This guide contains all commands you should use to complete a stage3 installation of Gentoo. You need a connection to the Internet to download the stage3 and Portage snapshots.

Timing output follows all commands that take more than a couple of seconds to finish. Commands were timed on an AMD 2000 1.66 Ghz PC with 512 Mb of RAM and two SATA disks connected to a hardware controller.

(The following specs and the timing information should help you determine
a rough estimate of the time you need to complete your install)

# grep bogo /proc/cpuinfo
bogomips       : 3337.81

# hdparm -tT /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:   1100 MB in  2.00 seconds = 549.97 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  224 MB in  3.01 seconds =  74.36 MB/sec

# grep MemTotal /proc/meminfo
MemTotal:       509248 kB

Download a CD from one of our mirrors. You can find the minimal CD ISO in releases/x86/<release>/installcd or the LiveCD ISO in releases/x86/<release>/livecd. The minimal installation CD is only useful for Internet-based installations. You can use the LiveCD to perform a networkless installation as documented in the 2006.1 x86 installation handbook. The minimal CD is recommended.

Burn the CD and boot it.

Press F2 at the boot screen to find out what boot options exist. You can either start gentoo or gentoo-nofb, the latter disables the framebuffer. If you booted the LiveCD, don't forget to add the nox option to prevent the X graphical environment from starting. Several options allow to enable or disable some features. If all goes well, your hardware will be detected and all modules will be loaded. If the kernel fails to boot properly or if your computer hangs during the boot procedure, you may have to experience with different configurations. The safest way is probably to use the nodetect option and then load required modules explicitly.

Gentoo Linux Installation LiveCD                     http://www.gentoo.org
Enter to Boot; F1 for kernels  F2 for options.
boot: gentoo-nofb
  (or in case of problems)
boot: gentoo-nofb nodetect

If you used the nodetect option, once booted, load the required modules. You need to enable networking and have access to your disks. The lspci command can help you identify your hardware.

livecd root # lspci
(Use lspci's output to identify required modules)

(The following is an example, adapt it to your hardware)
livecd root # modprobe 3w-9xxx
livecd root # modprobe r8169

If your network does not work already, you can use net-setup to configure your network. You might need to load support for your network card using modprobe prior to the configuration. If you have ADSL, use pppoe-setup and pppoe-start. For PPTP support, first edit /etc/ppp/chap-secrets and /etc/ppp/options.pptp and then use pptp <server ip>.

For wireless access, use iwconfig to set the wireless parameters and then use either net-setup again or run ifconfig, dhcpcd and/or route manually.

If you are behind a proxy, do not forget to initialize your system using export http_proxy, ftp_proxy and RSYNC_PROXY.

livecd root # net-setup eth0

Alternatively, you can start networking manually. The following example assigns the IP address 192.168.1.10 to your PC and defines 192.168.1.1 as your router and name server.

livecd root # ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.10/24
livecd root # route add default gw 192.168.1.1
livecd root # echo nameserver 192.168.1.1 > /etc/resolv.conf

The installation CD allows you to start an sshd server, add additional users, run irssi (a command-line chat client) and surf the web using lynx or links.

The most interesting feature is of course sshd. You can start it and then connect from another machine and cut and paste commands from this guide.

livecd root # time /etc/init.d/sshd start
 * Generating hostkey ...
(sshd generates the key and displays more output)
 * starting sshd ...                            [ok]

real   0m13.688s
user   0m9.420s
sys    0m0.090s

Now, set the root password on the liveCD so that you can connect to it from another PC. Please note that allowing root to connect over ssh is not recommended under normal circumstances. If you can't trust your local network, use a long and complex password, you should use it only once as it will disappear after your first reboot.

livecd root # passwd
New UNIX password: type_a_password
Retype new UNIX password: type_a_password
passwd: password updated successfully

Now, you can start a terminal on another PC and connect to your new box, follow the rest of this guide in another window, and cut and paste commands.

(Use the IP address of your new box)
$ ssh root@192.168.1.10
The authenticity of host '192.168.1.10 (192.168.1.10)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 96:e7:2d:12:ac:9c:b0:94:90:9f:40:89:b0:45:26:8f.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added '192.168.1.10' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
Password: type_the_password

Use fdisk or cfdisk to create your partition layout. You need at least a swap partition (type 82) and one Linux partition (type 83). The following scenario creates a /boot, a swap and a main partition as used in our handbook. The device name is likely to be either /dev/sda for a SATA or SCSI disk, or /dev/hda for an IDE disk.

livecd ~ # fdisk /dev/sda

(The rest of this guide uses the following partitioning scheme)
livecd ~ # fdisk -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 599.9 GB, 599978409984 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 72943 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1          12       96358+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2              13         110      787185   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3             111       72943   585031072+  83  Linux

Use mke2fs, mke2fs -j, mkreiserfs, mkfs.xfs and mkfs.jfs to create file systems on your Linux partitions. Initialize your swap partition using mkswap and swapon.

