Reviewing Audience: Senior Linux System Administrators/DevOps Engineers.

Abstract

This video details the non-standard installation procedure for Gentoo Linux, substituting the default OpenRC init system with Systemd. The process is conducted within a virtualized environment (Gnome Boxes) using a BIOS partitioning scheme. Key architectural decisions include downloading the specific stage 3 AMD64 systemd tarball, configuring global USE flags (systemd, X, gtk, gnome) and optimization parameters (MAKEOPTS=-j4) within /etc/portage/make.conf. The installation leverages the chroot environment for base system construction, employs a pre-compiled binary distribution kernel (sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel-bin) for simplified maintenance and reduced compilation time, and utilizes standard systemctl commands for service enablement (e.g., dhcpcd, sshd, systemd-timesyncd). The procedure concludes with grub installation and configuration, resulting in a system utilizing 145 MB RAM at idle.

Installing Gentoo Linux with Systemd: A Senior Administrator’s Summary

• 0:00 Introduction and Setup: The goal is defined as installing Gentoo Linux utilizing systemd instead of OpenRC within a virtual machine (Gnome Boxes). Prerequisites include downloading the minimal installation CD from gentoo.org/downloads. The VM configuration is set to 4 CPU cores and 8 GB RAM.
• 3:36 Disk Partitioning (BIOS): The system uses fdisk on /dev/vda for BIOS-style partitioning (non-EFI):
  • /dev/vda1: 256 MB (Root partition, though later used as /boot)
  • /dev/vda2: 16 GB (Swap partition, type 82)
  • /dev/vda3: Remaining disk space (Root partition)
• 5:52 File System Creation: Partitions are formatted using mkfs.ext4 for data partitions and mkswap for the swap partition, which is then activated via swapon.
• 7:22 Stage 3 Download and Unpacking: Time synchronization is performed (ntpd -q -g). The current stage 3 AMD64 systemd tarball is downloaded directly into the mounted root partition (/mnt/gentoo) using the links command-line browser. The tarball is unpacked using tar xpvf stage3... --xattrs --numeric-owner.
• 11:31 Portage Configuration (make.conf): The core system configuration file (/mnt/gentoo/etc/portage/make.conf) is edited to set optimization parameters and crucial USE flags:
  • USE flags are defined to enable systemd, X, gtk, and gnome, while explicitly disabling elogind, qt5, and KDE components.
  • MAKEOPTS=-j4 is set, leveraging the 4 CPU cores available in the VM for parallel compilation jobs.
• 16:02 Base System Installation & Environment Setup: Mirror selection is performed using mirrorselect -i -o to populate the make.conf file with US college mirrors. The DNS configuration is copied into the chroot environment (/etc/resolv.conf).
• 21:25 Chroot and Profile Setting: The installation environment is entered using chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash. The environment is sourced, and the PS1 variable is updated to indicate the chrooted state. The boot partition (/dev/vda1) is mounted as /boot.
• 23:23 Portage Sync and Profile Selection: Portage is configured (emerge --sync) and the system profile is explicitly changed using e-select to the Systemd-compatible desktop profile: e-select profile set 7 (Desktop/Gnome/Systemd). A world update is then initiated (emerge --ask --update --deep --newuse @world).
• 29:15 CPU Flag Optimization: The app-portage/cpuid2cpuflags tool is used to generate specific CPU optimization flags (identified as Skylake in this case) and these flags are written to /etc/portage/package.use/00_CPU-Flags.
• 31:37 System Configuration (Time/Locale): The system time zone is set using ln -sf pointing to America/Denver (Gentoo Handbook method for OpenRC is bypassed in favor of this symbolic link). Locale settings are generated using locale-gen and updated using env-update.
• 34:21 Kernel Selection: Instead of source compilation, the pre-compiled binary distribution kernel (sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel-bin) is installed using emerge to expedite the process and simplify future maintenance/updates.
• 36:28 Fstab and Hostname: /etc/fstab is populated, correctly defining the root, swap, and boot partitions. The hostname is configured using the systemd-specific utility systemd-firstboot, setting the hostname to gentoo-box.
• 40:37 System Services and Users:
  • dhcpcd is emerged and enabled via systemctl enable dhcpcd.
  • The hosts file is configured.
  • Root password is set.
  • Essential system services are enabled using systemctl preset-all --preset-mode=enable-only.
  • Cron daemon (app-admin/crony), SSH daemon (sshd), and time synchronization (systemd-timesyncd) are all emerged/enabled via systemctl enable.
• 45:40 Bootloader Installation: The GRUB bootloader (sys-boot/grub) is emerged, installed to the main device (grub-install /dev/vda), and configured (grub-mkconfig).
• 47:24 Finalization: A standard user is created (useradd -m -G users,wheel,audio,video -s /bin/bash user), given a password, and the system is rebooted successfully into the new systemd-initialized Gentoo installation.
• 51:40 Post-Installation Check: neofetch confirms the Gentoo installation is running systemd, showing an idle RAM usage of 145 MB.