Gentoo Installation

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Gentoo is a source-based linux distribution.source-based means every application is compiled locally.

You can download a copy of Gentoo here

To install Gentoo, you will need to create a Bootable LiveCD or LiveUSB.

There are many ways one could create a LiveCD or LiveUSB, but that is outside of the scope of Gentoo Installation

Virtual Machine Setup

If you are not using VM software like VMWare or Virtualbox, you can safely ignore this. Otherwise, make sure your VM has:

• Around 512mb to a gig of RAM
• At least 10GB HDD
• Networking features enabled
• Preferably multiple cores on an x86_64 processor

Hard Drive Setup

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> ls /dev | grep sd cfdisk /dev/sda </syntaxhighlight>

• cfdisk will then bring you into an ncurses gui.

Use cfdisk to:

• Create 100MB Partition Bootable at the Beginning
• Create 2048MB Partition at the beginning
• Create remaining free space partition at the beginning

Choose to Write tables to disk, and then exit.

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda1 mkswap /dev/sda2 mkfs.reiserfs /dev/sda3 mount -t reiserfs /dev/sda3 /mnt/gentoo ; cd /mnt/gentoo wget http://gentoo.arcticnetwork.ca/releases/x86/current-stage3/stage3-i686-20110614.tar.bz2 </syntaxhighlight>

For the below line, you can simply press the TAB button after stage3 and it will automatically complete the command, just press enter to confirm it:

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> tar xvpjf stage3* swapon /dev/sda2 cp /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/gentoo/etc/resolv.conf </syntaxhighlight>

Okay, now you've set up your hard drives, downloaded a copy of gentoo on your live environment, and copied resolv.conf over. Before continuing make sure you can access the internet.

you can test this by pinging google:

ping -c 2 google.com

if it isn't working, try the following:

you might need to do this each time you reboot

   
ifconfig eth0 down && ifconfig eth0 up
dhcpcd eth0

Base installation and Configuration

Remember the number in the output of this command, you will need it later.

grep -ci "processor" /proc/cpuinfo

Download & Extract portage to /mnt/gentoo/usr/

cd /mnt/gentoo/usr/
wget http://gentoo.arcticnetwork.ca/releases/snapshots/current/portage-latest.tar.bz2
tar xvjf portage-latest.tar.bz2

Open make.conf in nano.

cd /mnt/gentoo/etc/
nano make.conf

Modify make.conf as follows:

Do not modify the CHOST, this will cause problems!

 CFLAGS="-fstack-protector-all -fforce-addr -Os -pipe -march=native"
    CXXFlags="${CFLAGS}"


    FEATURES="metadata-transfer sandbox candy parallel-fetch"

    USE="gtk truetype postgres freetype jpg jpeg png gif imap ttf winscp passwd scp X gnutls mysql v4l2 extras lisp threads ithreads acpi bash-completion bzip2 crypt cracklib css ctype apache2 curl curlwrappers dbus encode ftp gcj gd geoip udev ipv6 lua ncurses nsplugin python readline sockets socks5 sqlite sse sse2 ssl suid unicode vim-syntax xml php perlsuid"

    #Replace Y with the output of the grep command and X with the returned number +1. For one core, you'd have "--jobs=1" and "-j2".

    MAKEOPTS="-jX -s"
#   Only use the below line if you have a multicore CPU or multiple processors
#   EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--jobs=Y --load-average=1.5"
    PORTAGE_NICENESS="12"

Now press ^x Y Enter to save and quit, this is CTRL+X -> Y -> ENTER

CHROOT

You will have to return to this part each time you reboot until the installation is finished.

