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392 Part III . Choosing and Installing a Linux Distribution If you have a slow processor, consider getting precompiled packages because the full compilation process can take a long time. Obtain the Gentoo installation CD image from the CD that comes with this book, as described in Appendix A. With the install CD in hand, here s how to install Gentoo on your computer: 1. Insert CD. Insert the CD (minimal or universal) into your computer s CD or DVD drive. 2. Reboot. Reboot your computer. 3. Boot CD. From the boot prompt, press Enter. (If you are not able to boot the install medium, press F1 or F2 to see other install options that might help you get going.) Gentoo should detect your computer hardware, start the install process, and display a boot prompt. 4. Set date. Type the date command to make sure the date and time are set correctly. If they need to be changed, use the date command (with options) to change them. For example, to set the date to 8:15 a.m. June 15, 2006, type: # date 061508152006 5. Load modules. If some piece of hardware was not auto-detected, you may have to load the module you need to access that hardware. Use the modprobe command with the name of the module you want to load. For example, to load the module for an Orinoco wireless LAN card, you can type: # modprobe orinoco Do a Web search for Linux and the name of the hardware not being detected to find out what module to load. 6. Configure network. Type ifconfig eth0 to see if the Internet connection to your first Ethernet card is up and running. Then try to ping a computer on the Internet to make sure you can get out (for example, ping www.gentoo.org). If you are not able to pick up a DHCP server to automatically connect to the Internet, you can set up your Internet connection manually, by typing: # net-setup eth0 Refer to the network configuration information in the installation procedure in Chapter 8 to help you answer questions about setting up your Internet connection manually. 7. Partition hard disk. Partition your hard disk to prepare it to receive your Gentoo installation. You can use the fdisk utility to do this. Gentoo recommends a 64MB boot volume (ext2 file system), a swap partition that s double the size of your RAM, and a large root (/) partition (ReiserFS file system). Start fdisk by following the command with the name of your first hard disk (such as /dev/hda or /dev/sda for your first IDE or SCSI hard disk, respectively). Tip
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Chapter 13 . Running Gentoo Linux 391 Begin with the following CD image: install-x86-minimal-2005.1.iso. This bootable minimal install CD image (60MB) includes just enough software to begin the install procedure. This CD image is included on the CD that comes with this book, so you can copy and burn that image to a separate CD to start this installation procedure. You can also find this image in any Gentoo mirror site (in the releases/x86/2005.1/installcd directory). If you have a slow computer or no broadband Internet connection, I recommend that you get the universal CD instead, as well as the packages CD before you begin installing. Those two CDs enable you to do a complete Gentoo install without needing to access the Internet. You can download the disk images from Gentoo mirror sites (refer to www.gentoo.org/main/en/mirrors.xml for the locations of Gentoo mirror sites). Here s where you can find the universal and packages CD images: . install-x86-universal-2005.1.iso This bootable install CD image contains enough software to enable you to have a working Gentoo system without going on the Internet. It is located in a releases/x86/2005.1/installcd/ livecd/ directory on a mirror site. . packages-x86-2005.1.iso This non-bootable CD image contains many popular packages you might want with Gentoo. The contents include popular, precompiled packages that you can add after the basic Gentoo system is installed. While this CD saves you download and compile time, it does not let you do the optimization for your particular machine on the packages it includes. Its image is located in releases/x86/2005.1/packagecd/ on a mirror site. By the time you read this, there may be a later version of Gentoo available. If you decide to use a later version, you should find the associated install procedure from the Gentoo site. Version numbers include the year and release number. For example, 2005.1 represents the second release in 2005 (2005.0 was the first). For a more detailed description of the Gentoo install process, refer to the Gentoo Linux x86 Quick Install Guide (www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-x86-quickinstall.xml) and the larger, more general Gentoo 2005.1 Handbook (www.gentoo.org/doc/en/ handbook/2005.1/index.xml). Starting Gentoo Installation Here are the minimum computer requirements for a Gentoo installation using the x86 procedure described in this chapter: . 1GB of hard disk space . 64MB of RAM . A 486 processor (or better) . 300MB of total memory (combined RAM and swap) Note
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390 Part III . Choosing and Installing a Linux Distribution Simply step through the /usr/portage directory structure to see the software packages you can install, information about how each is built, and patches that are available. Installing Gentoo A Gentoo installation is more like building your own Linux than it is like typical Linux installs. While many Linux installations start you with a precompiled set of software and nice screens to lead you through, Gentoo boots you to a shell and expects you to set up the computer by hand. In the example installation, you ll even build your own binaries from source code. To someone who has never used Linux (or other UNIX systems), Gentoo installs can appear daunting. If you can tough it out, however, you will learn what goes into setting up and making a Linux system in a way that you won t find in any other Linux distribution. The advantages to your installing Gentoo are that there is excellent documentation available and an extraordinary community supporting Gentoo. If you make it through the install, you will have: . A tuned system Because you are making decisions about your software before the binaries are produced, you can tune your system to be built specifically for the hardware you are using. You can tell Gentoo the exact processor, file system types, sound cards, or other features you want built into the kernel or loadable modules. . The software you want Gentoo enables you to select the software you want to install, and because you are compiling it yourself, you can even tell Gentoo what features to include with it. For example, if you are adding the Evolution e-mail client, you can choose to include (or not include) LDAP support for shared address books on your network. . Fewer dependency issues When you build software yourself, dependency issues are taken care of at compile time, so you don t have to worry about getting a software package that was created for a different architecture or kernel. Your applications will be built for your operating system because you build them that way. Getting Gentoo The Gentoo Linux distribution is available in several different forms. To provide the full feel of installing Gentoo, this chapter illustrates a Gentoo install that is done from a minimal disk image. You will download and compile most of the software you need (including the kernel itself). To do this procedure, you need a broadband Internet connection (no dial-up).
