th>
  <ti>
    Takes a long time to finish the installation (it is the lengthiest approach)
  </ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <th>-</th>
  <ti>
    If you don't intend to tweak the settings, it is a waste of time
  </ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <th>-</th>
  <ti>
    Requires a working Internet connection during the installation
  </ti>
</tr>
</table>

</body>
</subsection>
<subsection>
<title>A Stage2 Approach</title>
<body>

<p>
A <e>stage2</e> is used for building the entire system from a bootstrapped
"semi-compiled" state.
</p>

<p>
When you perform a stage2 installation approach, you will build all system
packages (core packages, including toolchain) using your specific <c>USE</c>, 
<c>CFLAGS</c> and <c>CXXFLAGS</c> settings. Any package build will therefore be
optimized to your preference.
</p>

<p>
However, this installation takes some time and if you do not intend to change
the <c>CFLAGS</c> and <c>CXXFLAGS</c> settings that we have defined as a "good
default", using this approach only makes sense if your <c>USE</c> variable is
sufficiently different from the default <c>USE</c> we provide.
</p>

<table>
<tr>
  <th>Stage2</th>
  <th>Pros and Cons</th>
</tr>
<tr>
  <th>+</th>
  <ti>You don't need to bootstrap</ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <th>+</th>
  <ti>Faster than starting with stage1</ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <th>+</th>
  <ti>You can still tweak your settings</ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <th>-</th>
  <ti>It's still not the fastest way to install Gentoo</ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <th>-</th>
  <ti>
    Requires a working Internet connection during the installation
  </ti>
</tr>
</table>

</body>
</subsection>
<subsection>
<title>A Stage3 Approach</title>
<body>

<p>
A <e>stage3</e> installation contains a basic Gentoo Linux system that has been
built for you. You will only need to build a few packages (such as system
logger, networking tools, ...) before you can boot into a base Gentoo
installation.
</p>

<p>
Choosing to go with a stage3 allows for the fastest install of Gentoo
Linux, but also means that your base system will have the optimization
settings that we chose for you (which to be honest, are good settings
and were carefully chosen to enhance performance while maintaining
stability). Stage3 is also required if you want to install Gentoo using
prebuilt packages or without a network connection.
</p>

<table>
<tr>
  <th>Stage3</th>
  <th>Pros and Cons</th>
</tr>
<tr>
  <th>+</th>
  <ti>Fastest way to get a Gentoo base system</ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <th>+</th>
  <ti>
    You can still tweak your system
  </ti>
</tr>
</table>

<p>
You might be interested to know that, if you decide to use different 
optimization settings after having installed Gentoo, you will be able to 
recompile your entire system with the new optimization settings. The same goes
for any <c>USE</c> flag changes: Portage is intelligent enough to know what
packages need to be rebuild.
</p>

</body>
</subsection>
</section>

<section>
<title>The Gentoo Installation CDs</title>
<subsection>
<title>Introduction</title>
<body>

<p>
The <e>Gentoo Installation CDs</e> are bootable CDs which contain a
self-sustained Gentoo environment. They allow you to boot Linux from the CD.
During the boot process your hardware is detected and the appropriate drivers
are loaded. They are maintained by Gentoo developers.
</p>

<p>
All Installation CDs allow you to boot, set up networking, initialize your
partitions and start installing Gentoo from the Internet. We currently provide
two Installation CDs which are equaly suitable to install Gentoo from, as long 
as you're planning on performing an Internet-based installation using the 
latest version of the available packages.
</p>

<p>
If you wish to install Gentoo without a working Internet connection, please use
the installation instructions described in the <uri
link="2005.1/index.xml">Gentoo 2005.1 Handbooks</uri>. 
</p>

<p>
The two Installation CDs we currently provide are:
</p>

<ul>
  <li>
    The Gentoo Minimal Installation CD, a small, no-nonsense, bootable CD which
    sole purpose is to boot the system, prepare the networking and continue
    with the Gentoo installation.
  </li>
  <li>
    The Gentoo Universal Installation CD, a bootable CD with the same abilities
    as the Minimal Installation CD. Additionally, it contains a stage1 and
    several stage3 tarballs (optimized for the individual subarchitectures).
  </li>
</ul>

