My Gentoo Linux System

Hey, this is my tested Step by Step complete gentoo linux desktop install.

key features:

luks on lvm allow for mounting other encrypted drives
systemd
systemd-boot as the bootloader
silent boot
optimized

Tested only on my hardware make adjustments to suit your needs.

Content

Gentoo install guide
Acknowledgments

Boot Gentoo live cd

make sure that we boot on UEFI mode:

efivar -l

Setting up Hard Drive

Partitioning

if NVME disk /dev/nvme0n1 if SATA disk /dev/sda/

cfdisk /dev/sda

Create LVM

pvcreate /dev/sda2
vgcreate vg0 /dev/sda2
lvcreate -l 100%FREE -n troot vg0

Create LUKS

cryptsetup luksFormat --type luks2 --cipher aes-xts-plain64 --key-size 256 --hash sha256 /dev/vg0/cryptroot
cryptsetup open /dev/vg0/root root

Create filesystems

mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1
mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/root

Mount the filesystems

mount /dev/mapper/root /mnt/gentoo
mkdir /mnt/gentoo/boot
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/gentoo/boot

Installing the Gentoo base system

Change into our mounted directory:

cd /mnt/gentoo

Ensure the date and time are set correctly.

chronyd -q

Install the stage3 tarball

Choose systemd stage3 profile:

links https://www.gentoo.org/downloads/#other-arches

Unpack the tarball:

tar xpvf stage3-*.tar.xz --xattrs-include='*.*' --numeric-owner

Chrooting

Copy DNS info:

cp --dereference /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/gentoo/etc/

Chroot into the new environment:

arch-chroot /mnt/gentoo
source /etc/profile
export PS1="(chroot) $PS1"

configuring portage

make.conf

COMMON_FLAGS="-march=native -O3 -pipe -flto=7"
CFLAGS="${COMMON_FLAGS}"
CXXFLAGS="${COMMON_FLAGS}"
FCFLAGS="${COMMON_FLAGS}"
FFLAGS="${COMMON_FLAGS}"
MAKEOPTS="-j5 -l5"
USE="icu policykit webp gstreamer minimal screencast opengl openal opus png raw ffmpeg zeroconf tiff man dbus ipv4 vim-syntax lvm vaapi uefi wayland vulkan tray vdpau pulseaudio alsa asm avif bash-completion branding cak egl encode exif flac gif heif jpeg libnotify pgo graphite threads ithreads kms lto mp3 mp4 mpeg ogg x264 -seccomp -telemetry -ipv6"
ACCEPT_LICENSE="*"
L10N="en-US"
LINGUAS="en_US"
VIDEO_CARDS="amdgpu radeonsi"
INPUT_DEVICES="libinput"
CPU_FLAGS_X86="aes avx avx2 f16c fma3 mmx mmxext pclmul popcnt rdrand sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3"

package.use/systemd

sys-apps/systemd 		        cryptsetup boot

package.use/util-linux

sys-apps/util-linux 	        cryptsetup

TO DO:

emerge -av dev-vcs/git
cd /etc/portage/
rm -rf make.conf package.use package.env package.accept_keywords package.mask
mkdir /etc/porage/env
cd
git clone https://github.com/criptixo/gentoo-linux-desktop
cd gentoo-linux-desktop
mv gentoo-linux-desktop/portage/* /etc/portage/

Choosing systemd profile

update the snapshot with the latest version of the repository: emerge-webrsync

List the available profiles:

eselect profile list

[..]
[17]  default/linux/amd64/17.1/systemd (stable) *
[..]

eselect profile set 17 # or the number that you have on your list

Re-compile

emerge --ask --verbose --update --deep --newuse @world

Configuring the base system

In addition to Portage, some other options should be configured.

Timezone/locale/hostname

setup timezone

echo Africa/Algiers > /etc/timezone
emerge --config sys-libs/timezone-data
hwclock --systohc

setup locale

nano -w /etc/locale.gen 
locale-gen
eselect locale list
eselect locale set 4
env-update
source /etc/profile

setup hostname

hostnamectl hostname navi

firmware/microcode

firmware:

emerge --ask sys-kernel/linux-firmware

microcode:

Installing the kernel

Gentoo sources

emerge --ask sys-kernel/gentoo-sources

eselect kernel list

Available kernel symlink targets:
  [1]   linux-5.15.59-gentoo

eselect kernel set 1

genkernel

Install genkernel:
```
emerge --ask sys-kernel/genkernel
```
Genkernel needs the /boot entry in the /etc/fstab file. So go to the fstab section now and continue with point 2 when you're done.
Edit /etc/genkernel.conf:
```
nano -w /etc/genkernel.conf
```
Ensure that LVM and LUKS are set to yes; otherwise, the system will not boot. Leave the rest of the options as they are:
```
# Add LVM support
LVM="yes"

# Add LUKS support
LUKS="yes"
```
Once genkernel is configured, then run to generate the kernel binary:
```
genkernel --loglevel=5 all
```

