If you are booted from a Gentoo LiveCD, you are able to use mirrorselect to update /etc/make.conf so fast mirrors are used for both Portage as source code:

# mirrorselect -a -s4 -o >> /mnt/gentoo/etc/make.conf

If for some reason mirrorselect fails, don't panic. This step is completely optional. If mirrorselect fails, the default values suffice.

One thing still remains to be done before we enter the new environment, and that is copy over the DNS information in /etc/resolv.conf. You need to do this to ensure that networking still works even after entering the new environment. /etc/resolv.conf contains the nameservers for your network.

# cp /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/gentoo/etc/resolv.conf

Now that all partitions are initialised and the base environment installed, it is time to enter our new installation environment by chrooting into it. This means that we change from the current installation environment (LiveCD or other installation medium) to your installation system (namely the initialised partitions).

This chrooting is done in three steps. First we will change the root from / (on the installation medium) to /mnt/gentoo (on your partitions) using chroot. Then we will create a new environment using env-update, which essentially creates environment variables. Finally, we load those variables into memory using source.

# chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash
# env-update
Regenerating /etc/ld.so.cache...
# source /etc/profile

Congratulations! You are now inside your own Gentoo Linux environment. Of course it is far from finished, which is why the installation still has some sections left :-)

If you are not using GRP, you must download a recent Portage snapshot from the Internet. emerge sync does this for you. GRP-users should skip this and continue with Optional: Using Distributed Compiling or Differences between Stage1, Stage2 and Stage3.

# emerge sync

If you are interested in using a collection of systems to help in compiling your system you might want to take a look at our DistCC Guide. By using distcc you can use the processing power of several systems to aid you with the installation.

So, you want to compile everything from scratch? Okay then :-)

In this step, we will bootstrap your Gentoo system. This takes a long time, but the result is a system that has been optimized from the ground up for your specific machine and needs.

Bootstrapping means building the GNU C Library, GNU Compiler Collection and several other key system programs. The GNU Compiler Collection even has to be built twice: first with the "generic" compiler we provide, and a second time with the compiler you then just built.

Before starting the bootstrap, we list a couple of options you might or might not want. If you do not want to read those, continue with Bootstrapping the System.

If you want to speed up the bootstrapping, you can temporarily deselect java-support. This means that the GNU Compiler Collection and the GNU C Library will be compiled without java-support (which decreases compilation time considerably). Although this means that you wont have the GNU Java Compiler (gjc) this does not mean that your system won't be able to use java applets and other java-related stuff.

To deselect java-support temporarily, define USE="-java" before firing up the bootstrap script.

# export USE="-java"

Don't forget to unset the variable after bootstrapping:

# unset USE

If you haven't copied over all sourcecode before, then the bootstrap script will download all necessary files. It goes without saying that this only works if you have a working network connnection :-) If you want to download the sourcecode first and later bootstrap the system (for instance because you don't want to have your internet connection open during the compilation) use the -f option of the bootstrap script, which will fetch (hence the letter f) all sourcecode for you.

# cd /usr/portage
# scripts/bootstrap.sh -f

Okay then, take your keyboard and punch in the next commands to start the bootstrap. Then go amuse yourself with something else (for instance harass Gentoo developers on #gentoo), because this step takes quite some time to finish.

# cd /usr/portage
# scripts/bootstrap.sh

If you have altered the CHOST setting in /etc/make.conf previously, you need to reinitialise some variables in order for gcc to work fast:

# source /etc/profile

Now continue with the next step, Progressing from Stage2 to Stage3.

If you are reading this section, then you have a bootstrapped system (either because you bootstrapped it previously, or you are using a stage2). Then it is now time to build all system packages.

All system packages? No, not really. In this step, you will build the system packages of which there are no alternatives to use. However, some system packages have several alternatives (such as system loggers) and as Gentoo is all about choices, we don't want to force one upon you.

If you want to know what packages will be installed, execute emerge -p system. This will list all packages that will be built. As this list is pretty big, you should also use a pager like less or more to go up and down the list.

# emerge -p system | less

If you want emerge to download the sources before you continue (for instance because you don't want the internet connection to be left open while you are building all packages) you can use the -f option of emerge which will fetch all sources for you.

# emerge -f system

To start building the system, execute emerge system. Then go do something to keep your mind busy, because this step takes a long time to complete.

# emerge system

When the building has completed, continue with Configuring the Kernel.