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

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<sections>

<version>2.1</version>
<date>2005-04-10</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>NewWorld machines</th>
  <ti>
    Power/PowerPC microprocessors (G3, G4, G5) such as iMac, eMac, iBook
    PowerBook, Xserver, PowerMac, Genesi's Pegasos II
  </ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <th>OldWorld machines</th>
  <ti>
    Limited support for IBM (RS/6000, iSeries, pSeries) and Amiga systems
  </ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <th>Memory</th>
  <ti>At least 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>

<p>
Be sure to read up on the <uri link="/doc/en/gentoo-ppc-faq.xml">Gentoo 
PPC FAQ</uri> before you begin.
</p>

</body>
</subsection>
</section>
<!-- Copy/paste from hb-install-x86-medium.xml (with s/x86/ppc/) -->
<!-- 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>
Starting from a stage1 allows you to have total control over the
optimization settings and optional build-time functionality that is
initially enabled on your system. This makes <e>stage1</e> installs good for
power users who know what they are doing. It is also a great
installation method for those who would like to know more about the
inner workings of Gentoo Linux.
</p>

<table>
<tr>
  <th>Stage1</th>
  <th>Pros and Cons</th>
</tr>
<tr>
  <th>+</th>
  <ti>
    Allows you to have total control over the optimization settings and optional
    build-time functionality that is initially enabled on your system
  </ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <th>+</th>
  <ti>Suitable for powerusers that know what they are doing</ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <th>+</th>
  <ti>Allows you to learn more about the inner workings of Gentoo</ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <th>-</th>
  <ti>Takes a long time to finish the installation</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>
Stage2 installs allow you to skip the bootstrap process; doing this
is fine if you are happy with the optimization settings that we chose
for your particular stage2 tarball.
</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>You cannot tweak as much as with a stage1</ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <th>-</th>
  <ti>It's still not the fastest way to install Gentoo</ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <th>-</th>
  <ti>You have to accept the optimizations we chose for the bootstrap</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 of which we can't
decide for you which one to choose.
</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 cannot tweak the base system - it's built already</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.
</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="2005.0/index.xml">Gentoo 2005.0 Handbooks</uri>.
</p>

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

<ul>
  <li>
    The Gentoo <e>Minimal</e> 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 <e>Universal</e> 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-ppc-minimal-2005.0.iso</c> and 
takes up only 52 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-ppc-universal-2005.0.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>
  <th>+</th>
  <ti>
    Contains everything you need. You can even install without a network
    connection.
  </ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <th>-</th>
  <ti>Huge download</ti>
</tr>
</table>

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

<p>
You might find a so-called <e>Package CD</e> 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>

</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/ppc/2005.0/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-ppc-minimal-2005.0.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. How
to verify MD5 checksums with Mac OS X is described in the <uri
link="/doc/en/gentoo-ppc-faq.xml#doc_chap1">Gentoo PPC FAQ</uri>.
</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>Default: Booting the Installation CD with Yaboot</title>
<body>

<p>
On NewWorld machines place the Installation CD in the CD-ROM and reboot the 
system. When the system-start-bell sounds, simply hold down the 'C' until the 
CD loads.
</p>

<p>
After the Installation CD loaded, you will be greeted by a friendly welcome 
message and a <e>boot:</e> prompt at the bottom of the screen.
</p>

<p>
At this prompt you are able to select a kernel for the subarchitecture you use.
We provide <c>G3</c>, <c>G4</c> and <c>G5</c>. All kernels are built with
support for multiple CPUs, but they will boot on single processor machines as
well.
</p>

<p>
You are also able to tweak some kernel options at this prompt. The following
table lists some of the available boot options you can add:
</p>

<table>
<tr>
  <th>Boot Option</th>
  <th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
  <ti><c>video</c></ti>
  <ti>
    This option takes one of the following vendor-specific tags:
    <c>radeonfb</c>, <c>rivafb</c>, <c>atyfb</c>, <c>aty128</c> or
    <c>ofonly</c>. You can follow this tag with the resolution and refreshrate
    you want to use. For instance <c>video=radeonfb:1280x1024@75</c>. If you are
    uncertain what to choose, <c>ofonly</c> will most certainly work.
  </ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <ti><c>nol3</c></ti>
  <ti>
    Disables level 3 cache on some PowerBooks (needed for at least the 17&quot;)
  </ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <ti><c>dofirewire</c></ti>
  <ti>
    Enables support for IEEE1394 (FireWire) devices, like external harddisks.
  </ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <ti><c>dopcmcia</c></ti>
  <ti>
     If you want to use PCMCIA devices during your installation (like PCMCIA
     network cards) you have to enable this option.
  </ti>
</tr>
</table>

