Gentoo on ServerBeach - A Step by Step Guide

By Fernando M. Honig

Note: This guide was tested on Dell PowerEdge 430-1 Server.

• Create the partitions
  # fdisk /dev/sda
  -Delete all partitions on disk.
  -Make new partitions likely with this schema.
  /dev/sda1 - 100MB
  /dev/sda2 - 1024MB
  /dev/sda3 - 50GB
  /dev/sda4 - rest of disk
  
  
• Create the file systems and activate swap
  # mke2fs /dev/sda1
  # mke2fs -j /dev/sda3
  # mke2fs -j /dev/sda4
  # mkswap /dev/sda2
  
  
• Mount the file systems
  # mkdir /mnt/gentoo
  # mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/gentoo
  # mkdir /mnt/gentoo/boot
  # mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/gentoo/boot
  # mkdir /mnt/gentoo/var
  # mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/gentoo/var
  
  
• Set the date and UTC time
  # date 021116152007 (Format is MMDDhhmmYYYY)
  
  
• Download a bzip2 statically linked executable.
  # cd /mnt/gentoo
  # wget http://www.bzip.org/1.0.4/bzip2-104-x86-linux24
  Rename it
  # mv bzip2-104-x86-linux24 bzip2
  # chmod 0777 bzip2
  
  
• Download a stage3 archive (deppend of which server you ordered)
  # wget http://gentoo.osuosl.org/releases/x86/current/stages/stage3-x86-2006.1.tar.bz2
  or
  # wget http://gentoo.osuosl.org/releases/amd64/current/stages/stage3-amd64-2006.1.tar.bz2
  
  
• Unpack the stage3 archive
  # /mnt/gentoo/bzip2 -d stage3*
  # time tar xpf stage3*
  
  
• Download the latest Portage snapshot
  # cd /mnt/gentoo/usr
  # wget http://gentoo.osuosl.org/snapshots/portage-latest.tar.bz2
  # /mnt/gentoo/bzip2 -d portage*
  # time tar xf portage*
  
  
• Chroot
  # cd /
  # mount -t proc proc /mnt/gentoo/proc
  # cp -L /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/gentoo/etc/
  # ifconfig (take a look of your IP address and netmask)
  # route -n (take a look of your Gateway)
  # chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash
  # env-update && source /etc/profile
  
  
• Copy your timezone file
  # cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Eastern /etc/localtime
  
  
• Set host and domain name
  # cd /etc
  # echo "127.0.0.1 mybox.at.myplace mybox localhost" > hosts
  # sed -i -e 's/HOSTNAME.*/HOSTNAME="mybox"/' conf.d/hostname
  # hostname mybox
  # hostname -f
  
  
• Install a kernel source, compile it and install the kernel
  # time emerge gentoo-sources
  # cd /usr/src/linux
  -Next command is to know which hardware has this server.
  # dmesg
  # make menuconfig
  
  (You must know that you have to support all hardware listed before and install support for ext2, ext3, Intel Corporation 82801GB/GR/GH (ICH7 Family) Serial ATA Storage Controller, Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5751 Gigabit Ethernet)
  
  # time make -j2
  # make modules_install
  # cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/kernel
  
  
• Configure the system
  Edit your /etc/fstab and replace BOOT, ROOT and SWAP with the actual partition names.
  # cd /etc
  # nano -w fstab
  Copy & Paste this.
  /dev/sda1 /boot ext2 noauto,noatime 1 2
  /dev/sda2 none swap sw 0 0
  /dev/sda3 / ext3 noatime 0 1
  /dev/sda4 /var ext3 noatime 0 1
  
  
• Configure networking (Please put the IP Address correctly, to know the IP, execute ifconfig eth0)
  # cd conf.d
  # echo 'config_eth0=( "111.222.333.444/24" )' >> net
  # echo 'routes_eth0=( "default via 111.222.333.444" )' >> net
  # rc-update add net.eth0 default
  # rc-update add sshd default
  
  
• Set the root password
  # passwd
  
  
• Optional: edit clock config file
  Change UTC for local, as the way the time is updated.
  # nano -w /etc/conf.d/clock
  
  
• Install a syslogger and a cron daemon
  # time emerge syslog-ng vixie-cron
  # rc-update add syslog-ng default
  # rc-update add vixie-cron default
  
  
• Configuring the Bootloader
  Emerge grub and edit its configuration file
  # time emerge grub
  # nano -w /boot/grub/grub.conf
  Example grub.conf
  default 0
  timeout 10
  
  title=Gentoo for ServerBeach
  root (hd0,0)
  kernel /boot/kernel root=/dev/sda3
  
  
• Install grub
  # grub
  grub> root (hd0,0)
  grub> setup (hd0)
  grub> quit
  
  
• Reboot
  Exit the chrooted environment, unmount all file systems and reboot:
  # exit
  #umount /mnt/gentoo/proc /mnt/gentoo/boot /mnt/gentoo/var /mnt/gentoo
  # shutdown -r now
  After reboot, you should can login and emerge all necesary files to build a standard system.
  
  
• Finishing the install
  # emerge mirrorselect
  # mirrorselect -i -o >> /etc/make.conf (select one of the list)
  # mirrorselect -i -r -o >> /etc/make.conf (select one of the list)
  # echo 'MAKEOPTS="-j2"' >> /etc/make.conf (number of cpu + 1)
  # emerge -vpe world
  # echo 'USE="-X nptl nptlonly -ipv6 -fortran"' >> /etc/make.conf
  # cd /etc
  # nano -w make.conf
  Add this line
  FEATURES="parallel-fetch ccache"
  # emerge ccache
  # emerge portage
  # emerge world
  
  

Sources:

http://www.gentoo.org

http://es.gentoo-wiki.com/