Install
Install Funtoo Linux
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Introduction
This document was written to help you install Funtoo Linux on PC-compatible systems, while keeping distracting options regarding system configuration to a minimum.
If you've had previous experience installing Gentoo Linux then a lot of steps will be familiar, but you should still read through as there are a few differences. If you're new to installing a Gentoo-based Linux, or new to Linux entirely -- welcome! We have attempted to make these installation instructions understandable to new users as well.
If you are installing Funtoo Linux on ARM architecture, please see Funtoo Linux Installation on ARM for notable differences regarding ARM support.
Installation Overview
This is a basic overview of the Funtoo installation process:
- Download and boot the live CD of your choice.
- Prepare your disk.
- Create and mount filesystems.
- Install the Funtoo stage tarball of your choice.
- Chroot into your new system.
- Download the Portage tree.
- Configure your system and network.
- Install a kernel.
- Install a bootloader.
- Complete final steps.
- Reboot and enjoy.
Live CD
In order to install Funtoo Linux, you will first need to boot your computer using a Linux-based Live CD or USB stick. We recommend the Gentoo-based System Rescue CD as it contains lots of tools and utilities and supports both 32-bit and 64-bit systems. It can be burned to CD/DVD or installed on a USB stick. Download it here:
- Download from osuosl.org
- Download from funtoo.org
NO VIDEO: We have patched our download of System Rescue CD so that it should initialize video properly when booting from UEFI (See FL-2030.) If you are using the official, non-Funtoo System Rescue CD, at the GRUB menu, you may need to press e to edit the menu entry and add a GRUB boot line that reads insmod all_video and then boot. This bug has been reported upstream to System Rescue CD developers.
If using an older version of System Rescue CD, be sure to select the rescue64 kernel at the boot menu if you are installing a 64-bit system. By default, System Rescue CD used to boot in 32-bit mode though the latest version attempts to automatically detect 64-bit processors.
Network Access
Once you have booted System Rescue CD, see if you have Internet access. Internet access is required for installing Funtoo Linux:
# ping www.google.com
PING www.google.com (216.58.217.36) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from den03s10-in-f4.1e100.net (216.58.217.36): icmp_seq=1 ttl=57 time=30.1 ms
If the ping is successful (you see 64 bytes messages as above,) then your Network is set up. Hit Control-C to stop the ping.
If you need to set up a WiFi connection for Internet access, then this can be accomplished using the nmtui command-line tool:
# nmtui
Remote Install
Alternatively, you can log into System Rescue CD over the network via SSH to perform the install from another computer, and this may be more convenient way to install Funtoo Linux.
If you'd like to complete the install remotely, here's how. First, you will need to ensure that System Rescue CD has a functioning network connection. Then, you will need to set a root password for System Rescue CD:
# passwd New password: ******** Retype new password: ******** passwd: password updated successfully
Once you have typed in a password, you will now need to determine the IP address of System Rescue CD, and then you can use ssh to connect to it. To determine the IP address currently being used by System Rescue CD, type ifconfig:
# ifconfig
Alternatively, determining of an IP address is possible with iproute2 ip tool:
# ip addr show
One of the interfaces should have an IP address (listed as inet addr:) from your LAN. You can then connect remotely, from another system on your LAN, to System Rescue CD, and perform steps from the comfort of an existing OS. On your remote system, type the following, replacing 1.2.3.4 with the IP address of System Rescue CD. Connecting from an existing Linux or MacOS system would look something like this:
(remote system) $ ssh root@1.2.3.4 Password: **********
If you'd like to connect remotely from an existing Microsoft Windows system, you'll need to download an SSH client for Windows, such as PuTTY.
After you've logged in via SSH, you're now connected remotely to System Rescue CD and can perform the installation steps.
Prepare Hard Disk
In this section, we'll learn about the different ways that Funtoo Linux can boot from a hard disk. By "boot", we mean the process by which Linux starts after you press the power button on your desktop, laptop or server. You can think of "booting" as a process that starts with your computer's firmware (built-in software) running, and then "finding" the Linux kernel and running it. The Linux kernel then takes over, identifies all your hardware, and starts.
Background
If you are an absolute beginner to Linux, you may be less confused if you skip to the next section, Which to Use?
In earlier times, there was only one way to boot a PC-compatible computer. All of our desktops and servers had standard firmware called the "PC BIOS," all our hard drives used Master Boot Records at the beginning of the disk, where the PC BIOS would "look" to find boot loader code which would in turn load Linux, and our hard drives were partitioned into different regions using the standard MBR partition scheme. That was just how it was done. And we liked it that way!
Then, along came EFI and UEFI, which are new-style firmware designed to boot systems, along with GPT partition tables to define disk partitions on disks larger than 2.2TB. All of the sudden, we had a variety of options for installing and booting Linux systems, turning what once was a one-method-fits-all approach into something a lot more complex.
Let's take a moment to review the options available to you for configuring a hard drive to boot Funtoo Linux. This Install Guide uses, and recommends, the old-school method of BIOS booting and using an MBR. It works and (except for rare cases) is universally supported. There's nothing wrong with it. If your system disk is 2TB or smaller in size, it won't prevent you from using all of your disk's capacity, either.