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">

   mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/gentoo
   swapon /dev/sda2
   mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/gentoo/boot
   mount -o bind /dev /mnt/gentoo/dev
   mount -t proc none /mnt/gentoo/proc
   chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash --login

</syntaxhighlight>

You only need to run gcc-config the first time around.

gcc-config 1 
env-update

The following line helps remember where you are.

export PS1="chroot) $PS1"

Installing Software

This requires a working internet connection, test your connection with ping:

 ping -c2 google.com

If you cannot ping, try issuing the following:

echo nameserver 4.2.2.1 > /etc/resolv.conf
echo nameserver 4.2.2.2 >> /etc/resolv.conf

Sync your repos:

 emerge -q --sync

if it tells you that an update to portage is availible then do the following

 emerge -q portage

otherwise, continue from here:

emerge -q axel

Let's edit make.conf again:

nano -w /etc/make.conf

# put this at the bottom of make.conf
FETCHCOMMAND="/usr/bin/axel -n 8 -o /\${DISTDIR}/\${FILE} -a \${URI}"
RESUMECOMMAND="/usr/bin/axel -n 8 -o /\${DISTDIR}/\${FILE} -a \${URI}"

Press CTRL+X -> Y -> ENTER to quit

Now that you're package manager is set up, execute the following command:

emerge -qN pciutils coreutils baselayout hardened-sources world

Encrypted Home Dir

create /crypt/ directory to store home.dm

mkdir /crypt
touch /crypt/home.dm

Install cryptsetup

 
echo "sys-fs/cryptsetup static-libs" >> /etc/portage/package.use
emerge -q cryptsetup

replace XXX in the command below with the size in GB (Gigabytes) you want your home to be. if you are not sure, run 'df -h' and use perhaps a quarter of the size of sda3

  
dd if=/dev/zero of=/crypt/home.dm bs=1024 count=$(head -1 /etc/make.conf|awk '{print XXX * 1024^2}')

losetup /dev/loop1 /crypt/home.dm
cryptsetup luksFormat -h whirlpool -c blowfish /dev/loop1
cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/loop1 home
emerge -q reiserfsprogs
mkfs.reiserfs /dev/mapper/home
mount -o loop /dev/mapper/home /home

open /etc/init.d/home in nano: nano /etc/init.d/home

make the file look like this:

#########
#!/sbin/runscript
# Copyright 1999-2011 Gentoo Foundation
# Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2
# $Header: $
depend() {
true
}
start() {
losetup /dev/loop1 /crypt/home.dm
cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/loop1 home
mount -o loop /dev/mapper/home /home
}
stop() {
umount /home
cryptsetup luksClose home
losetup -d /dev/loop1
}
restart() {
stop
start
}
##########

Once you're done with that:

chmod +x /etc/init.d/home
rc-update add home default

If you have rebooted, do the following:

mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/gentoo
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/gentoo/boot
swapon /dev/sda2
mount -t proc none /mnt/gentoo/proc
mount -o bind /dev /mnt/gentoo/dev
chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash --login

Kernel

DOUBLE CHECK THAT YOU ARE IN A CHROOT BEFORE DOING THIS! ls /mnt/gentoo should return FILE NOT FOUND

If ls /mnt/gentoo returns something other than file not found, do the following

mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/gentoo
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/gentoo/boot
swapon /dev/sda2
mount -t proc none /mnt/gentoo/proc
mount -o bind /dev /mnt/gentoo/dev
chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash --login

Otherwise continue on here:

cd /usr/src/linux
groupadd audit 
grep audit /etc/group 
groupadd blackhole 
grep blackhole /etc/group

confirm you get stuff returned to you after each grep. these numbers you're seeing are GIDs for RBAC

 
groupadd clients 
grep clients /etc/group 
groupadd services
grep services /etc/group

Again, confirm you are getting information when you grep. you probably want to write those id's down

wget http://paste.pocoo.org/raw/430946
mv 430946 .config

Now you can

emerge -q wgetpaste
lspci -n | wgetpaste

Open provided url in browser, paste into the following website or:

passwd

Now type in a password twice.