<p>
To help you decide which Installation CD you need, we have written down the
major advantages and disadvantages of each Installation CD.
</p>

</body>
</subsection>
<subsection>
<title>Gentoo's Minimal Installation CD</title>
<body>

<p>
The Minimal Installation CD is called <c>install-alpha-minimal-2005.1.iso</c>
and takes up only 54 MB of diskspace. You can use this Installation CD to 
install Gentoo, but always with a working Internet connection only.
</p>

<table>
<tr>
  <th>Minimal Installation CD</th>
  <th>Pros and Cons</th>
</tr>
<tr>
  <th>+</th>
  <ti>Smallest download</ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <th>+</th>
  <ti>
    You can do a stage1, stage2 or stage3 by getting the stage tarball off the
    net
  </ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <th>-</th>
  <ti>
    Contains no stages, no Portage snapshot, no prebuilt packages and is
    therefore not suitable for networkless installation
  </ti>
</tr>
</table>

</body>
</subsection>
<subsection>
<title>Gentoo's Universal Installation CD</title>
<body>

<p>
The Universal Installation CD is called <c>install-alpha-universal-2005.1.iso</c>
and consumes the entire surface of a 650 MB CD. You can use this Installation CD
to install Gentoo, and you can even use it to install Gentoo without a working
internet connection, just in case you want to bring Gentoo to another PC than
the one you are currently installing Gentoo on :)
</p>

<table>
<tr>
  <th>Universal Installation CD</th>
  <th>Pros and Cons</th>
</tr>
<tr>
  <ti>+</ti>
  <ti>
    Contains everything you need. You can even install without a network
    connection.
  </ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <ti>-</ti>
  <ti>
    Huge download
  </ti>
</tr>
</table>

</body>
</subsection>
<subsection>
<title>Other CDs</title>
<body>

<p>
You might find a so-called Package CD on one of our mirrors. This CD is no
Installation CD but an additional resource that can be exploited during a
networkless installation. It contains prebuilt packages (the so-called GRP set)
that allows you to easily and quickly install additional applications (such as
OpenOffice.org, KDE, GNOME, ...) immediately after the networkless Gentoo
installation.
</p>

<p>
If you intend to use the Packages CD to quickly install additional software,
make sure that you use the same subarchitecture as the stage-3 tarball you use.
</p>

</body>
</subsection>
</section>
<!-- STOP -->
<section>
<title>Download, Burn and Boot a Gentoo Installation CD</title>
<subsection>
<title>Downloading and Burning the Installation CDs</title>
<body>

<p>
You have chosen to use a Gentoo Installation CD. We'll first start by 
downloading and burning the chosen Installation CD. We previously discussed 
the several available Installation CDs, but where can you find them? 
</p>

<p>
You can download any of the Installation CDs (and, if you want to, a Packages 
CD as well) from one of our <uri link="/main/en/mirrors.xml">mirrors</uri>. The
Installation CDs are located in the <path>releases/alpha/2005.1/installcd</path>
directory.
</p>

<p>
Inside that directory you'll find so-called ISO-files. Those are full CD images
which you can write on a CD-R.
</p>

<p>
In case you wonder if your downloaded file is corrupted or not, you can
check its MD5 checksum and compare it with the MD5 checksum we provide (such as
<path>install-alpha-minimal-2005.1.iso.md5</path>). You can check the MD5 
checksum with the <c>md5sum</c> tool under Linux/Unix or <uri
link="http://www.etree.org/md5com.html">md5sum</uri> for Windows.
</p>

<p>
Another way to check the validity of the downloaded file is to use GnuPG to
verify the cryptographic signature that we provide (the file ending with
<path>.asc</path>). Download the signature file and obtain the public key:
</p>

<pre caption="Obtaining the public key">
$ <i>gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 17072058</i>
</pre>

<p>
Now verify the signature:
</p>

<pre caption="Verify the cryptographic signature">
$ <i>gpg --verify &lt;signature file&gt; &lt;downloaded iso&gt;</i>
</pre>

<p>
To burn the downloaded ISO(s), you have to select raw-burning. How you
do this is highly program-dependent. We will discuss <c>cdrecord</c> and
<c>K3B</c> here; more information can be found in our <uri
link="/doc/en/faq.xml#isoburning">Gentoo FAQ</uri>.
</p>