Configuring the modules

If we need to auto-load a kernel module each time to system boots, we should specify it in /etc/conf.d/modules file. You can list your available modules with:

find /lib/modules/<kernel version>/ -type f -iname '*.o' -or -iname '*.ko' | less

LVM Configuration

emerge --ask sys-fs/lvm2

nano -w /etc/lvm/lvm.conf

volume_list = ["vg0"]

Creating Swap

Fstab

Before editing fstab we need to know which UUID are using our devices inside and outside lvm and luks volumes:

blkid /dev/mapper/vg0-root | awk '{print $2}' | sed 's/"//g'
UUID="576e229c-cf68-4010-8d85-ff8149158416"
blkid /dev/mapper/vg0-home | awk '{print $2}' | sed 's/"//g'
UUID="95fa5807-ea57-4cf5-b717-74f4aba190e2"

/dev/mapper/root		/		    ext4		rw		    0 1
/dev/sda1			    /boot		vfat		rw		    0 2
/swapfile			    none 		swap 		sw	        0 0

crypttab

Warning!!! As we don't have encrypted partitions other than root, which the systemd must mount before the whole system start, we don't need to set it up there, so our crypttab must be empty.

systemd-boot

emerge --ask sys-libs/efivar
efivar -l

bootctl --path=/boot install

Every time there's a new version of the systemd you should copy the new binaries to that System Partition by running:

bootctl --path=/boot update

Add one entry into bootloader with this options:

nano -w /boot/loader/entries/gentoo.conf

title gentoo
linux /vmlinuz-6.6.30-gentoo-x86_64
initrd /initramfs-6.6.30-gentoo-x86_64.img
options crypt_root=/dev/mapper/vg0-root root=/dev/mapper/root dolvm quiet loglevel=3 vt.global_cursor_default=0 mitigations=off

Edit bootloader config:

nano -w /boot/loader/loader.conf

timeout 0

Efibootmgr

emerge --ask sys-boot/efibootmgr

To list the current boot entries:

efibootmgr -v

BootCurrent: 0003
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0003
Boot0000* Linux Boot Manager  HD(1,GPT,3eb8effe-8e1d-4670-987c-9b49b5f605b2,0x800,0x1ff801)/File(\EFI\systemd\systemd-bootx64.efi)
Boot0001* gentoo  HD(1,GPT,02f231b8-8f9a-471c-b3a9-dc7edb1bd70e,0x800,0xee000)/File(\EFI\gentoo\grubx64.efi)
Boot0003* Gentoo Linux  PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1f,0x2)/Sata(2,32768,0)/HD(1,GPT,73f682fe-e07b-4870-be82-d85077f8aaa2,0x800,0x100000)/File(\EFI\systemd\systemd-bootx64.efi)

I'm only Gentoo in my system so I don't really need anything but the Gentoo entry so I just delete everything with:

efibootmgr -b <entry_id> -B

passwd

passwd

install needed software

emerge -av net-misc/dhcpcd

exit
reboot

Post-installation

First Boot

systemd-machine-id+set
systemd-firstboot --prompt
systemctl preset-all --preset-mode=enable-only

Setting bash

sys-fs/lvm2 app-shells/bash

Add a user

useradd -m -G users,wheel,audio,video -s /bin/bash criptixo
passwd criptixo

Setup doas

emerge -av app-admin/doas
touch /etc/doas.conf
chown -c root:root /etc/doas.conf
chmod -c 0400 /etc/doas.conf

nvim /etc/doas.conf
permit :wheel
emerge --sync

Configuring Network

systemctl enable --now dhcpcd.service

sway de

installing sway

emerge -av swaybg foot grim slurp terminus-font mako wl-clipboard playerctl bemenu ranger htop neovim zip unzip

package.use/sway

ibs/ncurses		                -minimal 
x11-base/xwayland		        libei
media-libs/libepoxy		        X
media-video/pipewire	        sound-server pipewire-alsa echo-cancel -ffmpeg 
media-libs/vulkan-loader        X layers
media-libs/vulkan-layers	    X
dev-libs/bemenu			        -ncurses
media-libs/libaom		        -examples 
x11-libs/cairo 			        X 
x11-libs/libdrm  		        video_cards_radeon
sys-process/htop		        lm-sensors
media-gfx/imv 			        -X
www-client/qutebrowser 	        qt6 adblock widevine -pdf
dev-python/PyQt6		        qml webchannel
sys-libs/zlib			        minizip
media-libs/libva		        X
x11-libs/libxkbcommon 	        X
media-libs/libglvnd		        X
gui-apps/swaybg		            gdk-pixbuf
gui-wm/sway			            X swaybar
gui-libs/wlroots		        X
media-libs/mesa  		        X
sys-apps/dbus 			        X

Starting sway

nano /usr/bin/start-sway

#!/bin/sh
export XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland
export XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP=sway
export XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=sway

# Wayland stuff
export QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland
export SDL_VIDEODRIVER=wayland
export _JAVA_AWT_WM_NONREPARENTING=1

