If you have booted from a Gentoo LiveCD, you are able to use mirrorselect to update /etc/make.conf so fast mirrors are used for both Portage and source code (of course in case you have a working network connection):

# mirrorselect -a -s4 -o | grep 'GENTOO_MIRRORS=' >> /mnt/gentoo/etc/make.conf

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

One thing still remains to be done before we enter the new environment and that is copying 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.

(The "-L" option is needed to make sure we don't copy a symbolic link)
# cp -L /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/gentoo/etc/resolv.conf

Mount the /proc filesystem on /mnt/gentoo/proc to allow the installation to use the kernel-provided information even within the chrooted environment.

# mount -t proc none /mnt/gentoo/proc

Now that all partitions are initialized 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 initialized 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
 * Caching service dependencies...
# 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 haven't installed a Portage snapshot in the previous chapter, you must download a recent Portage tree from the Internet. emerge --sync does this for you. Other users should skip this and continue with Configuring the USE variable.

# emerge --sync

Portage uses the RSYNC protocol for updating the Portage tree. If the above command fails due to your firewall, use emerge-webrsync which downloads and installs a Portage snapshot for you using the regular HTTP protocol.

# emerge-webrsync

If you are warned that a new Portage version is available and that you should update Portage, you should ignore it. Portage will be updated for you later on during the installation.

USE is one of the most powerful variables Gentoo provides to its users. Several programs can be compiled with or without optional support for certain items. For instance, some programs can be compiled with gtk-support, or with qt-support. Others can be compiled with or without SSL support. Some programs can even be compiled with framebuffer support (svgalib) instead of X11 support (X-server).

Most distributions compile their packages with support for as much as possible, increasing the size of the programs and startup time, not to mention an enormous amount of dependencies. With Gentoo you can define what options a package should be compiled with. This is where USE comes into play.

In the USE variable you define keywords which are mapped onto compile-options. For instance, ssl will compile ssl-support in the programs that support it. -X will remove X-server support (note the minus sign in front). gnome gtk -kde -qt will compile your programs with gnome (and gtk) support, and not with kde (and qt) support, making your system fully tweaked for GNOME.

The default USE settings are placed in /etc/make.profile/make.defaults. What you place in /etc/make.conf is calculated against these defaults settings. If you add something to the USE setting, it is added to the default list. If you remove something from the USE setting (by placing a minus sign in front of it) it is removed from the default list (if it was in the default list at all). Never alter anything inside the /etc/make.profile directory; it gets overwritten when you update Portage!

A full description on USE can be found in the second part of the Gentoo Handbook, USE flags. A full description on the available USE flags can be found on your system in /usr/portage/profiles/use.desc.

# less /usr/portage/profiles/use.desc
(You can scroll using your arrow keys, exit by pressing 'q')

As an example we show a USE setting for a KDE-based system with DVD, ALSA and CD Recording support:

# nano -w /etc/make.conf

USE="-gtk -gnome qt kde dvd alsa cdr"

You will probably only use one or maybe two locales on your system. Up until now after compiling glibc a full set of all available locales will be created. As of now you can activate the userlocales USE flag and specify only the locales you will need in /etc/locales.build.

# mkdir /etc/portage
# echo "sys-libs/glibc userlocales" >> /etc/portage/package.use

Now specify the locales you want to be able to use:

en_US/ISO-8859-1
en_US.UTF-8/UTF-8
de_DE/ISO-8859-1
de_DE@euro/ISO-8859-15

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.

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 haven't copied over all source code 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 source code 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 source code 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 because this step takes quite some time to finish.

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

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. 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 --pretend 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 --pretend 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 --fetchonly option of emerge which will fetch all sources for you.

# emerge --fetchonly 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

You can for now safely ignore any warnings about updated configuration files (and running etc-update). When your Gentoo system is fully installed and booted, do read our documentation on Configuration File Protection.

When the build process has completed, continue with Configuring the Kernel.