I found to ease the Gentoo install experience, it was useful to have going an existing installation, logged in as root. Then, from within that running distro, I could make the Gentoo partitions, format them, mount them to a directory created in the running distro, simply copy the Gentoo files onto the partition, and then use the available graphical editors and tools to copy/paste commands from the handbook.
To be able to have it on the internet, browsing all the help that Google can find, and be able to take your time, leaving it at will, taking it up later as you like, while you set up and learn things, is a great advantage. This can be done also from a LiveCD with root access. A Gentoo install can be put together in an afternoon, but I don't get things right first time.
Plan the thing. Obviously you need partition space to install your Gentoo. Your existing installation must not occupy the whole drive, or.. you put the Gentoo on a seperate drive. The whole partitioning / formatting bit has to be done beforehand.
The trick is
chroot, which is the "change root" command. You can have a terminal shell window open in your existing distro, and from within it, you can do everything.
After copying the Gentoo directories with files straight into the partition, you have most of an installation suddenly there. Follow up with the Portage snapshot, and then use the handbook cut-n-paste trick to configure about 15 things. You
can extract the files to copy from the CD, or you can download a recent set from the internet.
Within the terminal window, you can type any Gentoo
emerge command, and you can continue to use and browse while watching Gentoo stuff compilation messages flash by inside the window. If you want to try this way, here is a little script that delivers the commands to make the "Gentoo install" terminal window.
Before you try it, you need to create a folder called "gentoo" in /mnt. You can use the "new folder" tool in a file manager, or you can use the command line.
. Also, if you do use it, you need to substitute you correct intended partition name into lines 5 and 6. TAKE CARE you do not end up mounting an existing partition that already has stuff in it.
Code:
#!/bin/bash
#
#Gentoo setup
echo "Mounting setup for Gentoo"
echo "# mount /dev/<hda-sda-whatever> /mnt/gentoo"
mount /dev/<hda-sda-whatever> /mnt/gentoo
echo "#"
#
cd /mnt/gentoo
echo "Ensure networking still works even after entering the new environment"
echo "# cp -L /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/gentoo/etc/resolv.conf"
cp -L /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/gentoo/etc/resolv.conf
echo "Mount the proc filesystem on /mnt/gentoo to allow the installation to use"
echo "kernel-provided information within the chrooted environment"
echo "# mount -t proc none /mnt/gentoo/proc "
mount -t proc none /mnt/gentoo/proc
echo " Mount the dev filesystem"
echo "# mount -o bind /dev /mnt/gentoo/dev"
mount -o bind /dev /mnt/gentoo/dev
echo "chrooting into environment in /mnt/gentoo"
chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash
Run the script by making the place you keep it the current directory, and then do
./gentoo. OR - you can of course just copy-paste the commands from the script one by one as you would have typed them. From that point on, just follow the handbook slavishly. Hope this helps.
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