Gentoo AMD64 Installation Guide

README:

This article is for those whom desire a quick and specific installation guide. It also makes a sufficient checklist to ensure nothing is missing.
By the time you are done, you should have a minimal AMD64 system capable of standing on its own 2 feet. Written using the Archlinux Installation Media as a means for Chrooting.
Any Linux Live Media will work. This guide is only compatible with all 64-Bit X86 Intel, AMD and VIA chipsets. Most PCs, Laptops and Macs fall under this range.

| Warning

This is not an official Gentoo Wiki page. Please provide this resource in the Gentoo forums if you run into trouble. The content below is a modified version of this wiki page.

Format drive

| Danger!

THIS STEP WILL WIPE YOUR DRIVE! If you are unwilling to do so, please do not follow this guide and refer to the Gentoo Handbook instead.

BIOS (MBR)

Create two partitions. 1024MB for swap and the rest for /

root # cfdisk /dev/sda

Format the partitions:

root #

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1

root #

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3

root #

mkswap /dev/sda2 && swapon /dev/sda2

Format the partitions as Extended File System Version 4. Assumes sda1 is root:

root #

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1

root #

mkswap /dev/sda2 && swapon /dev/sda2

UEFI (GPT)

| Note

For NVME, it's safe to assume nvme0n1 instead of sda. Partition scheming for NVME is a bit different, being nvme0n1pX instead of sdaX.

Create three partitions. 300MB for EFI, 1024MB swap and the rest goes for /

root # fdisk /dev/sda

Command (m for help): g

Created a new GPT disklabel (GUID: 15E591FB-FA4B-422E-91F7-BF2F82013199).

Command (m for help): n ↵
Partition number (1-128, default 1): ↵
First sector (2048-7814037134, default 2048): ↵
Last sector, +/-sectors or +/-size{K,M,G,T,P} (2048-7814037134, default 7814035455): +300M ↵

Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux filesystem' and of size 300 MiB.

Command (m for help): n ↵
Partition number (2-128, default 2): ↵
First sector (616448-7814037134, default 616448): ↵
Last sector, +/-sectors or +/-size{K,M,G,T,P} (616448-7814037134, default 7814035455): +1024M ↵

Created a new partition 2 of type 'Linux filesystem' and of size 1 GiB.

Command (m for help): n ↵
Partition number (3-128, default 3): ↵
First sector (2713600-7814037134, default 2713600): 2 ↵
Last sector, +/-sectors or +/-size{K,M,G,T,P} (2713600-7814037134, default 7814035455): ↵

Created a new partition 3 of type 'Linux filesystem' and of size 3.6 TiB. ↵

Command (m for help): w ↵

Format the partitions as Extended File System Version 4:

root #

mkfs.vfat /dev/sda1

root #

mkswap /dev/sda2

root #

swapon /dev/sda2

root #

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3

Mount partitions

BIOS/MBR

root #

mount /dev/sda3 /mnt

root #

mkdir /mnt/boot

root #

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot

UEFI/GPT

root #

mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/gentoo

root #

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot

root #

mkdir -p /mnt/boot/efi

root #

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/boot/efi

Stage 3

Find nearest mirror from this list.

Navigate to the /mnt directory:

root # cd /mnt

Download the stage3 tarball of your choosing. This guide assumes you are using an OpenRC stage. Please ensure the links package (links2 on debian distros) is installed on host media.

root # links https://distfiles.gentoo.org/releases/amd64/autobuilds/

Unpack the stage 3 file:

root # tar -xpfv --xattrs-include='*.*' --numeric-owner stage3*#don't use the verbose (v) flag on slow TTYs.

Chroot

Chroot into the extracted stage3:

root #

cd /mnt/

root # mount --types proc /proc /mnt/proc

root # mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys

root #

mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev

root #

mount --bind /run /mnt/run

root #

cp /etc/resolv.conf etc && chroot . /bin/bash

root # source /etc/profile

or if using Gentoo installation media:

root # cd /mnt/gentoo && cp /etc/resolv.conf etc && arch-chroot .

Portage

| Note
Don't forget to edit the make.conf file and configure ebuild repository.

Sync the Gentoo repository and update the @world set:

root # emerge-webrsync

root # emerge -avuDN @world

User accounts

Change the root password:

root # passwd

Create user(s):

root #

useradd -m username

root #

usermod -a -G wheel,portage,audio,video,usb,cdrom username

root # passwd username

Note
Spaces are not allowed between groups.

Configure system

Install vim (optional)

Note
vim's installation is optional, you can use nano if you prefer. It is prebuilt within the stage3 tarballs.

root # emerge -vq vim

Editing the fstab file

Configure /etc/fstab to match the actual partitioning performed in the step above:

FILE /etc/fstab

/dev/sda1		/boot		vfat		noauto,noatime	1 2
/dev/sda3		/		ext4		noatime		0 1
/dev/sda2		none		swap		sw		0 0
/dev/cdrom		/mnt/cdrom	auto		noauto,ro	0 0

Locale

Set system locale:

FILE /etc/env.d/02locale Example locale configuration

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

Add the locale to /etc/locale.gen :

FILE /etc/locale.genExample locale configuration

en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
C.UTF8 UTF-8

then generate the locale:

root # locale-gen

Hostname

Edit /etc/conf.d/hostname

FILE /etc/conf.d/hostnameExample Hostname configuration

HOSTNAME="Gentoo"

Timezone

Set the appropriate timezone. Substitute America/New_York with your Timezone:

root # ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/New_York /etc/localtime

Kernel

Emerge

To build the kernel from source with global use flags:

root # emerge -av sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel sys-kernel/linux-headers sys-kernel/linux-firmware --autounmask=y --autounmask-write

root # dispatch-conf

To install precompiled kernel images rather than compiling the kernel:

root #

emerge -av sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel-bin sys-kernel/linux-headers sys-kernel/linux-firmware --autounmask=y --autounmask-write

root # dispatch-conf

Bootloader

Specify the correct setting for the system's firmware. BIOS/MBR is pc, 64-bit UEFI is efi-64, 32-bit UEFI is efi-32:

| Note

32-bit
 EFI is usually older Apple hardware.  It 
has nothing to do with the Processor architecture.

Emerge GRUB:

root # echo 'GRUB_PLATFORMS="efi-64"' >> /etc/portage/make.conf

root # emerge -av sys-boot/grub

Assuming the system has BIOS firmware:

root # grub-install /dev/sda

Supposing the system has UEFI firmware and the EFI partition is mounted in the /boot/efi directory:

root # grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --removable

Use the grub-mkconfig command to generate the configuration file:

root # grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Found vmlinuz-3.14.4-gentoo

Network

For ethernet install dhcpcd:

root # emerge -av net-misc/dhcpcd

root # rc-update add dhcpcd default

For wireless networks install Network Manager (with wifi use flag):

root # emerge -av networkmanager

root # rc-update add NetworkManager default

root # rc-service NetworkManager start

root # nmtui

Alternatively use iwd and dhcpcd:

root # emerge -av iproute2 iwd wireless-tools dhcpcd

root # rc-update add iwd default

root # rc-update add dhcpcd default

root # rc-service iwd start

root # iwctl

[iwd]# exit

Exit the Chroot and Reboot into Gentoo

Exit chroot, unmount partitions, and reboot:

root #

exit

root # umount -R /mnt

root # reboot

Assuming you configured everything according to this wiki, you should have a bootable system, albiet a minimal one. If you missed something, you can boot the live media and return to the Mount partitions section.