How to install Gentoo Linux

In this video I'll go over how to install Gentoo Linux, as well as how it works, and what makes it different from other Linux distributions. This is a fantastic distro that is not only a great way to learn how Linux works, but also allows maximum flexibility on how each package is configured and installed.

While I am no expert on Gentoo, this should guide you through to a working system. You might have to also read some of the Wiki if you hit a snag, but the Wiki is very complete and covers anything you might need to know to get this going.

This is Part 1, as there is a lot to go over and explain along the way.

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:38 How Gentoo works
03:16 Why use Gentoo?
04:39 Downloading Gentoo
05:24 Loading the ISO file
06:06 Booting into the live ISO
06:55 The Gentoo Handbook
07:31 Configuring the network
09:42 Preparing the disks (partitioning)
17:29 Installing Stage3
21:40 Configuring Compile Options (Flags)
25:47 Installing the base system
27:28 Mounts and chroot
29:55 Install/update ebuild snapshot (webrsync)
32:01 News items
33:14 Choosing the right profile
35:15 Updating the world set
40:33 Configuring the USE variable
42:47 Systemd (optional)
43:20 Set timezone and locale
45:12 Break time and conclusion

#Linux #Gentoo

[juzujuzu]

22:33 You don't need to know your CPU, just use -march=native and let the compiler find out your CPU and all the instructions it supports. That's the default option that Gentoo recommends and it can provide better results than selecting the architecture, though mostly it's the same thing.
24:12 Remember that compiling certain rare packages can take up almost 2GB per thread, at least when compiled with couple of threads and heavy optimization flags. So if compiling crashes, it most likely is because it run out of memory. But you can just try again with less threads without any problems caused to your installation.

[OzarkPatriot]

I feel like I just watched someone perform digital neurosurgery on a computer, and here I am happy that I was able to correctly partition my hard drive to dual boot windows and kde neon without accidentally burning my house down. I learned a lot from this video and am looking forward to part 2. Thanks for taking the time to make this.

[playcompile]

How to install Gentoo Linux - part one is a well paced narrated guide through the first steps of installing Gentoo Linux. The presentation is very well put together and the explanations are easy to follow and understand but you can hear the toll that the torture of dependency hell has had in the voice of the host. I love the optimistic teaching style which tries to mask the pain and suffering of command line compiling packages from scratch in order to inspire and motivate newcomers and you can tell that great care went into editing out all the screams and tears at compiler errors so as not to depress his newer viewers. He almost makes this dystopain nightmare seem somewhat fun - a true masterpiece of educational post apocalyptic content!

[foxsermon]

Love it ❤️ !! .... Gentoo & ArchLinux are my favorites flavours !!... I think I will install it this weekend.. 90s music, beer and installing Gentoo 🥳🍺

[mustafasalih]

for people who will install it on bare metal, gentoo live cd comes with the "screen" utility, it will be nice to split your terminal for work and for reading documentation while installing

[johanb.]

Always like your video's Dorian. You always explain things very well.

[johankrafft]

The most valuable tutorial on Youtube - a great asset alongside the handbook.

[s]

Thank you for your tutorial.
I think that Gentoo makes more sense for those people who build their own rig and for OEM selling computers with Linux pre-installed so that they'll have the OS perfectly tuned for their hardware. Apple takes FreeBSD into their MacOS and have a perfectly tuned system for their hardware. Google takes Gentoo to make their Chrome OS to be perfectly coupled with the hardware made from third parties.

[nita]

Watching people do linux distros from scratch is my new favorite pastime. Great tutorial.

[idtyu]

When people complain that fedora is too vanilla, I tell them, look at this, this is Gentoo

[Bricky]

Met you after series of how to make your own linux desktop, glad to see you explain how to install the "flexible" OS as the trusted explainer❤❤❤

[pctlc]

Excellent tutorial Dorian!! looking forward to part 2 :)

[katakis]

Fascinating stuff. I only knew Gentoo from the "install Gentoo" meme, but a fully customizable operating system sounds like you could learn a lot from it. Wish I could do this on my M1 MacBook, but I don't think they're supported at this time. One day.

[zed]

The info on partitioning at 10:44 in the video has changed to say just use fdisk like in most linux installations now. From the wiki: "Both fdisk and parted are partitioning utilities. fdisk is well known, stable, and recommended for the MBR partition layout. parted was one of the first Linux block device management utilities to support GPT partitions, and provides an alternative. Here, fdisk is used since it has a better text-based user interface." Thanks for first half. I've been interested in this distro for awhile.

[dwinkley]

These tutorials are really high quality. Sad that he isnt uploading anymore.

[model.citizen.ps]

I recently did a Gentoo on my Playstation 3 (PPC64). Been living in the OS for a few weeks now. Enjoying the experience. (I also run Fedora on PS3 as well). Having some trouble compiling custom kernels (i'm currently using pre-builts from a friend's github). Dracut keeps building broken initramfs images, and genkernel takes WAAAY too long on PS3. So I just built my own custom initramfs and will try it on my next reboot - wish me luck! Also, having trouble getting xorg to start (and not freeze) running in framebuffer. Still diagnosing that problem. Later, I will work on getting alsa configured. Fun fun fun! 🙂 Anyway, good video. I should make a similar one for Gentoo on PS3. Keep up the good work!

[coppereva]

FYI, if you back out of the installation and what to go back. Before you do all those mount commands you showed ('mount --types proc /proc /mnt/gentoo/proc' and so forth) you need to run a mount command in the previous section: 'mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/gentoo'

Without that mount command everything will be screwed up. Like, you're /mnt/gentoo folder will contain nothing and none of the mount commands you showed will work, and you can't chroot. I literally just found that out myself lol.

[TitanV]

Great video as always, thanks Dorian! By the way, can you make one in the future about Solus OS?

I played with it for some time now, and although I don't think it's something really special (but I do like it), for some reason it was the distro that was the most liked among the people I installed it for.
Still trying to figure it out, so I would really like your two cents on the subject. Let's say I'm still hesitant to go public about how cool it is, so... Anyways, thanks for the great content.

[AX_-]

I have an issue when installing the packages in 39:00

it looks like there is 1 blocked package "sys-libs/musl" and I tried to exclude it by emerge --deselect [package name]. but it didn't do anything.


(sorry for bad English)

[bennewofek]

Hey, Thanks for your video! I think you have forgot the 'mount (/run)' in the video.
:root #mount --bind /run /mnt/gentoo/run
root #mount --make-slave /mnt/gentoo/run