I can't give away all of everything with this - so you will have to either know what you are doing, or ask questions.

USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!! I will not be responsible if you lose all of your data because you didn't backup anything you might need first!!

"skimpydog-gentoo" is a custom build of Gentoo Linux (as are all customizable), and you may have a copy of it as well.

The installation is as easy as:

0: Boot to Gentoo Live CD (or what ever linux distro - even a live Linux system; you will need to be at a terminal prompt:
;~># _

1: Create your partitions ("swap", "/boot", "/"
See what partitions are currently created:
Example Output:Edit the disk:
-- Once you make changes in fdisk, they are not applied until you write the changes. If you intend to run multiple operating systems, DO NOT DELETE WHAT YOU NEED!!
**For example do not delete your c:\ drive if you intend to continue to run Windows as well.**
-- If this is an empty hard drive, or if the data on your hard drive is disposable, then you may make any necessary changes and do not have to worry about data loss.
--- I advise to have no less than 40GB setup for your "/" partition assuming you do not have multiple partitions for "/var", "/usr", "/usr/local", "/tmp" etc... If you utilize multiple partitions, be sure to allocate enough space for the partitions so you do not run out of space and have to resize the partitions.
-- If you require to resize your hard disk, I advise to use GParted. GParted may be obtained to put on CD, or USB flash drive. Simply boot to GParted instead of the Gentoo LiveCD for example, and resize the partitions. Then you may boot back to the LiveCD (which may offer more tools) and proceed with the installation once you have dedicated disk space for the install.

Partition sizes (these may be changed as long as they are not too small):
1GB - "/boot"
2GB - "swap space" (Virtual RAM which is much slower than RAM)
40GB - "/"

Be sure to enable swap:

Turn on Swap:


Mount the partitions:


2: Download the image (Located in the downloads, you can "wget" it if you know the url [You have to login first to view the downloads]). There are several large files that need to be downloaded (the last one is smaller).

Verify the MD5 checksum is correct against the downloaded files (the hash is on the download page for the file):

Then merge these into one large file:

Verify the MD5 checksum is correct against the final output file (the hash is on the download page for the file):


3: Extract image to the new "/"


4: Install Grub
While you are booted to to gentoo Live CD::


Example for editing /boot/grub/grub.conf


5: Edit /etc/fstab


6: Set your hostname:


7: Setup Networking:


8: Setup Video
-- This part can be tricky if you are not familiar with xorg, and related drivers & config files.
There are basically 2 parts to this, or more required to get your Video Hardware Acceleration working (even if you are just running the x11 drivers, not the proprietary drivers)
First, look at the available options (what's currently built in):
You should see your options labeled:
If you don't see what you need listed, whereas you are running a totally different video card, or would like to use proprietary drivers (such as for a dual head card to keep hardware acceleration across both screens), then you will need to build these in, and edit the config files for xorg appropriately.

Then to set the opengl option:
The Last thing that will need to be done is to make sure your /etc/X11/xorg.conf is configured properly for your Graphics Options as well.
- With skimpydog-gentoo I have built up a couple xorg.conf.*'s (located at /etc/X11/) as examples for using Intel, and nVidia cards with single and Dual Head.

Boot!!
Eject the CD when propmted

*If you receive errors upon boot, I will advise to review all of your settings based upon where it's messing up. It is possible your LiveCD reads your HardDisk as "hda", and the booted system reads your HardDisk as "sda"; you may be required to boot back to the LiveCD and modify these changes until you figure out what your computer requires - and if a kernel rebuild will be necessary, such as if your SCSI drivers are not built into the kernel.
You may be required to edit "/etc/fstab", and "/boot/grub/grub.conf" to meet your systems requirements if the system does not boot. These options are limitless, so pay close attention to detail.

This is full blown with compiz, MythTV, and other bells and whistles. Great for a laptop as there are many wifi tools already built in (as this was originally built on my notebook).

8: Change root password!!!
When you first login, use the username and password of root/p4ssw0rd!, you can change this once booted into the OS with:


9: Change MySQL password


10: Create regular User
To create a user, once booted or chrooted, run the script:

-- this is a simple bash, and perl script that will grab the contents of "/etc/skel" while it creates the user. When you login with this user under X, it will default boot into gnome.
-- Using the add_user.sh script will also create the user to be nested in the required groups to be able to access resources

11: Configure your Sound card
As root, you will need to run ldconfig

-- If you are told that user is not a part of the suoders list, then you will need to add the user to the list of suoders in /etc/group:
append to the line:
-- You will need to log-out and log-in for the changes to take effect.



Since this has framebuffer support built in, you may want to reference the "/root/howto_rebuild_kernel-2.6.30-gentoo-r8" as reference, as well as using the .config with the kernel, by utilizing --oldconfig so you can keep relatively the same build making changes as necessary.

The default kernel is built for a P4, and is easily changed for other architectures as well.

I have the packages built around an Intel based ChipSet, with Intel Video utilizing the XFree86 drivers.

As there are no two systems that operate the same (unless you have several of the same chassis models, and you are copying this between them once you have one of them operating properly), there is a great chance you will need to tweak the configurations in every regard. This is not difficult as much as you may be required to boot to a LiveCD to make changes to the newly created environment in order to have a bootable system.