But, there are some situations where the old-school method isn't optimal. If you have a system disk >2TB in size, then MBR partitions won't allow you to access all your storage. So that's one reason. Another reason is that there are some so-called "PC" systems out there that don't support BIOS booting anymore, and force you to use UEFI to boot. So, out of compassion for people who fall into this predicament, this Install Guide documents UEFI booting too.
Our recommendation is still to go old-school unless you have reason not to. The boot loader we will be using to load the Linux kernel in this guide is called GRUB, so we call this method the BIOS + GRUB (MBR) method. It's the traditional method of setting up a PC-compatible system to boot Linux.
If you need to use UEFI to boot, we recommend not using the MBR at all for booting, as some systems support this, but others don't. Instead, we recommend using UEFI to boot GRUB, which in turn will load Linux. We refer to this method as the UEFI + GRUB (GPT) method.
And yes, there are even more methods, some of which are documented on the Boot Methods page. We used to recommend a BIOS + GRUB (GPT) method but it is not consistently supported across a wide variety of hardware.
Which to Use?
The big question is -- which boot method should you use? Here's how to tell.
- Principle 1 - Old School
- If you can reliably boot System Rescue CD and it shows you an initial light blue menu, you are booting the CD using the BIOS, and it's likely that you can thus boot Funtoo Linux using the BIOS. So, go old-school and use BIOS booting, unless you have some reason to use UEFI, such as having a >2.2TB system disk. In that case, see Principle 2, as your system may also support UEFI booting.
- Principle 2 - New School
- If you can reliably boot System Rescue CD and it shows you an initial black and white menu -- congratulations, your system is configured to support UEFI booting. This means that you are ready to install Funtoo Linux to boot via UEFI. Your system may still support BIOS booting, but just be trying UEFI first. You can poke around in your BIOS boot configuration and play with this.
Advanced Users May Wonder: What's the Big Difference between Old School and New School?: Here's the deal. If you go with old-school MBR partitions, your /boot partition will be an ext2 filesystem, and you'll use fdisk to create your MBR partitions. If you go with new-school GPT partitions and UEFI booting, your /boot partition will be a vfat filesystem, because this is what UEFI is able to read, and you will use gdisk to create your GPT partitions. And you'll install GRUB a bit differently. That's about all it comes down to, in case you were curious.
To install Funtoo Linux to boot via the New School UEFI method, you must boot System Rescue CD using UEFI. If you successfully boot sysresccd with UEFI, you will see an initial black and white screen to select the mode in which you will boot system rescue cd. Otherwise, if you see a blue screen with black text, UEFI will not be active and you will not be able to set up UEFI booting later in the install process!
Some motherboards may appear to support UEFI, but don't. Do your research. For example, the Award BIOS in my Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD7 rev 1.1 has an option to enable UEFI boot for CD/DVD. This is not sufficient for enabling UEFI boot for hard drives and installing Funtoo Linux. UEFI must be supported for both removable media (so you can boot System Rescue CD using UEFI) as well as fixed media (so you can boot your new Funtoo Linux installation.) It turns out that later revisions of this board (rev 3.0) have a new BIOS that fully supports UEFI boot. This may point to a third principle -- know thy hardware.
But First...
Before doing anything to your disks, make sure you are partitioning the right one. Use the lsblk command to view a list of all block devices on your system, as well as partitions on these block devices:
# lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 1.8T 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 512M 0 part
├─sda2 8:2 0 8G 0 part [SWAP]
└─sda3 8:3 0 1.8T 0 part
├─main-root 254:0 0 500G 0 lvm /
└─main-data 254:1 0 1.3T 0 lvm /home
Make sure you will not be overwriting any important data and that you have chosen the correct /dev/sd? device. Above, you can see that sda contains three partitions, sda1, sda2 and sda3, and that sda3 contains LVM volumes.
Once you've double-checked your target block device and made sure you'll be partitioning the correct disk, proceed to the next step.
Old-School (BIOS/MBR) Method
Use this method if you are booting using your BIOS, and if your System Rescue CD initial boot menu was light blue. If you're going to use the new-school method, click here to jump down to UEFI/GPT.
First, it's a good idea to make sure that you've found the correct hard disk to partition. Try this command and verify that /dev/sda is the disk that you want to partition:
# fdisk -l /dev/sda
Disk /dev/sda: 640.1 GB, 640135028736 bytes, 1250263728 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk label type: gpt
# Start End Size Type Name
1 2048 1250263694 596.2G Linux filesyste Linux filesystem
Now, it is recommended that you erase any existing MBR or GPT partition tables on the disk, which could confuse the system's BIOS at boot time. We accomplish this using sgdisk:
This will make any existing partitions inaccessible! You are strongly cautioned and advised to backup any critical data before proceeding.
# sgdisk --zap-all /dev/sda
Creating new GPT entries.
GPT data structures destroyed! You may now partition the disk using fdisk or
other utilities.