To start the SSHD run:

/etc/init.d/sshd start

download PuTTy on your main/host pc and use it to connect to the ipaddress of the vm/box, you can find out the ip with

ifconfig

you connect on port 22 (ssh)

lspci -n

copy and paste this to the following website: http://kmuto.jp/debian/hcl/

if you need to, take a note of each entry under 'drivers'

make menuconfig

search for 'dm_crypt' with the / key from the main menu - this should open a search box. you will see the location of dm_crypt in the menu, and whether it is [=y] (enabled) or [=n] (disabled) you want to find it and enable it. do not set it as 'M', that will make it a module and for security reasons you are not using loadable modules. do this for each driver on the above website, and make sure that they are all enabled some, such as graphics, can be safely missed out (get vesa, instead) - if you have any worries, ask in #questions on irc replace every - in a driver name with a _

Also, verify that all the following settings are correct:

• Disable loadable module support
• Disable virtualization on the kernel
• Under general options, change kernel compression mode to lzma
• Under processor type and features, you'll want to either A. Put the processor type, if it's in the list or B. Select generic if unsure
• In filesystems, you only want reiserfs depending on how you set it up. You do not want ext2 -- if it is enabled, (Second Extended FS Support), DISABLE THIS.
• Under security options, enable grsecurity
• Under address space protection
• Enable active kernel exploit response
• Under RBAC,enable 'Hide Kernel Processes'
• Under filesystem protections, restrict /proc to user only
• Under kernel auditing, enable every option except 'ELF TEXT Relocation
• Put the gid to 'audit'
• Enable everything under network protections
• Put the gid to 'services' in 'deny client sockets for group' gid
• Put the gid to 'clients' in 'deny server sockets for group' gid
• Put the gid to blackhole in the 'deny all sockets to any group' gid
• Under logging options, "Add source ip addresses to AVC SeLinux messages"
• Under pax control, change 'MAC system integration' to hook
• Under misc. hardening features, You'll want to enable everything
• Under non-executable pages,Enforce non-executable pages' is enabled
• Back in the main security options window, enable 'Restrict unpriviledged access to the kernel syslog'
• Enable Integrity Measurement Architecture
• Under cryptographic api, we want aes of all flavors, whirlpool, and blowfish
• Uncheck the Hardware Crypto Devices support
• Under device drivers -> multi device support, enable dm_crypt
• Block devices ->loopback device support, enable cryptoloop support
• Under kernel hacking enable strict copy size checks and disable kernel debugging
• Under kernel hacking disable kernel debugging
• Put the gid to 'audit' in the proc gid as well as the kernel auditing pid

now exit, saving the config

put the number of processors you have +1 instead of ?, for example -j5 if you have 4 cores

make -j?

make sure boot is mounted, this should NOT say file not found, exit from chroot and remount /mnt/gentoo/boot, then chroot in again if you get an error

ls /boot

Replace XXX below with your architecture (x86 for 32bit, x86_64 for 64bit)

cp /usr/src/linux/arch/XXX/boot/bzImage /boot/bzImage

if you ever need to repeat this, make clean before reconfiguring your kernel and adding/removing stuff You can read much more about kernel configuration at http://kernel-seeds.org, this website contains premade, stripped kernels and step-by-step guides on configuring your own kernel from scratch, with detailed notes on every option. It's great to check out if you are unsure about anything, and will really help the learning process.

Final Configurations

Install the syslog-ng, vixie-cron, strace, gdb, ruby, and nemesis by issuing

 emerge -q syslog-ng vixie-cron strace gdb ruby nemesis

Once emerge finishes, fill in your mtab:

  grep -v rootfs /proc/mounts > /etc/mtab 

Replace "XXX" below with either "x86" or "x86_64" depending on your processor architecture. (32bit, 64bit. respectively.)

  cp arch/XXX/boot/bzImage /boot

    nano /etc/fstab

    change the ROOT and SWAP lines to look like the following

    /dev/sda3               /               reiserfs                noatime         0 1
    /dev/sda2               none            swap           sw              0 0
    

delete the /dev/BOOT line and CTRL+X -> Y to exit.

Bootloader

Install the GRUB Bootloader

   emerge -q grub

Install grub to /dev/sda

   grub-install --no-floppy /dev/sda

Now it's time to edit our grub configuration

   nano -w /boot/grub/grub.conf

uncomment the splash image and ensure the below is in the file

   kernel /boot/bzImage root=/dev/sda3
   root (hd0,0)

Exit by hitting CRTL+X, then Y.