(ext2 is all you need on the /boot partition)
livecd ~ # mke2fs /dev/sda1

(Let's use ext3 on the main partition)
livecd ~ # mke2fs -j /dev/sda3

(Create and activate swap)
livecd ~ # mkswap /dev/sda2 && swapon /dev/sda2

Mount the freshly created file systems on /mnt/gentoo. Create directories for the other mount points (like /mnt/gentoo/boot) if you need them and mount them too.

livecd ~ # mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/gentoo
livecd ~ # mkdir /mnt/gentoo/boot
livecd ~ # mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/gentoo/boot

First make sure your date and time is set correctly using date MMDDhhmmYYYY. Use UTC time.

(Check the clock)
livecd ~ # date
Mon Mar  6 00:14:13 UTC 2006

(Set the current date and time if required)
livecd ~ # date 030600162006 (Format is MMDDhhmmYYYY)
Mon Mar  6 00:16:00 UTC 2006

Next, download a stage from one of our mirrors. Go to /mnt/gentoo and unpack the stage using tar xjpf <stage3 tarball>.

livecd ~ # cd /mnt/gentoo
livecd gentoo # links http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/mirrors.xml
(Pick a mirror, move to the releases/x86/current/stages directory
highlight the stage3 of your choice, probably stage3-i686-2006.1.tar.bz2
and press D to download it)

(Or download it directly with wget without choosing a nearby mirror)
livecd ~ # cd /mnt/gentoo
livecd gentoo # wget http://gentoo.osuosl.org/releases/x86/current/stages/stage3-i686-2006.1.tar.bz2

livecd gentoo # time tar xjpf stage3*

real  1m13.157s
user  1m2.920s
sys   0m7.230s

Install the latest Portage snapshot. Proceed as for the stage3 archive: choose a nearby mirror from our list, download the latest snapshot and unpack it.

livecd gentoo # cd /mnt/gentoo/usr
livecd usr # links http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/mirrors.xml
(Pick a mirror, move to the snapshots/ directory,
highlight portage-latest.tar.bz2 and press D to download it)

(Or download it directly with wget without choosing a nearby mirror)
livecd gentoo # cd /mnt/gentoo/usr
livecd usr # wget http://gentoo.osuosl.org/snapshots/portage-latest.tar.bz2

livecd usr # time tar xjf portage*

real  0m51.523s
user  0m28.680s
sys   0m12.840s

Mount the /proc file system, copy over the /etc/resolv.conf file, then chroot into your Gentoo environment.

livecd usr # cd /
livecd / # mount -t proc proc /mnt/gentoo/proc
livecd / # cp -L /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/gentoo/etc/
livecd / # chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash
livecd / # env-update && source /etc/profile
>>> Regenerating /etc/ld.so.cache...

Set your time zone information by copying the correct file from /usr/share/zoneinfo over the /etc/localtime file.

(Using Brussels as an example)
livecd / # cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Brussels /etc/localtime
livecd / # date
Wed Mar  8 00:46:05 CET 2006

Set your host name in /etc/conf.d/hostname and /etc/hosts. In the following example, we use mybox as host name and at.myplace as domain name. You can either edit the config files with nano or use the following commands:

livecd / # cd /etc
livecd etc # echo "127.0.0.1 mybox.at.myplace mybox localhost" > hosts
livecd etc # sed -i -e 's/HOSTNAME.*/HOSTNAME="mybox"/' conf.d/hostname
(Use defined host name and check)
livecd etc # hostname mybox
livecd etc # hostname -f
mybox.at.myplace

Install a kernel source (usually gentoo-sources or vanilla-sources), configure it, compile it and copy the arch/i386/boot/bzImage file to /boot.

livecd etc # time emerge gentoo-sources

real  2m51.435s
user  0m58.220s
sys   0m29.890s
livecd etc # cd /usr/src/linux
livecd linux # make menuconfig
(Configure your kernel)
livecd linux # time make -j2

(Elapsed time depends highly on the options you selected)
real  3m51.962s
user  3m27.060s
sys   0m24.310s

livecd linux # make modules_install
livecd linux # cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/kernel

Edit your /etc/fstab and replace BOOT, ROOT and SWAP with the actual partition names. Don't forget to check that the file systems match your installation.

livecd linux # cd /etc
livecd etc # nano -w fstab
/dev/sda1   /boot     ext2    noauto,noatime     1 2
/dev/sda3   /         ext3    noatime            0 1
/dev/sda2   none      swap    sw                 0 0

