Gentoo Linux x86 Quick Install Guide no /dev/sda3 Steven Wagner The Quick Install guide covers the Gentoo install process in a non-verbose manner. Its purpose is to allow users to perform a stage3 install in no time. Users should already have prior experience with installing Gentoo Linux if they want to follow this guide. 27 2012-03-31 Introduction

This guide contains all the 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.

New users should read the Handbook as it gives a better overview about the installation process. The Quick Install guide is designed for experienced users who just need a checklist to follow.

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
Quick Install Guide
Preparing the Disks

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. Replace sda with your disk. Most systems ignore the bootable flag, but a few need it. Set this flag on your boot partition with fdisk's a command. 

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
livecd ~ # cd /mnt/gentoo
Kernel Configuration

Install a kernel source (usually gentoo-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

Optionally build an initramfs to boot from: 

# emerge genkernel
# genkernel --install --no-ramdisk-modules initramfs
Reboot

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

livecd conf.d # exit
livecd / # umount -l /mnt/gentoo/dev{/shm,/pts,}
livecd / # umount -l /mnt/gentoo{/proc,/boot,}
livecd / # reboot
(Don't forget to remove the CD)