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Chapter 13 . Running Gentoo Linux 389 To update your Portage directory tree so that it contains the latest information to install software packages, type the following: # emerge sync To get your Gentoo system up-to-date, use the -u world option. The following command checks all the software packages you have installed on your computer, and then goes to a Gentoo mirror site to download and install the latest versions of each of those packages: # emerge -u world To view the many other options available with emerge, type man emerge or run emerge with the help option: # emerge -h | less You can use emerge to install packages contained on your local computer or have the packages downloaded automatically from Gentoo software mirror sites. During the build process, emerge handles getting all the dependencies that the software you choose require. Finding Software Packages Part of the Gentoo installation process includes installing the Portage directory tree in the /usr/portage directory. You can step around that directory to see the packages that are available. As I mentioned earlier, several thousand are available. Most software packages fall into the following major categories: . app Applications software packages, such as editors, antivirus software, administrative tools, accessibility tools, CD writing applications, and many other packages. . dev A wide variety of development tools. . games Dozens of board, arcade, first-person-shooter, puzzle, and strategy games, and games servers. . media A variety of audio, video, and other multimedia tools. . net Communications, server, firewall, and other network tools. . sys System configuration tools. . www Web communications servers and related software packages. . x11 Miscellaneous tools for the X Window System graphical interface, along with related themes and window managers.
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388 Part III . Choosing and Installing a Linux Distribution processors. Optimized Linux kernels are also available with Gentoo for different specific processors within each architecture. Some of the ports are still works in progress, so for the time being you will probably get the best experience using an x86 platform to run Gentoo. To explore Gentoo, it s more appropriate to start with the tools for getting what you want than it is to talk about what you end up with. If you build Gentoo tuned to your hardware and include just the software that you need, your system isn t going to look like any other Gentoo system. Managing Software with Portage At the heart of Gentoo is the Portage software management system. Based on the FreeBSD Ports system, Portage enables you to find, download, configure, build, and install the exact software you choose. Using the Portage system can give you some excellent insights into how Linux is created. As Daniel Robbins says, . . . we are documenting how to build a Linux system at the same time we are moving Gentoo Linux development forward. Those developing software are encouraged not only to contribute their software to the Gentoo project but also to contribute the scripts they use to build that software. Portage tools and build scripts open up Linux technology beginning at the source-code level. Key components of the Portage package management system include the emerge command and the package build scripts (contained in the /usr/portage directory). You can use these tools to build the entire Gentoo distribution from scratch, or rely on some prebuilt binaries to save some compile time. In most cases, you won t have to modify any configuration files to get a solid Gentoo installation. Following are some examples of the emerge command that you can use with Gentoo. To use some of the examples, you need to either have a connection to the Internet or have downloaded all package updates to your local computer. When the emerge command is run to install software or to get updated software packages, it looks on a Gentoo mirror site if it can t find the packages it needs locally. The first example lets you search (-s) the /usr/portage directory tree for packages that interest you (substitute the package name you want for package): # emerge -s package To build and install a package you choose, simply type emerge with the package name: # emerge package