Configure your network in /etc/conf.d/net. Add the net.eth0 init script to the default run level. If you have multiple NICs, symlink them to the net.eth0 init script and add them to the default run level as well. Either edit /etc/conf.d/net with nano or use the following commands:

livecd etc # cd conf.d
livecd conf.d # echo 'config_eth0=( "192.168.1.10/24" )' >> net
livecd conf.d # echo 'routes_eth0=( "default via 192.168.1.1" )' >> net
livecd conf.d # rc-update add net.eth0 default
(If you compiled your network card driver as a module,
add it to /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6)
livecd conf.d # echo r8169 >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6
(If you want to reconnect via ssh after you have rebooted your new box:)
livecd conf.d # rc-update add sshd default

Set the root password using passwd.

livecd conf.d # passwd
New UNIX password: type_the_password
Retype new UNIX password: type_the_password_again
passwd: password updated successfully

Check the system configuration in /etc/rc.conf, /etc/conf.d/rc, /etc/conf.d/keymaps, /etc/conf.d/clock and edit any of those files if required.

livecd conf.d # nano -w /etc/rc.conf
livecd conf.d # nano -w /etc/conf.d/rc
livecd conf.d # nano -w /etc/conf.d/keymaps
livecd conf.d # nano -w /etc/conf.d/clock

Install a system logger like syslog-ng and a cron daemon like vixie-cron, and add them to the default run level.

livecd conf.d # time emerge syslog-ng vixie-cron

real  1m52.699s
user  1m1.630s
sys   0m35.220s
livecd conf.d # rc-update add syslog-ng default
livecd conf.d # rc-update add vixie-cron default

Install the necessary file system tools (xfsprogs, reiserfsprogs or jfsutils) and networking tools (dhcpcd or rp-pppoe) if you need any.

livecd conf.d # emerge xfsprogs           (If you use the XFS file system)
livecd conf.d # emerge jfsutils           (If you use the JFS file system)
livecd conf.d # emerge reiserfsprogs      (If you use the Reiser file system)
livecd conf.d # emerge dhcpcd             (If you need a DHCP client)
livecd conf.d # USE="-X" emerge rp-pppoe  (If you need PPPoE ADSL connectivity)

Emerge grub or lilo. Configure either /boot/grub/grub.conf or /etc/lilo.conf and install the bootloader you have emerged.

1. Using grub

livecd conf.d # time emerge grub

real  1m8.634s
user  0m39.460s
sys   0m15.280s
livecd conf.d # nano -w /boot/grub/grub.conf

default 0
timeout 10

title=Gentoo
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/kernel root=/dev/sda3

livecd conf.d # grub
Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.

grub> root (hd0,0)
 Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

grub> setup (hd0)
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
 Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"...  16 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
 Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+16 p (hd0,0)/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/
grub/menu.lst"... succeeded
Done.

grub> quit

Now, proceed with the rebooting section.

2. Using lilo

livecd conf.d # time emerge lilo

real  0m47.016s
user  0m22.770s
sys   0m5.980s
livecd conf.d # nano -w /etc/lilo.conf

boot=/dev/sda
prompt
timeout=50
default=gentoo

image=/boot/kernel
  label=Gentoo
  read-only
  root=/dev/sda3

livecd conf.d # lilo
Added Gentoo *

Exit the chrooted environment, unmount all file systems and reboot:

livecd conf.d # exit
livecd / # umount /mnt/gentoo/proc /mnt/gentoo/boot /mnt/gentoo
livecd / # reboot
(Don't forget to remove the CD)

Log in as root, then add one or more users for daily use with useradd.

(Clean up your known_hosts file because your new box
has generated a new definitive hostkey)
$ nano -w ~/.ssh/known_hosts
(Look for the IP of your new PC and delete the line,
then save the file and exit nano)

(Use the IP address of your new box)
$ ssh root@192.168.1.10
The authenticity of host '192.168.1.10 (192.168.1.10)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 96:e7:2d:12:ac:9c:b0:94:90:9f:40:89:b0:45:26:8f.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added '192.168.1.10' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
Password: type_the_password

mybox ~ # adduser -g users -G lp,wheel,audio,cdrom,portage,cron -m john
mybox ~ # passwd john
New UNIX password: Set John's password
Retype new UNIX password: Type John's password again
passwd: password updated successfully

Start by selecting nearby mirrors either by defining the RSYNC and GENTOO_MIRRORS variables in /etc/make.conf or by using mirrorselect. You can also define the number of concurrent compilation processes at this point.

mybox ~ # emerge mirrorselect
mybox ~ # mirrorselect -i -o >> /etc/make.conf
mybox ~ # mirrorselect -i -r -o >> /etc/make.conf
(Usually, (the number of processors + 1) is a good value)
mybox ~ # echo 'MAKEOPTS="-j2"' >> /etc/make.conf

Now is a good time to enable or disable some USE flags. Run emerge -vpe world to list all currently installed packages and their enabled and disabled USE flags. Either edit /etc/make.conf or use the following command to define the USE variable:

mybox ~ # emerge -vpe world
(Portage displays the packages and their USE flags, as an example, let's
disable ipv6 and fortran, and enable userlocales and unicode)
mybox ~ # echo 'USE="nptl nptlonly -ipv6 -fortran userlocales unicode"' >> /etc/make.conf

If you enabled the userlocales USE flag for versions of glibc that still support it, you should edit /etc/locales.build and define the locales you want to build.