This output is also nothing to worry about, as the command still succeded:
*************************************************************** Found invalid GPT and valid MBR; converting MBR to GPT format in memory. ***************************************************************
Now we will use fdisk to create the MBR partition table and partitions:
# fdisk /dev/sda
Within fdisk, follow these steps:
Empty the partition table:
Command (m for help): o ↵
Create Partition 1 (boot):
Command (m for help): n ↵ Partition type (default p): ↵ Partition number (1-4, default 1): ↵ First sector: ↵ Last sector: +128M ↵
Create Partition 2 (swap):
Command (m for help): n ↵ Partition type (default p): ↵ Partition number (2-4, default 2): ↵ First sector: ↵ Last sector: +2G ↵ Command (m for help): t ↵ Partition number (1,2, default 2): ↵ Hex code (type L to list all codes): 82 ↵
Create the root partition:
Command (m for help): n ↵ Partition type (default p): ↵ Partition number (3,4, default 3): ↵ First sector: ↵ Last sector: ↵
Verify the partition table:
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 298.1 GiB, 320072933376 bytes, 625142448 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x82abc9a6
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 2048 264191 131072 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 264192 4458495 2097152 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3 4458496 625142447 310341976 83 Linux
Write the partition table to disk:
Command (m for help): w
Your new MBR partition table will now be written to your system disk.
You're done with partitioning! Now, jump over to Creating filesystems.
New-School (UEFI/GPT) Method
Use this method if you are interested in booting using UEFI, and if your System Rescue CD initial boot menu was black and white. If it was light blue, this method will not work.
The gdisk commands to create a GPT partition table are as follows. Adapt sizes as necessary, although these defaults will work for most users. Start gdisk:
# gdisk /dev/sda
Within gdisk, follow these steps:
Create a new empty partition table (This will erase all data on the disk when saved):
Command: o ↵ This option deletes all partitions and creates a new protective MBR. Proceed? (Y/N): y ↵
Create Partition 1 (boot):
Command: n ↵ Partition Number: 1 ↵ First sector: ↵ Last sector: +500M ↵ Hex Code: EF00 ↵
Create Partition 2 (swap):
Command: n ↵ Partition Number: 2 ↵ First sector: ↵ Last sector: +4G ↵ Hex Code: 8200 ↵
Create Partition 3 (root):
Command: n ↵ Partition Number: 3 ↵ First sector: ↵ Last sector: ↵ (for rest of disk) Hex Code: ↵
Along the way, you can type "p" and hit Enter to view your current partition table. If you make a mistake, you can type "d" to delete an existing partition that you created. When you are satisfied with your partition setup, type "w" to write your configuration to disk:
Write Partition Table To Disk:
Command: w ↵ Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): Y ↵
The partition table will now be written to the disk and gdisk will close.
Now, your GPT/GUID partitions have been created, and will show up as the following block devices under Linux:
-
/dev/sda1, which will be used to hold the/bootfilesystem,
-
/dev/sda2, which will be used for swap space, and
-
/dev/sda3, which will hold your root filesystem.
You can verify that the block devices above were correctly created by running the command lsblk.
Creating filesystems
This section covers both BIOS and UEFI installs. Don't skip it!
Before your newly-created partitions can be used, the block devices that were created in the previous step need to be initialized with filesystem metadata. This process is known as creating a filesystem on the block devices. After filesystems are created on the block devices, they can be mounted and used to store files.
Let's keep this simple. Are you using old-school MBR partitions? If so, let's create an ext2 filesystem on /dev/sda1:
# mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda1
If you're using new-school GPT partitions for UEFI, you'll want to create a vfat filesystem on /dev/sda1, because this is what UEFI is able to read:
# mkfs.vfat -F 32 /dev/sda1
Now, let's create a swap partition. This partition will be used as disk-based virtual memory for your Funtoo Linux system.
You will not create a filesystem on your swap partition, since it is not used to store files. But it is necessary to initialize it using the mkswap command. Then we'll run the swapon command to make your newly-initialized swap space immediately active within the live CD environment, in case it is needed during the rest of the install process:
# mkswap /dev/sda2 # swapon /dev/sda2
Now, we need to create a root filesystem. This is where Funtoo Linux will live. We generally recommend ext4 or XFS root filesystems. If you're not sure, choose ext4. Here's how to create a root ext4 filesystem:
# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3
...and here's how to create an XFS root filesystem, if you prefer to use XFS instead of ext4:
# mkfs.xfs /dev/sda3
Your filesystems (and swap) have all now been initialized, so that that can be mounted (attached to your existing directory heirarchy) and used to store files. We are ready to begin installing Funtoo Linux on these brand-new filesystems.
When deploying an OpenVZ host, please use ext4 exclusively. The Parallels development team tests extensively with ext4, and modern versions of openvz-rhel6-stable are not compatible with XFS, and you may experience kernel bugs.
Mounting filesystems
Mount the newly-created filesystems as follows, creating /mnt/funtoo as the installation mount point:
# mkdir /mnt/funtoo # mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/funtoo # mkdir /mnt/funtoo/boot # mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/funtoo/boot
Optionally, if you have a separate filesystem for /home or anything else:
# mkdir /mnt/funtoo/home # mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/funtoo/home
If you have /tmp or /var/tmp on a separate filesystem, be sure to change the permissions of the mount point to be globally-writeable after mounting, as follows:
# chmod 1777 /mnt/funtoo/tmp
Setting the Date
If your system's date and time are too far off (typically by months or years,) then it may prevent Portage from properly downloading source tarballs. This is because some of our sources are downloaded via HTTPS, which use SSL certificates and are marked with an activation and expiration date. However, if your system time is relatively close to correct, you can probably skip this step for now.