<ul>
  <li>
    With cdrecord, you simply type <c>cdrecord dev=/dev/hdc &lt;downloaded iso 
    file&gt;</c> (replace <path>/dev/hdc</path> with your CD-RW drive's 
    device path).
  </li>
  <li>
    With K3B, select <c>Tools</c> &gt; <c>CD</c> &gt; <c>Burn Image</c>. Then
    you can locate your ISO file within the 'Image to Burn' area. Finally click
    <c>Start</c>.
  </li>
</ul>

</body>
</subsection>
<subsection>
<title>Booting the Installation CD</title>
<body>

<p>
When your Alpha is powered on, the first thing that gets started is the
firmware. It is loosely synonymous with the BIOS software on PC systems. There
are two types of firmware on Alpha systems: SRM (<e>Systems Reference 
Manual</e>) and ARC (<e>Advanced Risc Console</e>).
</p>

<p>
SRM is based on the Alpha Console Subsystem specification, which provides an
operating environment for OpenVMS, Tru64 UNIX, and Linux operating systems. ARC
is based on the Advanced RISC Computing (ARC) specification, which provides
an operating environment for Windows NT.  You can find a 
<uri link="http://www.alphalinux.org/faq/SRM-HOWTO/">detailed guide</uri> on 
using SRM over at the Alpha Linux website.
</p>

<p>
If your Alpha system supports both SRM and ARCs (ARC, AlphaBIOS, ARCSBIOS) you
should follow <uri link="http://www.alphalinux.org/faq/x31.html">these
instructions</uri> for switching to SRM. If your system already uses SRM, you
are all set. If your system can only use ARCs (Ruffian, nautilus, xl, etc.) you
will need to choose <c>MILO</c> later on when we are talking about bootloaders.
</p>

<p>
Now to boot an Alpha Installation CD, put the CD-ROM in the tray and reboot the 
system. You can use SRM to boot the Installation CD. If you cannot do that, you
will have to use <c>MILO</c>. If you don't have <c>MILO</c> installed already,
use one of the precompiled <c>MILO</c> images available on <uri
link="http://dev.gentoo.org/~taviso/milo/">taviso's homepage</uri>.
</p>

<pre caption="Booting a CD-ROM using SRM">
<comment>(List available hardware drives)</comment>
&gt;&gt;&gt; <i>show device</i>
dkb0.0.1.4.0        DKB0       TOSHIBA CDROM
<comment>(...)</comment>
<comment>(Substitute dkb0 with your CD-ROM drive device)</comment>
&gt;&gt;&gt; <i>boot dkb0 -flags 0</i>
<comment>To boot the 2.4 kernel instead of the default 2.6 kernel use:</comment>
&gt;&gt;&gt; <i>boot dkb -flags 1</i>
</pre>

<pre caption="Booting a CD-ROM using MILO">
<comment>(Substitute hdb with your CD-ROM drive device)</comment>
MILO&gt; <i>boot hdb:/boot/gentoo_2.6 initrd=/boot/gentoo_2_6.igz root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc looptype=zisofs loop=/zisofs cdroot</i>
<comment>To boot the 2.4 kernel instead of the default 2.6 kernel use:</comment>
MILO&gt; <i>boot hdb:/boot/gentoo_2.4 initrd=/boot/gentoo_2_4.igz root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc looptype=zisofs loop=/zisofs cdroot</i>
</pre>

<p>
You should have a root ("#") prompt on the current console and can also switch
to other consoles by pressing Alt-F2, Alt-F3 and Alt-F4. Get back to the one you
started on by pressing Alt-F1.
</p>

<p>
Now continue with <uri link="#hardware">Extra Hardware Configuration</uri>.
</p>

</body>
</subsection>
<subsection id="hardware">
<title>Extra Hardware Configuration</title>
<body>

<p>
When the Installation CD boots, it tries to detect all your hardware devices and
loads the appropriate kernel modules to support your hardware. In the
vast majority of cases, it does a very good job. However, in some cases it may 
not auto-load the kernel 
modules you need. If the PCI auto-detection missed some of your system's 
hardware, you will have to load the appropriate kernel modules manually. 
</p>