Later versions of glibc ignore the userlocales USE flag and use /etc/locale.gen instead. If you are upgrading glibc to such a version, you should create /etc/locale.gen and remove /etc/locales.build. Check the output of emerge -vpe world to know whether glibc supports the userlocales USE flag.

mybox ~ # cd /etc
(For versions of glibc with the userlocales USE flag)
mybox etc # nano -w locales.build

(For recent versions of glibc, convert locales.build)
mybox etc # grep '^[^#].*' locales.build | sed 's:/: :' >locale.gen
mybox etc # rm locales.build
mybox etc # nano -w locale.gen

Last but not least, you may want to alter the CFLAGS variable in your /etc/make.conf to optimise the code to your specific needs. Please note that using a long list of flags is rarely needed and can even lead to a broken system. It is recommended to specify the processor type in the march option and stick to -O2 -pipe.

You may also want to switch to ~x86. You should only do this if you can deal with the odd broken ebuild or package. If you'd rather keep your system stable, don't add the ACCEPT_KEYWORDS variable. Adding FEATURES="parallel-fetch ccache" is also a good idea.

mybox etc # nano -w make.conf
(Set -march to your CPU type in CFLAGS)
CFLAGS="-O2 -march=athlon-xp -pipe"
(Add the following line)
FEATURES="parallel-fetch ccache"
(Only add the following if you know what you're doing)
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~x86"

You might want to recompile your whole system twice to make full use of your latest configuration changes. It would take quite a long time to complete and yield minimal speed benefits. You can let your system optimise itself gradually over time when new versions of packages are released. However, recompiling is a still good idea from the standpoint of maintaining system consistency. Please see the Gentoo GCC Upgrading Guide for a discussion on the benefits of ensuring a consistently built system and world.

Recompiling only the packages that have already been updated since the release or that are affected by your new USE flags will take enough time. You might also have to remove packages that block your upgrade. Look for "[blocks B ]" in the output of emerge -vpuD --newuse world and use emerge -C to remove them.

(Install ccache)
mybox etc # emerge ccache

(Please note that the switch to ~x86 causes many packages to be upgraded)
mybox etc # emerge -vpuD --newuse world
(Take a good look at the package list and their USE flags,
remove blocking packages if any, and start the lengthy process)
mybox etc # time emerge -vuD --newuse world
(79 packages have been (re)compiled)

real  180m13.276s
user  121m22.905s
sys   36m31.472s

(Remerge libtool to avoid further potential problems)
mybox etc # emerge libtool

(Update config files, make sure you do not let etc-update
update config files you have edited)
mybox etc # etc-update

(If perl has been updated, you should run the perl-cleaner script)
mybox etc # time perl-cleaner all
real  1m6.495s
user  0m42.699s
sys   0m10.641s

(In case of a major upgrade of python, you should run the python-updater script)
mybox etc # python-updater

Depending on what your new Gentoo machine is supposed to do, you will probably want to install server applications or a desktop system. Just as an example, emerge gnome and emerge kde have been timed on the ~x86 system installed as describe above. Both have been installed from the same starting point.

You should check our documentation index to find out how to install and configure the applications of your choice.

mybox etc # emerge -vp gnome
(Look at the list of packages and their USE flags,
then edit make.conf if required.
mybox etc # nano -w /etc/make.conf
(The following USE flags have been defined)
USE="nptl nptlonly -ipv6 -fortran unicode svg hal dbus \
     -kde -qt -arts -eds -esd gnome gstreamer gtk -xmms firefox"

mybox etc # time emerge gnome
(326 packages have been emerged)

real  520m44.532s
user  339m21.144s
sys   146m22.337s

mybox etc # emerge -vp kde-meta
(Look at the list of packages and their USE flags,
then edit make.conf if required.
mybox etc # nano -w /etc/make.conf
The following USE flags have been defined)
USE="nptl nptlonly -ipv6 -fortran unicode svg hal dbus \
     kde qt -arts -eds -esd -gnome -gstreamer -gtk -xmms -firefox"

mybox etc # time emerge kde-meta
(391 packages have been emerged)

real  1171m25.318s
user  851m26.393s
sys   281m45.629s