Now is a good time to verify the date and time are correctly set to UTC. Use the date command to verify the date and time:
# date
Fri Jul 15 19:47:18 UTC 2011
If the date and/or time need to be corrected, do so using date MMDDhhmmYYYY, keeping in mind hhmm are in 24-hour format. The example below changes the date and time to "July 16th, 2011 @ 8:00PM" UTC:
# date 071620002011
Fri Jul 16 20:00:00 UTC 2011
Once you have set the system clock, it's a very good idea to copy the time to the hardware clock, so it persists across reboots:
# hwclock --systohc
Installing the Stage 3 tarball
Now that filesystems are created and your hardware and system clock are set, the next step is downloading the initial Stage 3 tarball. The Stage 3 is a pre-compiled system used as a starting point to install Funtoo Linux.
To download the correct build of Funtoo Linux for your system, head over to the Subarches page. Subarches are builds of Funtoo Linux that are designed to run on a particular type of CPU, to offer the best possible performance. They also take advantage of the instruction sets available for each CPU.
If you don't know which subarch to choose, issue this command:
# gcc -march=native -Q --help=target | grep march
The Subarches page lists all CPU-optimized versions of Funtoo Linux. Find the one that is appropriate for the type of CPU that your system has, and then click on its name in the first column (such as corei7, for example.) You will then go to a page dedicated to that subarch, and the stage3s available for download will be listed. If you are using a virtualization technology to run Funtoo Linux, and your VM may migrate to different types of hardware, then it's recommended that you use a stage3 that is optimized for the oldest CPU instruction set that your VM will run on, or a generic image if it may run on both AMD and Intel processors.
For most subarches, you will have several stage3s available to choose from. This next section will help you understand which one to pick.
Which Build?
Pick funtoo-current.'
Which Variant?
If you're not sure, pick standard.
Our "regular" stage3's are listed with a variant of standard. The following variant builds are available:
| Variant | Description |
|---|---|
standard | The "standard" version of Funtoo Linux |
pure64 | A 64-bit build that drops multilib (32-bit compatibility) support. Can be ideal for server systems. |
hardened | Includes PIE/SSP toolchain for enhanced security. PIE does require the use of PaX in the kernel, while SSP works with any kernel, and provides enhanced security in user-space to avoid stack-based exploits. For enhanced security and hardening of the system. |
PIE are needed to take advantage of ASLR, supported by some kernel versions. While ASLR can already be enforced for data areas in the stack and heap (brk and mmap), the code areas must be compiled as position-independent. Shared libraries already do this (-fPIC), so they gain ASLR automatically, but binary .text regions need to be build PIE to gain ASLR. When this happens, ROP attacks are much harder since there are no static locations to bounce off of during a memory corruption attack.
SSP is a mainline GCC feature, which adds safety checks against stack overwrites. This renders many potential code injection attacks into aborting situations. In the best case this turns code injection vulnerabilities into denial of service or into non-issues (depending on the application).
Download the Stage3
Once you have found the stage3 that you would like to download, use wget to download the Stage 3 tarball you have chosen to use as the basis for your new Funtoo Linux system. It should be saved to the /mnt/funtoo directory as follows:
# cd /mnt/funtoo # wget http://build.funtoo.org/funtoo-current/x86-64bit/generic_64/stage3-latest.tar.xz
Note that 64-bit systems can run 32-bit or 64-bit stages, but 32-bit systems can only run 32-bit stages. Make sure that you select a Stage 3 build that is appropriate for your CPU. If you are not certain, it is a safe bet to choose the generic_64 or generic_32 stage. Consult the Subarches page for more information.
Once the stage is downloaded, extract the contents with the following command, substituting in the actual name of your Stage 3 tarball:
# tar xpf stage3-latest.tar.xz
It is very important to use tar's "p" option when extracting the Stage 3 tarball - it tells tar to preserve any permissions and ownership that exists within the archive. Without this option, your Funtoo Linux filesystem permissions will be incorrect.
Chroot into Funtoo
To install Funtoo Linux, the chroot command is first used. The chroot command will "switch into" the new Funtoo Linux system, so the commands you execute after running "chroot" will run within your newly-extracted Funtoo Linux system.
Before chrooting, there are a few things that need to be done to set up the chroot environment. You will need to mount /proc, /sys and /dev inside your new system. Use the following commands to do so:
# cd /mnt/funtoo # mount -t proc none proc # mount --rbind /sys sys # mount --rbind /dev dev
You'll also want to copy over resolv.conf in order to have proper resolution of Internet hostnames from inside the chroot:
# cp /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/funtoo/etc/
Now you can chroot into your new system. Use env before chroot to ensure that no environment settings from the installation media are pulled in to your new system:
# env -i HOME=/root TERM=$TERM /bin/chroot . bash -l
For users of live CDs with 64-bit kernels installing 32-bit systems: Some software may use uname -r to check whether the system is 32 or 64-bit. You may want to append linux32 to the chroot command as a workaround, but it's generally not needed.
