Gentoo Install Howto

**Dark Atheist** · April 21st, 2012

This little howto will show you how to setup and compile a minimal Gentoo install - all of this information was found from various sites on the net, and a lot was taken from the gentoo handbook.

Place the disc in the drive and press enter when prompted, when you get to the root prompt type passwd to set a password for the root account, and then net-setup eth0 to configure your network card, then type in - /etc/init.d/sshd start - this will start the ssh server, now you just have to run something like putty, or some other ssh util and connect to your machine.

Here we will set up the disc(s)

Code:

fdisk /dev/sda

Make a 100meg partition,this will be sda1, and will be used as the un-encrypted boot drive

Code:

(optional)

If you want to wipe the drive you can either use dban or

dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda2

cryptsetup -y --cipher aes-cbc-essiv:sha256 --key-size 256 luksFormat /dev/sda2

You can change the name vault to anything you like but you will have to remember it for later.

Code:

cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda2 vault
pvcreate /dev/mapper/vault
vgcreate vg /dev/mapper/vault

You can change these values depending on the size of your hard drive, the below are used on a 500GB HDD

Code:

lvcreate -L1G -nroot vg
lvcreate -L8G -nswap vg
lvcreate -L1G -nopt vg
lvcreate -L15G -nusr vg
lvcreate -L10G -ntmp vg
lvcreate -L10G -nvar vg

issue vgdisplay to show free space on drive and then

lvcreate -l xx -nftpweb vg - xx being vaule from vgdisplay

this could be changed to home or anything you want, again remember it for later

Code:

edit /etc/mke2fs.conf and remove the huge_file option,
this is not required unless you will be storing files of 2TB

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1

tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/sda1 - removes journal

mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/vg-root
mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/vg-opt
mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/vg-usr
mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/vg-tmp
mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/vg-var
mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/vg-ftpweb - or whatever you have named it
mkswap /dev/mapper/vg-swap

swapon /dev/mapper/vg-swap


mount /dev/mapper/vg-root /mnt/gentoo
mkdir /mnt/gentoo/boot
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/gentoo/boot
mkdir /mnt/gentoo/ftpweb
mkdir /mnt/gentoo/opt
mkdir /mnt/gentoo/usr
mkdir /mnt/gentoo/tmp
mkdir /mnt/gentoo/var
mkdir /mnt/gentoo/var/tmp
mount /dev/mapper/vg-opt /mnt/gentoo/opt
mount /dev/mapper/vg-tmp /mnt/gentoo/tmp
mount /dev/mapper/vg-usr /mnt/gentoo/usr
mount /dev/mapper/vg-var /mnt/gentoo/var
mount /dev/mapper/vg-ftpweb /mnt/gentoo/ftpweb

chmod 1777 /mnt/gentoo/tmp
chmod 1777 /mnt/gentoo/var/tmp

cd /mnt/gentoo

links http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/mirrors.xml

You will want to downlad the latest stage3 tarball, and portage tarball

Code:

md5sum -c stage3-amd64-<release>.tar.bz2.DIGESTS

tar xvjpf stage3-*.tar.bz2

md5sum -c portage-latest.tar.bz2.md5sum

tar xvjf /mnt/gentoo/portage-latest.tar.bz2 -C /mnt/gentoo/usr

Next we will edit make.conf to tailor it to your CPU

Safe Cflags AMD
Safe Cflags Intel

Find your CPU from the above links and add what is suggested, i just normally add -march=native -mtune=native, and leave what is already in the make.conf file

Code:

nano -w /mnt/gentoo/etc/make.conf

Next we will select some mirrors close to you for your updates and syncing of portage

Code:

mirrorselect -i -o >> /mnt/gentoo/etc/make.conf

mirrorselect -i -r -o >> /mnt/gentoo/etc/make.conf

This will copy over the DNS address that you entered if you used manual setup or dhcp

Code:

cp -L /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/gentoo/etc/

Now to chroot into you install and start the fun

Code:

mount -t proc none /mnt/gentoo/proc
mount --rbind /dev /mnt/gentoo/dev


chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash
env-update
source /etc/profile
export PS1="(chroot) $PS1"

