Before we start, we first list what hardware requirements you need to successfully install Gentoo on your box.
Sparc System |
---|
CPU |
Memory |
Diskspace |
Swap space |
The
All Installation CDs allow you to boot, set up networking, initialize your partitions and start installing Gentoo from the Internet. We currently provide two Installation CDs 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 wish to install Gentoo without a working Internet connection, please use
the installation instructions described in the
The two Installation CDs that we currently provide are:
We currently only provide Installation CDs for the sparc64 architecture. Users
of sparc32 can use the experimental netboot images to install Gentoo from.
More information about netbooting can be found in our
To help you decide which Installation CD you need, we have written down the major advantages and disadvantages of each Installation CD.
The Minimal Installation CD is called
Minimal Installation CD | Pros and Cons |
---|---|
+ | |
- |
The Universal Installation CD is called
Universal Installation CD | Pros and Cons |
---|---|
+ | |
- |
You might find a
If you intend to use the Packages CD to quickly install additional software, make sure that you use the same subarchitecture as the stage3 tarball you use.
A stage3 tarball is an archive containing a minimal Gentoo environment, suitable
to continue the Gentoo installation using the instructions in this manual.
Previously, the Gentoo Handbook described the installation using one of three
stage tarballs. While Gentoo still offers stage1 and stage2 tarballs, the
official installation method uses the stage3 tarball. If you are interested in
performing a Gentoo installation using a stage1 or stage2 tarball, please read
the Gentoo FAQ on
You have chosen to use a Gentoo Installation CD. We'll first start by downloading and burning the chosen Installation CD. We previously discussed the several available Installation CDs, but where can you find them?
You can download any of the Installation CDs (and, if you want to, a Packages
CD as well) from one of our
Inside that directory you'll find 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
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
$ 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
Insert the Gentoo Installation CD 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 Installation CD). Type in
boot: gentoo-2.4
Once the Installation CD is booted, you will be automatically logged on to the system.
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. You will also find a root prompt on the serial
console (
Continue with
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
# modprobe 8139too
If you plan on giving other people access to your installation
environment or you want to chat using
To change the root password, use the
# 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 -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 - 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
If you want to view the documentation on the CD you can immediately run
# links2 /mnt/cdrom/docs/handbook/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 http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-sparc.xml
You can go back to your original terminal by pressing
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
(
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