News/Blog:
[ 2010-01-25 ]
Written by Rich
A quick Gentoo Stage 4 install. This has been pre-compiled by me but only for 32-bit i686 architecture. If you want to change the options specific to your processor, you can change that after installing this stage 4 - but you can not change to 64-bit.
Getting started, you will need to use a LiveCD of your choice. So long as it has the ability to access the internet (unless you have the stage 4 downloaded on a disk or USB drive) and basic disk utlities (such as fdisk). My favorite LiveCD is BackTrack 3.
To install, pop in the LiveCD and boot it up. You do not need a GUI. Text console will be just fine for this procedure. Next, setup your disk partitions. A basic partition scheme:
/boot - 50M
swap - (2x RAM)
/ - remaining
Use fdisk to accomplish this task. When you're satisfied with your partitions, we'll format them.
mkfs.ext2 /dev/hda1
mkfs.ext4 /dev/hda3
mkswap /dev/hda2
Note: Depending on the LiveCD you use, it may not support the ext4 filesystem. ext3 should be used instead. Also note that the disk may be /dev/sda (sdb, etc.) depending on your drive type and number of drives.
Next, let's mount the work space:
mkdir /mnt/gentoo
mount /dev/hda3 /mnt/gentoo
mkdir /mnt/gentoo/boot
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/gentoo/boot
swapon /dev/hda2
The partitions are now mounted. Next, let's download the stage 4 tarball and extract it:
cd /mnt/gentoo
wget http://richgannon.info/stage4.tar.bz2
tar -jxvf stage4.tar.bz2
The extraction will take a few minutes. When complete, mount the /proc and then we're almost ready to rock:
mount -t proc none /mnt/gentoo/proc
Now, we have to chroot into the newly installed OS and install the Grub boot loader:
chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash
env-update
source /etc/profile
grub
You should not have a grub> prompt. Type in the following (this is assuming this is the first or only harddrive installed):
root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0)
quit
You should not have received any errors - if you did you may have chosen the wrong drive (try hd1,0, hd2,0, etc.).
Grub should now be installed. The last thing you have to do is configure the /etc/fstab file.
Edit the /etc/fstab file to reflect the appropriate drive letters and partition numbers for each mount point. Also be sure to change it to the appropriate filesystem used such as ext3, ext4, etc. You can add any extra partition/mount points you have configured your disk for as well.
Once done, the OS is ready to be booted. Exit out of the chroot:
exit
And now unmount the partitions:
umount /mnt/gentoo/proc
umount /mnt/gentoo/boot
umount /mnt/gentoo
And now reboot the LiveCD and remove it when it pops out (or gets to BIOS screen).
And now grub should load the kernel and the OS should start right up. Do note, however, that the stage4 install I created has a rather bloated kernel so it will support all kinds of hardware. You can slim it down using the genkernel utility at your leisure.
Enjoy and let me know if you have any problems!
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[ 2009-10-21 ]
Written by Rich
Haven't actually used my site in over 3 years. I will be recoding the PHP in the coming weeks as free time and boredom permits. I will start using this again for blogging and other purposes soon.
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