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Chapter 13 . Running Gentoo Linux 387 Given its slant toward personal use, there is a lot of interest in Gentoo forums for configuring desktops, configuring multimedia applications, and getting popular games running. There are also significant discussions on securing Gentoo because most of its security tools don t come with friendly, graphical interfaces and require a lot of manual setup. Despite the fact that you can use Gentoo to create an extraordinarily efficient, finely tuned Linux desktop or server, the distribution is not yet widely accepted in business or educational institutions. There are probably several reasons for that: . Stability To stay on the bleeding edge of the latest Linux software, Gentoo sacrifices the level of stability demanded by most businesses. People I know who use Gentoo on their personal computers tend to use Debian or Fedora Core for small Web, file, or print servers when they do consulting work, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux or SUSE Linux for larger enterprise installations. . Support There are no official support packages offered with Gentoo, so if something goes wrong, no official help is available (although the forums can be quite helpful). . Training If you are supporting many machines, the people who support those machines will need training. Unlike Red Hat or SUSE Linux, you can t get training from Gentoo s creators. So far, the factors just mentioned have kept Gentoo from making any significant inroads into enterprise computing. However, as a learning tool and a personal Linux distribution, Gentoo is hard to beat. What s in Gentoo No two Gentoo systems are alike, because you can select and build only the pieces of Linux you want to use. In late 2005, there were more than 8,000 software packages available for the project, and the list was growing. Unlike distributions such as Red Hat and SUSE Linux, Gentoo tends to not force its own look-and-feel on the projects it includes. Each software package ported to a Gentoo system gives the user a view of the included open source software packages as they were intended from the individual projects. For example, a KDE desktop will look like a KDE desktop as it was delivered from the KDE project itself; there are no Gentoo-ized menus and icons or graphical administration tools to alter it. Gentoo s focus on tools for managing and building source code has helped make Gentoo extraordinarily portable. Besides the common Intel x86 (PC) version of Gentoo, there are Gentoo ports for AMD64, PowerPC, UltraSparc, Alpha, and MIPS Note
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386 Part III . Choosing and Installing a Linux Distribution . What hardware you might have Most distributions install tons of modules to support hardware that you might some day add (it loads them as you need them into the kernel). It also builds a kernel for you that includes support for features that it believes you do need (for example, some distributions include the ext3 file system report, expecting that to be your basic file system type). With Gentoo, you can choose exactly what features are in the kernel to support only the hardware you know you have. Likewise, you can get and install drivers for hardware if you decide to install that hardware later. . What services you want Some Linux distributions suffer performance problems because they have processes taking up memory for services that you don t necessarily want (such as daemons for Web, file, print, and other server types). With Gentoo, you can be selective down to the most minute detail about the services that are installed and running on Gentoo (including the order in which they are started). . What software is available Linux distributions such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux offer a preset selection of software packages that are well-tested and integrated into a set of CDs or DVDs. Gentoo has a massive repository of software packages from which you can choose the exact packages you need. Each package carries its own set of dependencies with it as well, so you don t have to add every library or utility to your system to support software you might want some day. With an Internet connection and Gentoo s emerge tool, you can always add software you need, when you need it. . What features are available Because in Gentoo you are making decisions about what software you use at compile time, you can select to turn on or off optional features within each software component. For example, if you are building Mozilla mail, you can choose whether the package you build will include support for LDAP address books. In theory, removing support for unneeded features makes the software you end up with run faster and use less memory. The features just described help characterize the type of person who is attracted to Gentoo. Gentoo enthusiasts like to configure, tune, tweak, and update their Linux systems continuously, and Gentoo users generally end up with systems that run faster, take up less disk space, and run in less memory than would be the case with any other Linux that you get off a shelf. Where Gentoo Is Used As you may have guessed by now, Gentoo is most popular with Linux enthusiasts as their personal Linux systems. Among Gentoo users you find those who like to tinker with desktops and run servers where performance is critical (such as game servers). Because Gentoo can be so easily configured and tuned, users can make very efficient Linux desktop and server systems that include only the software needed for the particular job.
