GWikInstall Basic Hardware

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This article is part of the HOWTO series.

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1 Introduction
- 1.1 Config
2 Basic Hardware
3 Localization
4 Finishing up
5 See Also

[edit] Introduction

This tutorial is far too bloated and wordy, as you read through, feel free to make it more concise.

This is part 2 of a 'best practices' guide for installing the most current release of Gentoo. Both the Official Gentoo.org Handbook and HOWTO Install Gentoo Current leave you with a "complete" yet mostly useless system. This takes you from that point forward until you get to the point where you really might want to start compare/contrast, and making choices about the sets of software you would be installing.

I would strongly advise you to read through HOWTO Install Gentoo Current if you didn't get here from there - most particularly this section - as I have made several major changes to the (IMHO) rather vanilla x86 handbook that are assumed to have been already made in the making of this guide.

[edit] Config

In this tutorial, some variables to describe things that the reader should change to suit his/her situation. In trying to make this guide as universal and user-friendly as possible, the following variables are considered. At various stages in the installation, you may wish to source this file.

File: /root/install.conf

 #!/bin/bash
 #/mnt/gentoo/root/config.vars
 export IPADDR=`/sbin/ifconfig eth0 | grep "inet addr" | cut -f2 -d':' | cut -f1 -d' '` # The IP address of the target system
 export DISK="/dev/hda" # The hard disk to be partitioned
 export USER="vuhstech" # The name of the admin user account
 export MIRROR_0="http://mirror.usu.edu/mirrors/gentoo" # The snapshot mirror
 export MIRROR_1="http://mirrors.acm.cs.rpi.edu/gentoo" # The stage mirror
 export DATE=`date +%Y%m%d` # Today's date
 export TIMEZONE="EST5EDT"
 export INIT_UPDATE="rc-update" # Which init system to use (sysvinit/rc-update or initng/ng-update)

[edit] Basic Hardware

This is just console-level configuration, I mention a few other X-related details in HOWTO Gnome Desktop for the End-User

[edit] Detection

HARDWARE Detecting your Hardware

Note: Take a look at Udev.

Code: Install PNP Software

 emerge hotplug coldplug # kudzu
 ${INIT_UPDATE} add coldplug boot
 ${INIT_UPDATE} add hotplug default
 # ${INIT_UPDATE} add kudzu boot

[edit] Power Management

Power Management Guide

HOWTO PowerNow!

Everyone loves a soft-off PC, right? Unless you have one of those stupid keyboards with the power button above the home key....

Code: Adding ACPID as a boot service

 ${INIT_UPDATE} add acpid boot

For more than just the basic soft-off options, see TIP ACPI basic configuration

[edit] Keyboard

And perhaps you prefer to always numlock your keyboard

Code: Numlock at boot

 ${INIT_UPDATE} add numlock boot

This article is still a Stub. You can help Gentoo-Wiki by expanding it.

STUFF ABOUT DEFINING LOGITECH/MICROSOFT EXTRA KEYS

[edit] Clearing screen when logging out

From Gentoo Linux Frequently Asked Questions, if you want the console cleared when you log out:

Code: Clearing screen when logging out

echo clear >> ~/.bash_logout 
echo clear >> /etc/skel/.bash_logout

[edit] Mouse

You'll probably want to be able to use your loverly mouse.

Code: Adding Console Mouse as a boot service

 emerge gpm;  
 vim /etc/conf.d/gpm
 /etc/init.d/gpm start
 ${INIT_UPDATE} add gpm boot;

File: /etc/conf/gpm

 MOUSE=imps2
 MOUSEDEV=/dev/input/mice
 APPEND="-l \"a-zA-Z0-9_.:~/\300-\326\330-\366\370-\377\""

[edit] Sound

Gentoo Linux ALSA Guide

Code: Configure ALSA

 nano -w /etc/autoload.modules.d/alsa # uncomment stuff and add your card model
 modules-update
 /etc/init.d/alsa start
 ${INIT_UPDATE} add alsasound boot

If you skip setting the card driver in /etc/autoload.modules.d/alsa and you have more than one sound card (on-board and pci/usb), then all of the available drivers will be loaded.

[edit] Specialized kernel ebuilds

Gentoo Linux x86 Quick Install Guide

Use the following packages for pcmcia, nforce, network:

Code: Specialized hardware packages

 emerge pcmcia-cs (or nforce-net, nforce-audio, e100, e1000rp-pppoe)

[edit] Localization

Set locales - use locale -a to find suitable locales:

File: /etc/env.d/02locale

LANG="en_DE.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_CTYPE="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_DE.UTF-8"

The keyboard layout used by the console is set in /etc/rc.conf by the KEYMAP variable. Read the comments in this file. Valid values can be found in /usr/share/keymaps/{arch}/. i386 has further subdivisions into layout (qwerty/, azerty/, etc.). Some languages have multiple options, so you may wish to experiment to decide which one fits your needs best.

File: /etc/rc.conf

KEYMAP="de"
KEYMAP="de-latin1"
KEYMAP="de-latin1-nodeadkeys"

#enable unicode
UNICODE="yes"

Enabling utf-8 for less:

File: /etc/profile

LESSCHARSET=utf-8

Enabling utf-8 for man:

File: /etc/man.conf

 #(This is the old line)
 # NROFF           /usr/bin/nroff -Tascii -c -mandoc
 # (Replace the one above with this)
 NROFF           /usr/bin/nroff -mandoc -c

You can use this init.d script to set all consoles into unicode mode on bootup:

File: /etc/init.d/unicode

#!/sbin/runscript
conf=/etc/env.d/02locale

# Using devfs?
if [ -e /dev/.devfsd ] || [ -e /dev/.udev -a -d /dev/vc ]; then
  device=/dev/vc/
else
  device=/dev/tty
fi

depend() {
        need localmount
        after keymaps
        before consolefont
}

checkconfig() {

  if [ -r ${conf} ]; then
          . ${conf}
          encoding=
          [ -n "${LC_ALL}" ]      && encoding=${LC_ALL#*.}   && return 0
          [ -n "${LC_MESSAGES}" ] && encoding=${LC_MESSAGES#*. } && return 0
          [ -n "${LANG}" ]        && encoding=${LANG#*.}   && return 0
  fi
  eend 1 "Locale is not configured, Please fix ${conf}"
  return 1
}

start() {
        ebegin "setting consoles to UTF-8"
        checkconfig
        if [ "${encoding}" = "UTF-8" -o "${encoding}" = "utf-8" ]; then
                dumpkeys | loadkeys --unicode
                for ((i=1; i <= "${RC_TTY_NUMBER}"; i++)); do
                        echo -ne "\033%G" > ${device}${i}
                done
                eend 0
        else
                eend 1 "UTF-8 is not required"
        fi
}

[edit] Finishing up

Just to make sure that your system is all nice and clean:

Code: One final tune-up

 dispatch-conf
 eupdatedb # This could take an hour
 esync s > new-ebuilds.log
 emerge --newuse --deep --update world
 dispatch-conf

NOTE: Be carefull not to let dispatch-conf update things like /etc/profile and /etc/skel/.bash_profile that we modified in PART 1 of this guide, do an interactive merge instead.

Congrats! Happy Gentoo-ing.