If you receive the error "chroot: failed to run command `/bin/bash': Exec format error", it is most likely because you are running a 32-bit kernel and trying to execute 64-bit code. Make sure that you have selected the proper type of kernel when booting SystemRescueCD.
It's also a good idea to change the default command prompt while inside the chroot. This will avoid confusion if you have to change terminals. Use this command:
# export PS1="(chroot) $PS1"
Test internet name resolution from within the chroot:
# ping -c 5 google.com
If you can't ping, make sure /etc/resolv.conf doesn't contain things like 127.0.x.x addresses, if it does, change the 127.0.x.x entry to 8.8.8.8 -- Google's public dns address. Make sure to replace this with your dns of choice once the system is installed.
Congratulations! You are now chrooted inside a Funtoo Linux system. Now it's time to get Funtoo Linux properly configured so that Funtoo Linux will start successfully, without any manual assistance, when your system is restarted.
Downloading the Portage tree
Now it's time to install a copy of the Portage repository, which contains package scripts (ebuilds) that tell portage how to build and install thousands of different software packages. To create the Portage repository, simply run ego sync from within the chroot. This will automatically clone the portage tree from GitHub and all kit submodules:
(chroot) # ego sync
Configuring your system
As is expected from a Linux distribution, Funtoo Linux has its share of configuration files. The one file you are absolutely required to edit in order to ensure that Funtoo Linux boots successfully is /etc/fstab. The others are optional.
Using Nano
The default editor included in the chroot environment is called nano. To edit one of the files below, run nano as follows:
(chroot) # nano -w /etc/fstab
When in the editor, you can use arrow keys to move the cursor, and common keys like backspace and delete will work as expected. To save the file, press Control-X, and answer y when prompted to save the modified buffer if you would like to save your changes.
Configuration Files
Here are a full list of files that you may want to edit, depending on your needs:
| File | Do I need to change it? | Description |
|---|---|---|
/etc/fstab |
YES - required | Mount points for all filesystems to be used at boot time. This file must reflect your disk partition setup. We'll guide you through modifying this file below. |
/etc/localtime |
Maybe - recommended | Your timezone, which will default to UTC if not set. This should be a symbolic link to something located under /usr/share/zoneinfo (e.g. /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Montreal) |
/etc/portage/make.conf |
Maybe - recommended | Parameters used by gcc (compiler), portage, and make. Note that it is normal for this file to be empty in Funtoo Linux, as many settings have been migrated to our enhanced profile system. |
/etc/conf.d/hostname |
Maybe - recommended | Used to set system hostname. Set the hostname variable to the fully-qualified (with dots, ie. foo.funtoo.org) name if you have one. Otherwise, set to the local system hostname (without dots, ie. foo). Defaults to localhost if not set. |
/etc/hosts |
No | You no longer need to manually set the hostname in this file. This file is automatically generated by /etc/init.d/hostname. |
/etc/conf.d/keymaps |
Optional | Keyboard mapping configuration file (for console pseudo-terminals). Set if you have a non-US keyboard. See Funtoo Linux Localization. |
/etc/conf.d/hwclock |
Optional | How the time of the battery-backed hardware clock of the system is interpreted (UTC or local time). Linux uses the battery-backed hardware clock to initialize the system clock when the system is booted. |
/etc/conf.d/modules |
Optional | Kernel modules to load automatically at system startup. Typically not required. See Additional Kernel Resources for more info. |
/etc/conf.d/consolefont |
Optional | Allows you to specify the default console font. To apply this font, enable the consolefont service by running rc-update add consolefont. |
profiles |
Optional | Some useful portage settings that may help speed up intial configuration. |
If you're installing an English version of Funtoo Linux, you're in luck, as most of the configuration files can be used as-is. If you're installing for another locale, don't worry. We will walk you through the necessary configuration steps on the Funtoo Linux Localization page, and if needed, there's always plenty of friendly, helpful support available. (See Getting Help)
Let's go ahead and see what we have to do. Use nano -w <name_of_file> to edit files -- the "-w" argument disables word-wrapping, which is handy when editing configuration files. You can copy and paste from the examples.
It's important to edit your /etc/fstab file before you reboot! You will need to modify both the "fs" and "type" columns to match the settings for your partitions and filesystems that you created with gdisk or fdisk. Skipping this step may prevent Funtoo Linux from booting successfully.
/etc/fstab
/etc/fstab is used by the mount command which is run when your system boots. Lines in this file inform mount about filesystems to be mounted and how they should be mounted. In order for the system to boot properly, you must edit /etc/fstab and ensure that it reflects the partition configuration you used earlier in the install process. If you can't remember the partition configuration that you used earlier, the lsblk command may be of help to you:
(chroot) # nano -w /etc/fstab
/etc/fstab - An example fstab file
# The root filesystem should have a pass number of either 0 or 1.
# All other filesystems should have a pass number of 0 or greater than 1.
#
# NOTE: If your BOOT partition is ReiserFS, add the notail option to opts.
#
# See the manpage fstab(5) for more information.
#
# <fs> <mountpoint> <type> <opts> <dump/pass>
/dev/sda1 /boot ext2 noauto,noatime 1 2
/dev/sda2 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/sda3 / ext4 noatime 0 1
#/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom auto noauto,ro 0 0
If you're using UEFI to boot, change the /dev/sda1 line so that it says vfat instead of ext2. Similarly, make sure that the /dev/sda3 line specifies either xfs or ext4, depending on which filesystem you chose earlier on in the installation process when you created filesystems.