Optional - This is if you wish to use the latest GCC (as of this writing it was 4.6 - you will have to add the ~arch use flag to make.conf to use this ~amd64 ~x86)

Add to /etc/portage/package.keywords

Code:

=sys-devel/gcc-4.6* **


echo sys-devel/gcc >> /etc/portage/package.unmask



add this to /etc/portage/package.use

sys-fs/lvm2 static static-libs
sys-fs/mdadm static
sys-apps/busybox static static-libs
sys-apps/util-linux static-libs
sys-fs/cryptsetup static
=sys-apps/util-linux-2.20.1-r1 static-libs
>=dev-libs/libgpg-error-1.10-r1 static-libs
>=dev-libs/libgcrypt-1.5.0-r1 static-libs
>=dev-libs/popt-1.16-r1 static-libs


Add this to /etc/portage/package.mask

>=sys-fs/udev-182

emerge portage

emerge gcc

gcc-config -l

gcc-config 2

env-update && source /etc/profile

This command will drop you out of the chroot, issue command below to put your right back in there

Code:

export PS1="(chroot) $PS1"

Code:

emerge --oneshot libtool

This will help localize your machine xx_XX is your location, e.g en_US

Code:

nano -w /etc/env.d/02locale

LANG="xx_XX.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="C"

nano -w /etc/locale.gen

locale-gen

env-update && source /etc/profile

This command will drop you out of the chroot, issue command below to put your right back in there

Code:

export PS1="(chroot) $PS1"

emerge -e system - they say with latest versions of gcc you dont have to do this, but because I have changed my flags in make.conf, i do this just to be safe, after the compile has finished you will want to type

Code:

etc-update

Seeing as its a fresh install and no conf files have been changed I just select -5

This will set your local time

Code:

cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/XXXXX/XXXXX /etc/localtime

echo "XXXX/XXXXXX" > /etc/timezone

Again this will depend on your location - you can issue - ls /usr/share/zoneinfo - and find your location

Now comes the kernel - I always make mine from scratch - you can find out how from here

Code:

emerge gentoo-sources

cd /usr/src/linux

make menuconfig - change anything you need, this is where the above site comes in handy, or you could go here and ask pappy nice and he may make you a .config file

Now we do a few extra steps to get a nice screen when we boot up

Code:

make

emerge klibc

emerge v86d


make menuconfig

add /usr/share/v86d/initramfs - under general setup

make && make modules_install

cp arch/x86_64/boot/bzImage /boot/kernel-3.3.1-gentoo

or what ever the version is of the kernel you are using

Here is where you need to remember what you named your vg-ftpweb dir if you changed it

Code:

nano -w /etc/fstab

/dev/sda1                /boot        ext4    defaults,noatime,nodev        1 2
/dev/mapper/vg-swap      none         swap    sw                                      0 0
/dev/mapper/vg-root      /            ext4    defaults,noatime,nodev        0 1
/dev/mapper/vg-opt       /opt         ext4    defaults,noatime,nodev        0 1
/dev/mapper/vg-usr       /usr         ext4    defaults,noatime,nodev        0 1
/dev/mapper/vg-tmp       /tmp         ext4    defaults,noatime,nodev        0 1
/dev/mapper/vg-var       /var         ext4    defaults,noatime,nodev        0 1
/dev/mapper/vg-ftpweb    /ftpweb      ext4    defaults,noatime,nodev        0 1
proc        /proc        proc    defaults             0 0
shm         /dev/shm     tmpfs   nodev,nosuid,noexec  0 0

Now we give the machine a name

Code:

nano -w /etc/conf.d/hostname

Now we setup the network

Code:

nano -w /etc/conf.d/net

For staitc IP's

config_eth0="192.168.1.20 netmask 255.255.255.0 brd 192.168.1.255"
routes_eth0="default via 192.168.1.15"

For DHCP

config_eth0="dhcp"

cd /etc/init.d
ln -s net.lo net.eth0
rc-update add net.eth0 default

Now to map any ip addresses to names if you require it

Code:

nano -w /etc/hosts

Code:

passwd - set the root password for your install

Here you should just uncomment the options rc_logger="YES" and rc_sys=""

