gein (GEntoo INstaller) is a script for automating the installation of my ideal Gentoo Linux system. This repository contains the following:

• gein.sh, the installation script
• etc/, configuration files
• usr/, kernel configurations

Warnings

• Using gein is not a replacement for reading the Gentoo Handbook. If anything is not understood, please consult the Gentoo Handbook for your system before submitting an issue.
• Be sure to review this repository in it’s entirety, including the warnings at the top of gein.sh.
• You must manually partition your disks and mount the partitions.
• No web browser, office suite, or other applications are included by default.

FAQ

“How much about Gentoo will I need to know to use gein?”

I would suggest reading the Gentoo Handbook and every file in this project before proceeding.

“I keep getting boot failures after installing in a VirtualBox VM?”

Remove the virtual disk drive from the boot order and restart.

“The display is lagging when using LXQT on my Nvidia GPU?”

Run eselect opengl set nvidia as root.

Installing

You may use this script as-is by performing the following steps:

1. Download the Gentoo install cd (or any Live distribution) for your architecture. Only amd64 is currently defined. Create an issue with the output of uname -a for it to be added to the script.

2. Write the ISO to a disk or USB drive and boot from it.

   $ dd if=~/Downloads/install-*.iso of=/dev/sdX
   $ reboot
   

3. Partition and mount your disks. Note that this example assumes that you will be using a single partition and later installing GRUB to the MBR. Note that if you aren’t using the Gentoo installation CD, you will need to mkdir /mnt/gentoo before proceeding.

   $ fdisk /dev/sdX
   $ mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX
   $ mount /dev/sdX1 /mnt/gentoo
   

4. Download and run gein.sh

   $ wget https://gein.io/gein.sh
   $ sh gein.sh
   gein: Linux-based derivative of Gentoo
     bootstrap    Bootstrap the stage3 tarball
   
   Post-bootstrap:
     minimal      Headless installation
     desktop      Desktop installation
   

5. Uncomment and set the PartitionBoot & VideoCards variables. Both MUST be set or gein.sh will exit. If you don’t need any video support, then set VideoCards to false.

   PartitionBoot="/dev/sda"
   VideoCards="false"
   

6. Start the bootstrap. Upon completion, the script will chroot into /mnt/gentoo so we may proceed to the next step.

   $ sh ./gein.sh bootstrap
   

7. Install the desired target:

   $ sh ./gein.sh minimal
   

8. Wait a few hours. You will be prompted as few times as possible though prompts are at the very beginning or end of the process.

9. Enjoy your new Gentoo installation!

Customizing

If you would like to create your own ideal Gentoo system using this script, you may do so by:

1. Forking https://github.com/jcmdln/gein
2. Modify the configuration files as desired
3. Update the Source URL in gein.sh
4. Update the CONFIG() function to represent your configuration