/etc/localtime
/etc/localtime is used to specify the timezone that your machine is in, and defaults to UTC. If you would like your Funtoo Linux system to use local time, you should replace /etc/localtime with a symbolic link to the timezone that you wish to use.
(chroot) # ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/MST7MDT /etc/localtime
The above sets the timezone to Mountain Standard Time (with daylight savings). Type ls /usr/share/zoneinfo to list available timezones. There are also sub-directories containing timezones described by location.
/etc/portage/make.conf
USE flags define what functionality is enabled when packages are built. It is not recommended to add a lot of USE flags during installation; you should wait until you have a working, bootable system before changing your USE flags. A USE flag prefixed with a minus ("-") sign tells Portage not to use the flag when compiling. A Funtoo guide to USE flags will be available in the future. For now, you can find out more information about USE flags in the Gentoo Handbook.
/etc/conf.d/hwclock
If you dual-boot with Windows, you'll need to edit this file and change the value of clock from UTC to local, because Windows will set your hardware clock to local time every time you boot Windows. Otherwise you normally wouldn't need to edit this file.
(chroot) # nano -w /etc/conf.d/hwclock
Localization
By default, Funtoo Linux is configured with Unicode (UTF-8) enabled, and for the US English locale and keyboard. If you would like to configure your system to use a non-English locale or keyboard, see Funtoo Linux Localization.
Introducing Portage
Portage, the Funtoo Linux package manager has a command called emerge which is used to build and install packages from source. It also takes care of installing all of the package's dependencies. You call emerge like this:
(chroot) # emerge packagename
When you install a package by specifying its name in the command-line, Portage records its name in the /var/lib/portage/world file. It does so because it assumes that, since you have installed it by name, you want to consider it part of your system and want to keep the package updated in the future. This is a handy feature, since when packages are being added to the world set, we can update our entire system by typing:
(chroot) # ego sync (chroot) # emerge -auDN @world
This is the "official" way to update your Funtoo Linux system. Above, we first update our Portage tree using git to grab the latest ebuilds (scripts), and then run an emerge command to update the world set of packages. The options specified tell emerge to:
-
a- show us what will be emerged, and ask us if we want to proceed -
u- update the packages we specify -- don't emerge them again if they are already emerged. -
D- Consider the entire dependency tree of packages when looking for updates. In other words, do a deep update. -
N- Update any packages that have changed (new) USE settings.
You should also consider passing --with-bdeps=y when emerging @world, at least once in a while. This will update build dependencies as well.
Of course, sometimes we want to install a package but not add it to the world file. This is often done because you only want the package installed temporarily or because you know the package in question is a dependency of another package. If this behavior is desired, you call emerge like this:
(chroot) # emerge -1 packagename
Advanced users may be interested in the Emerge wiki page.
Updating World
Certain packages in the Funtoo stage3 tarball are compiled with the bindist USE flag enabled by default. bindist flag controlling enable or disable of options for proprietary and/or patented part of code which is disallowed to distribute in images due to licensing issues.). You may notice a dependency resolution problem with bindist USE during updating packages after initial system setup. To avoid potential problems, update the system before first boot or any other package installation as shown below:
(chroot) # ego sync (chroot) # emerge -auDN @world
Make sure you read any post emerge messages and follow their instructions. This is especially true if you have upgraded perl or python.
Kernel
Starting mid-May 2015, Funtoo Linux stage3's include a pre-built debian-sources kernel to make installation faster and easier. To see if debian-sources is installed, type:
(chroot) # emerge -s debian-sources Searching... [ Results for search key : debian-sources ] [ Applications found : 1 ] * sys-kernel/debian-sources Latest version available: 3.19.3 Latest version installed: 3.19.3 Size of files: 81,292 kB Homepage: http://www.debian.org Description: Debian Sources (and optional binary kernel) License: GPL-2
If a version is listed under Latest version installed, then debian-sources is already pre-built for you and you can skip the rest of the Kernel section, and proceed to the Installing a Bootloader section.
At this point it is wise to emerge latest sys-kernel/linux-firmware package, because various drivers rely on firmware blobs and instructions. Hardware like wi-fi cards, graphic cards, network cards, and others will not work properly or at all if firmware not present.
Building the Kernel
If you need to build a kernel for Funtoo Linux, please follow these steps:
See Funtoo Linux Kernels for a full list of kernels supported in Funtoo Linux. We recommend debian-sources for new users.
debian-sources with binary USE flag requires at least 20GB free in /var/tmp and takes around 1 hour to build on a Intel Core i7 Processor.