Code:

nano -w /etc/rc.conf
nano -w /etc/conf.d/rc

Here we can set the loayout of your Keyboard

Code:

nano -w /etc/conf.d/keymaps

Here you can set the time, You can either leave it as UTC (which always shows wrong time for me) or you can set it to local

Code:

nano -w /etc/conf.d/hwclock

Now we install the system tools

Code:

emerge syslog-ng
rc-update add syslog-ng default

emerge vixie-cron
rc-update add vixie-cron default

emerge mlocate

This will install the firewall, this will not be covered here, but there are many guides on the net

Code:

emerge iptables

This will set the SSH to start when the pc boots

Code:

rc-update add sshd default

Now we install the boot loader

Code:

emerge grub

Now we have to make the initramfs, so that the system can open and boot the encrypted drive

Code:

emerge -pv mdadm lvm2 busybox cryptsetup
check that they have static and on some static-libs


mkdir -p /usr/src/initramfs

cd /usr/src/initramfs

mkdir bin dev dev/mapper dev/vc etc newroot proc sys
 
cp /bin/busybox /sbin/cryptsetup /sbin/lvm.static /sbin/mdadm bin
mv bin/lvm.static bin/lvm
ln -s busybox bin/cat
ln -s busybox bin/mount
ln -s busybox bin/sh
ln -s busybox bin/switch_root
ln -s busybox bin/umount
ln -s busybox bin/sleep
ln -s lvm bin/vgscan
ln -s lvm bin/vgchange
 
cp -a /dev/console /dev/sda2 /dev/null /dev/urandom dev
 
cp -a /dev/mapper/vg-root dev/mapper
ln -s ../console dev/vc/0
 
mkdir /dev/vc
ln -s ../console /dev/vc/0
busybox dumpkmap > etc/kmap-us - again you can change this to your location
ln -s busybox bin/loadkmap

This will make and compile the initramfs

Code:

nano -w init

#!/bin/sh
mount -t proc proc /proc
mount -t sysfs sysfs /sys
mount -t devtmpfs devtmpfs /dev
#for a french azerty keyboard
loadkmap < /etc/kmap-us
rescue() {
   echo "Dropping to rescue shell" >&2
   /bin/sh </dev/tty1 >/dev/tty1 2>&1
}
/bin/cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda2 vault || rescue
/bin/lvm pvscan || rescue
/bin/lvm vgscan || rescue
/bin/lvm vgchange -ay vg || rescue
mount -r /dev/mapper/vg-root /newroot || rescue
CMDLINE=`cat /proc/cmdline`
umount /dev
umount /sys
umount /proc
exec /bin/busybox switch_root /newroot /sbin/init ${CMDLINE}

In order for the file we just made to be ran we have to change it's permissions so it is executable

Code:

chmod u+x init
find . | cpio --quiet -o -H newc | gzip -9 > /boot/initramfs

Now to setup the boot loader so that the system knows where the files are that are required to boot

Code:

nano -w /boot/grub/grub.conf

default 0
timeout 30
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title Gentoo Linux 3.3.1
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/kernel-3.3.1-gentoo root=/dev/sda2 rootfstype=ext4 video=uvesafb:1280x800-16,mtrr:3,ywrap
initrd /boot/initramfs

The above will need to be changed depending on what you called your kernel file and initramfs, as for the video resolution that too will have to be changed to sort what your card can handle

Now to finish things off

Code:

grep -v rootfs /proc/mounts > /etc/mtab

grub-install --no-floppy /dev/sda

Now comes the scary part

Code:

exit
cd
umount -l /mnt/gentoo/dev{/shm,/pts,}
umount -l /mnt/gentoo{/boot,/proc,}
reboot

Remove the CD after the pc boots and cross every finger, toe, and anything else you can cross and hope your system boots, as long as you have followed this guide to the letter (and I haven't mistyped or overlooked anything) you should be asked to enter your password to boot the system, sometimes it will be gobbled up in all the output on the screen, if it looks like the system has hung just put in your password and hit enter

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