<p>
In the next example we try to load the <c>8139too</c> module (support for 
certain kinds of network interfaces):
</p>

<pre caption="Loading kernel modules">
# <i>modprobe 8139too</i>
</pre>

</body>
</subsection>
<subsection>
<title>Optional: Tweaking Hard Disk Performance</title>
<body>

<p>
If you are an advanced user, you might want to tweak the IDE hard disk
performance using <c>hdparm</c>. With the <c>-tT</c> options you can
test the performance of your disk (execute it several times to get a
more precise impression):
</p>

<pre caption="Testing disk performance">
# <i>hdparm -tT /dev/hda</i>
</pre>

<p>
To tweak, you can use any of the following examples (or experiment
yourself) which use <path>/dev/hda</path> as disk (substitute with your
disk):
</p>

<pre caption="Tweaking hard disk performance">
<comment>Activate DMA:</comment>                                       # <i>hdparm -d 1 /dev/hda</i>
<comment>Activate DMA + Safe Performance-enhancing Options:</comment>  # <i>hdparm -d 1 -A 1 -m 16 -u 1 -a 64 /dev/hda</i>
</pre>

</body>
</subsection>
<subsection id="useraccounts">
<title>Optional: User Accounts</title>
<body>

<p>
If you plan on giving other people access to your installation
environment or you want to chat using <c>irssi</c> without root privileges (for
security reasons), you need to create the necessary user accounts and change 
the root password.
</p>

<p>
To change the root password, use the <c>passwd</c> utility:
</p>

<pre caption="Changing the root password">
# <i>passwd</i>
New password: <comment>(Enter your new password)</comment>
Re-enter password: <comment>(Re-enter your password)</comment>
</pre>

<p>
To create a user account, we first enter their credentials, followed by
its password. We use <c>useradd</c> and <c>passwd</c> for these tasks.
In the next example, we create a user called &quot;john&quot;.
</p>

<pre caption="Creating a user account">
# <i>useradd -m -G users john</i>
# <i>passwd john</i>
New password: <comment>(Enter john's password)</comment>
Re-enter password: <comment>(Re-enter john's password)</comment>
</pre>

<p>
You can change your user id from root to the newly created user by using
<c>su</c>:
</p>

<pre caption="Changing user id">
# <i>su - john</i>
</pre>

</body>
</subsection>
<subsection>
<title>Optional: Viewing Documentation while Installing</title>
<body>

<p>
If you want to view the Gentoo Handbook (either from-CD or online) during the
installation, make sure you have created a user account (see <uri
link="#useraccounts">Optional: User Accounts</uri>). Then press <c>Alt-F2</c> to
go to a new terminal and log in.
</p>

<p>
If you want to view the documentation on the CD you can immediately run
<c>lynx</c> to read it:
</p>

<pre caption="Viewing the on-CD documentation">
# <i>lynx /mnt/cdrom/docs/html/index.html</i>
</pre>

<p>
However, it is preferred that you use the online Gentoo Handbook as it will be
more recent than the one provided on the CD. You can view it using <c>lynx</c>
as well, but only after having completed the <e>Configuring your Network</e>
chapter (otherwise you won't be able to go on the Internet to view the
document):
</p>

<pre caption="Viewing the Online Documentation">
# <i>lynx http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-alpha.xml</i>
</pre>

<p>
You can go back to your original terminal by pressing <c>Alt-F1</c>.
</p>

</body>
</subsection>
<subsection>
<title>Optional: Starting the SSH Daemon</title>
<body>

<p>
If you want to allow other users to access your computer during the
Gentoo installation (perhaps because those users are going to help you
install Gentoo, or even do it for you), you need to create a user
account for them and perhaps even provide them with your root password 
(<e>only</e> do that <e>if</e> you <b>fully trust</b> that user).
</p>

<p>
To fire up the SSH daemon, execute the following command:
</p>

<pre caption="Starting the SSH daemon">
# <i>/etc/init.d/sshd start</i>
</pre>

<p>
To be able to use sshd, you first need to set up your networking. Continue with
the chapter on <uri link="?part=1&amp;chap=3">Configuring your Network</uri>.
</p>

</body>
</subsection>
</section>
</sections>