Let's emerge our kernel:
(chroot) # emerge debian-sources
Once emerge completes, you'll have a brand new kernel and initramfs installed to /boot, plus kernel headers installed in /usr/src/linux, and you'll be ready to configure the boot loader to load these to boot your Funtoo Linux system.
If you have a RAID in your machine, the kernel installation will pull in the mdadm tool as a dependency. It is important to edit the /etc/mdadm.conf file prior to rebooting the machine so the RAID is properly recognised and set up before the kernel attempts to mount it in the tree. Failing to do so can result in an unusable or even unbootable system! For specific details, consult the mdadm man page man mdadm or the mdadm ebuild page.
NVIDIA card users: the binary USE flag installs the Nouveau drivers which cannot be loaded at the same time as the proprietary drivers, and cannot be unloaded at runtime because of KMS. You need to blacklist it under /etc/modprobe.d/.
For an overview of other kernel options for Funtoo Linux, see Funtoo Linux Kernels. There may be modules that the Debian kernel doesn't include, a situation where genkernel would be useful. Also be sure to see hardware compatibility information.
Installing a Bootloader
These install instructions show you how to use GRUB to boot using BIOS (old-school) or UEFI (new-school). As of boot-update-1.7.2, now in Portage, the steps are very similar.
First, emerge boot-update. This will also cause grub-2 and efibootmgr to be merged, since they are dependencies:
(chroot) # emerge boot-update
Then, edit /etc/boot.conf using nano and specify "Funtoo Linux genkernel" as the default setting at the top of the file, replacing "Funtoo Linux". Also, if you're not using memtest86+ remove the entry in boot.conf to avoid errors.
/etc/boot.conf should now look like this:
/etc/boot.conf
boot {
generate grub
default "Funtoo Linux genkernel"
timeout 3
}
"Funtoo Linux" {
kernel bzImage[-v]
}
"Funtoo Linux genkernel" {
kernel kernel[-v]
initrd initramfs[-v]
params += real_root=auto
}
"Funtoo Linux better-initramfs" {
kernel vmlinuz[-v]
initrd /initramfs.cpio.gz
}
If you are booting a custom or non-default kernel, please read man boot.conf for information on the various options available to you.
Old School (BIOS) MBR
When using "old school" BIOS booting, run the following command to install GRUB to your MBR, and generate the /boot/grub/grub.cfg configuration file that GRUB will use for booting:
(chroot) # grub-install --target=i386-pc --no-floppy /dev/sda (chroot) # boot-update
New School (UEFI) Boot Entry
If you're using "new school" UEFI booting, run of the following sets of commands, depending on whether you are installing a 64-bit or 32-bit system. This will add GRUB as a UEFI boot entry.
For x86-64bit systems:
(chroot) # grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id="Funtoo Linux [GRUB]" --recheck /dev/sda (chroot) # boot-update
For x86-32bit systems:
(chroot) # grub-install --target=i386-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id="Funtoo Linux [GRUB]" --recheck /dev/sda (chroot) # boot-update
First Boot, and in the future...
OK -- you are almost ready to boot!
You only need to run grub-install when you first install Funtoo Linux, but you need to re-run boot-update every time you modify your /etc/boot.conf file or add new kernels to your system. This will regenerate /boot/grub/grub.cfg so that you will have new kernels available in your GRUB boot menu, the next time you reboot.
Configuring your network
It's important to ensure that you will be able to connect to your local-area network after you reboot into Funtoo Linux. There are three approaches you can use for configuring your network: NetworkManager, dhcpcd, and the Funtoo Linux Networking scripts. Here's how to choose which one to use based on the type of network you want to set up.
Wi-Fi
For laptop/mobile systems where you will be using Wi-Fi, roaming, and connecting to various networks NetworkManager is strongly recommended. Since Wi-Fi cards require firmware to operate, it is also recommended that you emerge the linux-firmware ebuild:
(chroot) # emerge linux-firmware networkmanager
Depending on your architecture, you might now see a message similar to the following:
The following USE changes are necessary to proceed ...
This means that your USE flags need to be updated to allow this installation. For now, you can let portage handle this for you by adding the flag --autounmask-write:
(chroot) # emerge linux-firmware networkmanager --autounmask-write
After this, update the config:
(chroot) # dispatch-conf
Accept the new config by pressing u. Then, you can proceed to install NetworkManager:
(chroot) # emerge linux-firmware networkmanager (chroot) # rc-update add NetworkManager default
The above command will ensure that NetworkManager starts after you boot into Funtoo Linux. Once you've completed these installation steps and have booted into Funtoo Linux, you can use the nmtui command (which has an easy-to-use console-based interface) to configure NetworkManager so that it will connect (and automatically reconnect, after reboot) to a Wi-Fi access point:
# nmtui
For more information about NetworkManager, see the NetworkManager package page.
wpa_supplicant is also a good choice for wireless network connections. See the Package:WPA Supplicant package for steps involved in setting up wpa_supplicant.
Desktop (Wired DHCP)
For a home desktop or workstation with wired Ethernet that will use DHCP, the simplest and most effective option to enable network connectivity is to simply add dhcpcd to the default runlevel:
(chroot) # rc-update add dhcpcd default
When you reboot, dhcpcd will run in the background and manage all network interfaces and use DHCP to acquire network addresses from a DHCP server.