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Chapter 13 . Running Gentoo Linux 385 The Gentoo Community The open source spirit of Gentoo pervades its community. The size and activity of that community is best reflected in its forums (http://forums.gentoo.org), in which there are literally hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of new posts per day. If there s something about Gentoo you can t find using Google, try searching the Gentoo forums. To get a sense of the activity levels on the forums, check out the board statistics (http://forums.gentoo.org/statistics.php). You can see how many posts, topics, and users there are in the forums per day. You can also see, and visit, the most active topics in the forums. Many Gentoo enthusiasts seem to live on the forums. Although most of the posts stick closely to Linux, nobody seems to blink an eye when someone posts questions about the existence of God or what to do when a guy s wife has left him. At times, the forums have the distinct feel of a coffee house. It never hurts to start with the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) forums. However, I think most will want to start with the Installing Gentoo forum (because you are likely to get hung up on installation when you first try installing it). If you are interested in live communications about Gentoo, try the Gentoo IRC #gentoo channel at irc.freenote.net (you can use xchat in most Linux systems to access IRC channels). Another good starting forum is the Documentation, Tips, & Tricks forum, where you can find cool little tricks to tweak your system. Building, Tuning, and Tweaking Linux Gentoo is sometimes referred to as the build-from-source Linux system. Most other Linux distributions give you a set of prebuilt packages to install and never expect you to build the whole system yourself. While you can get Gentoo with packages prebuilt for you, the distribution was made for you to be able to build the Linux kernel and all packages right on the machine where you will install it. When you install from prebuilt binary software packages, which is expected with Gentoo and most other Linux distributions, many decisions have already been made for you about what each package includes and what it is tuned for. By building a Gentoo distribution from source code, you can create a distribution that specifically takes into account the following about your situation: . What processor you are running Most distributions choose a particular architecture (such as x86, PowerPC, or Sparc) and a generic selection of settings for using the processor. With Gentoo, however, you can choose the exact type of processor you re using and compile all software to take advantage of features from that processor (while not including features specific to other processors).
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384 Part III . Choosing and Installing a Linux Distribution The Portage software distribution management system is the key technology that separates Gentoo from other Linux distributions. Based on the BSD Ports system, Portage can be used to build almost the entire Gentoo distribution from source codes, and manage and upgrade that software as well. Gentoo s Open Source Spirit Although Gentoo could some day produce a commercial Linux distribution, Robbins and the Gentoo project are committed to the goals of open source software, while still allowing those who use the software to make money. Ways that those goals are reflected in Gentoo and not in other distributions include: . Passing bug fixes upstream Software bugs in open source projects are often shaken out when actual Linux distributions are put together. When a distribution finds a bug, it is considered good practice to pass the fix to that bug upstream, to the project maintaining the original software. Not passing bug fixes upstream could potentially give a commercial Linux distribution an advantage over other distributions that don t have the fix. There have been many cases where fixes in early Red Hat Linux and other commercial distributions have not made it to the upstream projects. Gentoo, on the other hand, has a reputation for sharing bug fixes with the open source community. . Transparent development process Not only is the open source software made available to everyone, but the tools for building that software are also freely distributed. Gentoo users can see exactly what their software contains, along with all the decisions made to build that software. It is also a fairly simple procedure for users in the process of building their own Gentoo software to change any of those build decisions. . Choices for creating Gentoo You can build your own Gentoo Linux from the source code pages (as described in this chapter) or start from prebuilt binary packages provided by the Gentoo project. Freedom, in the Gentoo philosophy, means to let users create the kind of Linux system the users want. So, if users don t want to make decisions about how their packages are built, they can simply take ready-made packages from the Gentoo project. . Not-for-profit organization When the Linux distribution is dedicated to the community and not beholden to stockholders, open source enthusiasts often feel better about freely contributing to improving that distribution. Gentoo is a not-for-profit organization. This open source spirit has also helped Gentoo gain a community that is extraordinarily active and helpful to one another.
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Running Gentoo Linux Gentoo is a rising star of Linux distributions among Linux enthusiasts. Of all the popular distributions, this is the first one I d recommend to a technically oriented friend who wanted to learn Linux, and the last one I d recommend to my wife ( Just show me what button to click for my e-mail ). That s because to install and maintain Gentoo effectively, you have to care (to an almost unnatural extent) about what is going on with your computer. This chapter describes why you might want to use Gentoo, what the Gentoo community is like, and how to get and install Gentoo Linux. The Gentoo minimal install CD image is included on the CD that comes with this book. You can copy and burn the Gentoo image to a CD as described in Appendix A. Because you have a minimal install image, you will need an Internet connection or some medium containing the needed Gentoo packages (CD, DVD, or hard disk) to get the software you need to complete the Gentoo installation. Understanding Gentoo Performance and efficiency were the critical goals that led to the creation of the Gentoo Linux distribution. A dedication to the spirit of open source software (and to those drawn to it) has been vital to Gentoo s rapid and incredible growth. In the few years it has been in existence, Gentoo has grown from having one maintainer its creator, Daniel Robbins to having more than 250 active developers. It boasts perhaps the strongest user community among all Linux distributions. Gentoo users seem willing to contribute so freely because they feel that they get back what they give to Gentoo. On the CD-ROM 1C H A3P3T E R . . . . In This Chapter Understanding Gentoo What s in Gentoo Installing Gentoo . . . .
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