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

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

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

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

A stage1 is used when you want to bootstrap and build the entire system from scratch.

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 stage1 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.

A stage2 is used for building the entire system from a bootstrapped "semi-compiled" state.

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.

A stage3 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.

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.

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 Gentoo LiveCDs 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.

All LiveCDs allow you to boot, set up networking, initialize your partitions and start installing Gentoo from the Internet. We currently provide two LiveCDs 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.

If you whish to install Gentoo without a working Internet connection, please use the installation instructions described in the Gentoo 2004.3 Handbooks.

The two LiveCDs that we currently provide are:

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

To help you decide which LiveCD you need, we have written down the major advantages and disadvantages of each LiveCD.

The Minimal LiveCD is called install-sparc64-minimal-2004.3.iso and takes up only 130 MB of diskspace. You can use this LiveCD to install Gentoo, but always with a working Internet connection only.

The Universal LiveCD is called install-sparc-universal-2004.3.iso and consumes the entire surface of a 650 MB CD. You can use this LiveCD 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 :)

You might find a so-called Package CD on one of our mirrors. This CD is no LiveCD 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.

You have chosen to use a Gentoo LiveCD. We'll first start by downloading and burning the chosen LiveCD. We previously discussed the several available LiveCDs, but where can you find them?

You can download any of the LiveCDs (and, if you want to, a Packages CD as well) from one of our mirrors. The LiveCDs are located in the releases/sparc/2004.3/livecd/sparc64 directory.

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

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 install-sparc64-minimal-2004.3.iso.md5). You can check the MD5 checksum with the md5sum tool under Linux/Unix or md5sum for Windows.

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 .asc). Download the signature file and obtain the public key:

$ gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 17072058

Now verify the signature:

$ gpg --verify <signature file> <downloaded iso>

To burn the downloaded ISO(s), you have to select raw-burning. How you do this is highly program-dependent. We will discuss cdrecord and K3B here; more information can be found in our Gentoo FAQ.

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

Insert the Gentoo LiveCD in the CD-ROM and boot your system. During startup, press Stop-A to enter OpenBootPROM (OBP). Once you are in the OBP, boot from the CD-ROM:

ok boot cdrom

You will be greeted by the SILO boot manager (on the LiveCD). Type in gentoo-2.4 (single-CPU kernel) or gentoo-2.4-smp (multi-CPU kernel) and press enter to continue booting the system. In the following example we'll boot the gentoo-2.4 kernel.

boot: gentoo-2.4

Once the LiveCD is booted, you will be greeted by a login prompt if there is no automated login. If that is the case, log on as root. There is no password, so when you are asked for one, press Enter.

login: root
password: (Press Enter here)

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.

Continue with Extra Hardware Configuration.

If not all hardware is supported out-of-the-box, you will need to load the appropriate kernel modules.

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

# modprobe 8139too

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

# hdparm -tT /dev/hda

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

Activate DMA:                                       # hdparm -d 1 /dev/hda
Activate DMA + Safe Performance-enhancing Options:  # hdparm -d 1 -A 1 -m 16 -u 1 -a 64 /dev/hda

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

To change the root password, use the passwd utility:

# passwd
New password: (Enter your new password)
Re-enter password: (Re-enter your password)

To create a user account, we first enter their credentials, followed by its password. We use useradd and passwd for these tasks. In the next example, we create a user called "john".

# useradd -m -G users john
# passwd john
New password: (Enter john's password)
Re-enter password: (Re-enter john's password)

You can change your user id from root to the newly created user by using su:

# su - john

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 Optional: User Accounts). Then press Alt-F2 to go to a new terminal and log in.

If you want to view the documentation on the CD you can immediately run links2 to read it:

# links2 /mnt/cdrom/docs/html/index.html

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 links2 as well, but only after having completed the Configuring your Network chapter (otherwise you won't be able to go on the Internet to view the document):

# links2 http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-sparc.xml

You can go back to your original terminal by pressing Alt-F1.

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 (only do that if you fully trust that user).

To fire up the SSH daemon, execute the following command:

# /etc/init.d/sshd start

To be able to use sshd, you first need to set up your networking. Continue with the chapter on Configuring your Network.