<p>
At this prompt, hit enter, and a complete Gentoo Linux environment will be
loaded from the CD. Continue with <uri link="#booted">And When You're
Booted...</uri>.
</p>

</body>
</subsection>
<subsection>
<title>Alternative: Booting the Installation CD on a Pegasos</title>
<body>

<p>
On the Pegasos simply insert the CD and at the SmartFirmware boot-prompt type
<c>boot cd /boot/menu</c>. This will open a small bootmenu where you can choose
between several preconfigured video configs. If you need any special boot
options you can append them to the command-line. For instance <c>boot cd
/boot/pegasos video=radeonfb:1280x1024@75 mem=256M</c>.  The complete list of
kernel appends (in case something goes wrong and you need it) is preconfigured
in the kernel with <c>console=ttyS0,115200 console=tty0 init=/linuxrc
looptype=squashfs loop=/livecd.squashfs udev nodevfs cdroot root=/dev/ram0</c>.
</p>

</body>
</subsection>

<subsection>
<title>Alternative: Booting the Installation CD with BootX</title>
<body>

<p>
If you have an OldWorld Mac the bootable portion of the livecd can't be used.
The most simple solution is to use MacOS to bootstrap into a Linux environment
with a tool called BootX.  Boot floppies are being prepared for Macs without
MacOS, but they are not available at this time.
</p>
<p>
First, download <uri link="http://penguinppc.org/projects/bootx/">BootX</uri>
and unpack the archive.  Copy the the <c>BootX Extension</c> from the unpacked
archive into <c>Extensions Folder</c> and the BootX App Control Panel into
<c>Control Panels</c>, both of which are located in your MacOS System Folder.
Next, copy the files <c>G3G4</c> and <c>G3G4.igz</c> from the Installation CD 
<path>boot</path> folder into the MacOS <c>System Folder</c>.
</p>
<p>
To prepare BootX, start the BootX App Control Panel.  First select the Options
dialog and check <c>Use Specified RAM Disk</c> and select <c>G3G4.igz</c> from
your System Folder.  Continue back to the initial screen and ensure that the
ramdisk size is at least <c>32000</c>.  Finally, set the kernel arguments as
shown below:
</p>

<pre caption="BootX kernel arguments">
cdroot root=/dev/ram0 init=linuxrc loop=livecd.squashfs looptype=squashfs console=tty0 nodevfs udev
</pre>
<note>
The kernel parameters in the yaboot section above are also applicable here.
</note>
<p>
Check once more to make sure the settings are correct and then save the 
configuration.  This saves typing just in case it doesn't boot or something is
missing.  Press the Linux button at the top of the window to boot into the 
LiveCD and continue with <uri link="#booted">And When You're Booted...</uri>
</p>
</body>
</subsection>

<subsection id="booted">
<title>And When You're Booted...</title>
<body>

<p>
You will be greeted by a root ("#") prompt on the current console. You 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. Probably you have to hit
Alt-fn-Fx on Apple machines.
</p>

<p>
If you are installing Gentoo on a system with a non-US keyboard, use
<c>loadkeys</c> to load the keymap for your keyboard. To list the available
keymaps, execute <c>ls /usr/share/keymaps/i386</c>. On NewWorld machines or the
Pegasos do not use the keymaps in <path>ppc</path> or <path>mac</path> as they
are for ADB-based OldWorld machines.
</p>

<pre caption="Listing available keymaps">
<comment>(PPC uses x86 keymaps on most systems. The mac/ppc keymaps provided
 on the Installation CD are ADB keymaps and unusable with the Installation CD 
 kernel)</comment>
# <i>ls /usr/share/keymaps/i386</i>
</pre>

<p>
Now load the keymap of your choice:
</p>

<pre caption="Loading a keymap">
# <i>loadkeys be-latin1</i>
</pre>

<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>airport</c> module. This module
supports only the old Airport cards (b-net). AirportExtreme is currently not
supported under Linux:
</p>

<pre caption="Loading kernel modules">
# <i>modprobe airport</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>links2</c> to read it:
</p>

<pre caption="Viewing the on-CD documentation">
# <i>links2 /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>links2</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>links2 http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-ppc.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>