If your upstream DHCP server is dnsmasq, it can be configured to assign addresses via mac address to make servers on DHCP feasible.
Server (Static IP)
For servers, the Funtoo Linux Networking scripts are recommended. They are optimized for static configurations and things like virtual ethernet bridging for virtualization setups. See Funtoo Linux Networking for information on how to use Funtoo Linux's template-based network configuration system.
Hostname
By default Funtoo uses "localhost" as hostname. Although the system will work perfectly fine using this name, some ebuilds refuse to install when detecting localhost as hostname. It also may create confusion if several systems use the same hostname. Therefore, it is advised to change it to a more meaningful name. The hostname itself is arbitrary, meaning you can choose almost any combination of characters, as long as it makes sense to the system administrator. To change the hostname, edit
(chroot) # nano /etc/conf.d/hostname
Look for the line starting with hostname and change the entry between the quotes. Save the file, on the next boot Funtoo will use the new hostname.
Do not use special characters in the hostname, as the shell may interpret these, leading to unpredictable results. Use the Latin alphabet: a-z, A-Z, 0-9
Use short hostnames (up to 8 or 10 characters) to prevent the terminal screen being filled with the hostname, leaving little space for the command itself. This become particularly poignant when coding long command strings in various programming languages like Bash, Python, SQL and Perl
Finishing Steps
Set your root password
It's imperative that you set your root password before rebooting so that you can log in.
(chroot) # passwd
Restart your system
Now is the time to leave chroot, to unmount Funtoo Linux partitions and files and to restart your computer. When you restart, the GRUB boot loader will start, load the Linux kernel and initramfs, and your system will begin booting.
Leave the chroot, change directory to /mnt, unmount your Funtoo partitions, and reboot.
(chroot) # exit # cd /mnt # umount -lR funtoo # reboot
System Rescue CD will gracefully unmount your new Funtoo filesystems as part of its normal shutdown sequence.
You should now see your system reboot, the GRUB boot loader appear for a few seconds, and then see the Linux kernel and initramfs loading. After this, you should see Funtoo Linux itself start to boot, and you should be greeted with a login: prompt. Funtoo Linux has been successfully installed!
Profiles
Once you have rebooted into Funtoo Linux, you can further customize your system to your needs by using Funtoo Profiles. A quick introduction to profiles is included below -- consult the Funtoo Profiles page for more detailed information. There are five basic profile types: arch, build, subarch, flavors and mix-ins:
| Sub-Profile Type | Description |
|---|---|
arch | Typically x86-32bit or x86-64bit, this defines the processor type and support of your system. This is defined when your stage was built and should not be changed. |
build | Defines whether your system is a current, stable or experimental build. current systems will have newer packages unmasked than stable systems. This is defined when your stage is built and is typically not changed. |
subarch | Defines CPU optimizations for your system. The subarch is set at the time the stage3 is built, but can be changed later to better settings if necessary. Be sure to pick a setting that is compatible with your CPU. |
flavor | Defines the general type of system, such as server or desktop, and will set default USE flags appropriate for your needs. |
mix-ins | Defines various optional settings that you may be interested in enabling. |
One arch, build and flavor must be set for each Funtoo Linux system, while mix-ins are optional and you can enable more than one if desired. Often, flavors and mix-ins inherit settings from other sub-profiles. Use epro show to view your current profile settings, in addition to any inheritance information:
(chroot) # epro show === Enabled Profiles: === arch: x86-64bit build: current subarch: intel64-haswell flavor: desktop mix-ins: gnome === All inherited flavors from desktop flavor: === workstation (from desktop flavor) core (from workstation flavor) minimal (from core flavor) === All inherited mix-ins from desktop flavor: === X (from workstation flavor) audio (from workstation flavor) dvd (from workstation flavor) media (from workstation flavor) mediadevice-audio-consumer (from media mix-in) mediadevice-base (from mediadevice-audio-consumer mix-in) mediadevice-video-consumer (from media mix-in) mediadevice-base (from mediadevice-video-consumer mix-in) mediaformat-audio-common (from media mix-in) mediaformat-gfx-common (from media mix-in) mediaformat-video-common (from media mix-in) console-extras (from workstation flavor) print (from desktop flavor)
Here are some basic examples of epro usage:
| Description | Command |
|---|---|
View available profiles. Enabled profiles will be highlighted in cyan. Directly enabled profiles will be in bold and have a * appended. | epro list |
| Change the system flavor. | epro flavor desktop |
| Add a mix-in. | epro mix-in +gnome |
Kits
Funtoo now provides sets of packages that are know to work in what we call kits.
Next Steps
If you are brand new to Funtoo Linux and Gentoo Linux, please check out Funtoo Linux First Steps, which will help get you acquainted with your new system. We also have a category for our official documentation, which includes all docs that we officially maintain for installation and operation of Funtoo Linux.
We also have a number of pages dedicated to setting up your system. See First Steps for a list of these pages.
If your system did not boot correctly, see Installation Troubleshooting for steps you can take to resolve the problem.