Gentoo is a free and open-source Linux distribution recognized for its superior performance, high reconfigurability, and stability. It employs the portage package management system for handling software packages.

In contrast to major Linux distributions like Ubuntu, Debian, or Red Hat, Gentoo lacks an OS installer. Similar to Arch Linux, Gentoo is constructed from scratch and is regarded as one of the most intricate operating systems to install.

Instead, Gentoo offers a detailed guide named Gentoo Handbook that guides users through the installation process. In this guide, we will showcase the installation of Gentoo using a Live GUI image. We will configure disk partitioning using an MBR partition scheme and a custom Kernel image provided by Gentoo developers.

This is the first segment of a two-part series since the installation of Gentoo is quite extensive. So, settle in and enjoy the journey :)

1. Download Gentoo and Boot ISO Image

To begin this guide, visit the Gentoo Download page and obtain the latest released LiveGUI ISO image.

Once the Live image is downloaded, locate your USB drive and utilize a tool such as Rufus to create a bootable medium from the ISO image or use popular USB creation tools to generate a bootable USB medium from an ISO file.

Following that, insert the USB drive into your PC and restart. Ensure that the BIOS is configured to prioritize the bootable medium. Upon booting, you will encounter the initial screen. The first option is pre-selected, so press ENTER.

Subsequently, you will be presented with a series of boot messages on your screen.

Eventually, the Live GUI interface will appear.

2. Configure Networking in Gentoo

If your system is connected to a network running a DHCP server via an Ethernet card, it is highly probable that automatic network configuration has been set.

In this situation, the active network interface should have acquired a valid IP address from the DHCP server. If this is the case, you will be able to execute common network commands such as ping, ip, ifconfig, and ssh among others.

In our scenario, the system has automatically acquired an IP address from the network via DHCP. To commence work on the command line, switch to the root user.

<code>sudo su</code>

To verify the IP address, run the following command:

<code>ip addr</code>

From the output, you can observe that the active interface (enp0s3) has obtained the IP 192.168.2.110 with a /24 CIDR.

You can test internet connectivity using the ping command as follows.

<code>$ ping -c 4 google.com</code>

From the output, you can see that we receive a positive response from Google’s DNS.

3. Create Disk Partitions and Filesystems

The subsequent step is to configure disk partitions and file systems. You can review the current partition layout using the fdisk command as shown.

<code>$ fdisk /dev/sda</code>

From the output, we have a system with a hard disk of 42.83GB.

You can configure your hard drive with either MBR for BIOS (Legacy Boot) configuration or GPT for UEFI.

In this guide, we will opt to create disk partitions with MBR for BIOS configuration.

Here is the disk partition layout.

<code>/dev/sda1   1G  boot 
/dev/sda2   4G  swap space
/dev/sda3   37G Root partition</code>

Create Boot Partition

To create the boot partition, type 'n' for the new partition. Then type 'p' to select the primary partition. Next, type 1 to specify the partition number. Alternatively, you can press ENTER since this is automatically selected for you. Hit ENTER when prompted for the First Sector.

Next, specify the disk size by prepending it with a ( ) sign followed by the numeric size followed by 'G' for Gigabytes. You will receive a confirmation that a new Linux partition has been created with the disk size specified.

Create Swap Space

To configure the swap space, repeat the same steps up to the first sector. Next, specify the disk size as 4G and hit ENTER.

Since the partition type created is of type ‘Linux‘, press 't' to change this to a different one. Provide the partition number (In this case '2') and then provide the code that corresponds to Swap (In this case 82).

NOTE: You can view all the partition types by typing 'L'.

Create Root Partition

For the root partition, specify the partition number as '3' or simply press ENTER to accept the default number (3), define the disk size (in this case 37G), and hit ENTER.

To view the partitions created, type 'p' and press ENTER. If you are satisfied with the partitions made, type 'w' and hit ENTER to save the disk partitions permanently.

After the partitions are created, the next step is to format them into the appropriate filesystems.

Linux supports a variety of filesystems, some of which are only suitable for specific purposes. Stable filesystems for amd64 systems include Ext3, Ext4, BTRFS, XFS, ZFS and ReiserFS.

For the /boot partition, we will format it as an EXT4 filesystem.

<code>mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1</code>

To set up the swap partition, use the mkswap command as shown.

<code>mkswap /dev/sda2</code>

Then activate it using the swapon command.

<code>swapon /dev/sda2</code>

Lastly, format the root partition as an EXT4 filesystem.

<code>mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3</code>

4. Mount the Root Partition

The next step is to mount the root partition. First, let’s create a mount point for the partition.

<code>mkdir --parents /mnt/gentoo </code>

The --parents option creates parent directories. Next, mount the partition using the command as shown.

<code>mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/gentoo </code>

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