# Dark mode
GTK_THEME=Adwaita:dark
GTK2_RC_FILES=/usr/share/themes/Adwaita-dark/gtk-2.0/gtkrc 
QT_STYLE_OVERRIDE=Adwaita-Dark

exec dbus-run-session sway "$@"

chmod +x /usr/bin/start-sway

autologin

emerge -av gui-libs/greetd`

nano /etc/greetd/config.toml

[terminal]
# The VT to run the greeter on. Can be "next", "current" or a number
# designating the VT.
vt = current
...
[initial_session]
command = "/usr/bin/start-sway"
user = "criptixo"

systemctl enable greetd.service

audio

emerge -av pipewire libpulse wireplumber pulsemixer
systemctl --user enable --now pipewire-pulse.socket wireplumber.service

extra configurations

extra software

steam

emerge --ask --noreplace app-eselect/eselect-repository
eselect repository enable steam-overlay
emerge --sync
emerge steam-launcher

package.use/steam-launcher

sys-apps/systemd 		      abi_x86_32
sys-libs/zlib			        abi_x86_32
media-libs/libva		      abi_x86_32 
x11-libs/libX11  		      abi_x86_32
x11-libs/libXau  		      abi_x86_32
x11-libs/libxcb  		      abi_x86_32
x11-libs/libXdmcp  		    abi_x86_32
virtual/opengl  		      abi_x86_32
media-libs/mesa  		      abi_x86_32 
dev-libs/expat  		      abi_x86_32
media-libs/libglvnd     	abi_x86_32
x11-libs/libdrm  		      abi_x86_32
x11-libs/libxshmfence  		abi_x86_32
x11-libs/libXext  		    abi_x86_32
x11-libs/libXxf86vm  		  abi_x86_32
x11-libs/libXfixes  		  abi_x86_32
app-arch/zstd  			      abi_x86_32
sys-devel/llvm  		      abi_x86_32
x11-libs/libXrandr  		  abi_x86_32
x11-libs/libXrender  		  abi_x86_32
dev-libs/libffi  		      abi_x86_32
dev-libs/libxml2  		    abi_x86_32
dev-libs/icu  			      abi_x86_32
sys-libs/gpm  			      abi_x86_32
virtual/libelf  		      abi_x86_32
dev-libs/elfutils  		    abi_x86_32
app-arch/bzip2  		      abi_x86_32
dev-libs/nspr  			      abi_x86_32
dev-libs/nss  			      abi_x86_32
net-libs/libndp  		      abi_x86_32
x11-libs/extest 		      abi_x86_32
dev-libs/libevdev      		abi_x86_32
dev-lang/rust-bin		      abi_x86_32
dev-libs/wayland 		      abi_x86_32
virtual/rust 			        abi_x86_32
x11-libs/libpciaccess 		abi_x86_32
sys-devel/clang 	      	abi_x86_32
media-libs/fontconfig 		abi_x86_32
sys-libs/libudev-compat 	abi_x86_32
media-libs/libpulse 		  abi_x86_32
media-libs/libsndfile 		abi_x86_32
net-libs/libasyncns 	   	abi_x86_32
sys-apps/dbus 		      	abi_x86_32 
dev-libs/glib 			      abi_x86_32
dev-libs/libpcre2 	    	abi_x86_32
sys-apps/util-linux 		  abi_x86_32
media-libs/flac 		      abi_x86_32
media-libs/libogg 		    abi_x86_32
media-libs/libvorbis 		  abi_x86_32
media-libs/opus 		      abi_x86_32
media-sound/lame 		      abi_x86_32
media-sound/mpg123-base 	abi_x86_32
media-libs/freetype 		  abi_x86_32
media-libs/libpng 		    abi_x86_32
virtual/libintl 		      abi_x86_32
virtual/libudev 		      abi_x86_32
sys-apps/systemd-utils 		abi_x86_32
sys-libs/libcap 		      abi_x86_32
sys-libs/pam 			        abi_x86_32
virtual/libiconv 		       abi_x86_32
x11-libs/xcb-util-keysyms 	abi_x86_32
dev-db/sqlite			        abi_x86_32
sys-libs/readline		      abi_x86_32
sys-apps/lm-sensors		    abi_x86_32
dev-libs/libgcrypt		    abi_x86_32
app-arch/lz4			        abi_x86_32
dev-libs/libgpg-error		  abi_x86_32
sys-libs/ncurses		      abi_x86_32
media-sound/apulse		    abi_x86_32
media-libs/alsa-lib		    abi_x86_32
x11-libs/libvdpau 		    abi_x86_32

qutebrowser

emerge --ask qutebrowser

irssi

emerge --ask irssi

gimp

emerge --ask gimp

package.use/gimp

app-text/poppler		cairo
media-libs/gegl			cairo

nicotine+

emerge -av nicotine+

rtorrent

emerge -av rtorrent

emerge -av vulkan-loader

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
.config		.config
.irssi		.irssi
portage		portage
screenshots		screenshots
.bashrc		.bashrc
README.md		README.md

Latest commit

History

Folders and files

Repository files navigation