Set your root password.

   passwd root

   emerge -q pump
   rc-update add vixie-cron default
   rc-update add syslog-ng default
   rc-update add home default
   source /etc/profile
   env-update

now exit from the chroot for the final step

exit and ensure you have all the device nodes you need

   umount /mnt/gentoo/dev

Notice: make sure you do NOT accidentally umount /mnt/gentoo above, we just want to umount dev!

   cp -a /dev/* /mnt/gentoo/dev/

Once that is done, restart your system.

After restarting, we need to get networking up and running.

   ifconfig eth0 down && ifconfig eth0 up
   pump -i eth0

to get the network working, you may need to overwrite resolv.conf as mentioned earlier

   echo nameserver 4.2.2.1 > /etc/resolv.conf
   echo nameserver 4.2.2.2 >> /etc/resolv.conf

4.2.2.1/2 are DNS servers, one could use Google's public DNS servers as well, which are 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

   # install vim
   emerge -q vim
   # or emacs
   emerge -q emacs

   # and you'll have to look up a tutorial on these yourself or ask for help in choosing in #questions :) try getting vim and typing vimtutor

X Server

Never run the X Server as root!

Make sure your home directory is encrypted before we begin

nano /etc/make.conf

Add the following line with the correct driver for your card, ie. noveau for nvidia, radeon for radeon, vmware for vmware, virtualbox for virtualbox or intel for intel:

VIDEO_CARDS="driver"

Also add the following line if you are on a PC or VM:

INPUT_DEVICES="evdev"

Or this line if you are on a laptop:

INPUT_DEVICES="evdev synaptics"

• Make sure that the correct driver for your graphics card is built into the kernel, return to the kernel section to do this if you have not already.
• Make sure you have udev in your USE flag in /etc/make.conf

now to install the X server and window manager

emerge -q xorg-drivers
emerge -q xorg-server
emerge -q fluxbox
emerge -q aterm # transparent terminal!
emerge -q conky # system monitoring tool
emerge -q sudo

Now edit /etc/sudoers to your own preference, you only need to remove the comment before the %wheel sudo access with NOPASSWD, OR the one using password. make sure to add the user to the wheel group with

gpasswd -a wheel username

Also add the following line:

• 32 bit users:

%wheel ALL = (firefox) NOPASSWD: /usr/lib64/firefox/firefox

• 64 bit users:

%wheel ALL = (firefox) NOPASSWD: /usr/lib32/firefox/firefox

To make fluxbox start with the x server:

mkdir -p /etc/X11/xinit
echo "exec startfluxbox" > /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

For virtualbox, check out <a href="http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Virtualbox_Guest">http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Virtualbox_Guest</a> for a guide to enable copy-paste between host/vm etc.

/etc/init.d/udev start
rc-update add udev sysinit

If you don't have a basic user account already, make one now.

now exit from root, login as a normal user and type:

startx

This will run the x server.

O a terminal by right clicking and choosing to open xterm

sudo useradd -m -G clients -U firefox

The following script is a little buggy and prevents firefox from launching if it takes more than 1 second for it to read the Xauthority file, so if that happens just bump up the sleep value.

You could also create sandfox in your ~/bin as described under the security section below, in that case just replace /usr/bin/sandfox with ~/bin/sandfox from now on.

sudo nano /usr/bin/sandfox

Add the following:

cp $HOME\/.Xauthority /tmp/$USER\.firefox.Xauthority
chmod 777 /tmp/$USER\.firefox.Xauthority
( ( env XAUTHORITY=/tmp/$USER\.firefox.Xauthority sudo -u firefox /usr/lib64/firefox/firefox $1 & ) & )
sleep 1
rm /tmp/$USER\.firefox.Xauthority

Now to make it executable

sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/sandfox

All history and profiles will be saved in firefox's home directory instead of yours, take note of this. you can pass paramaters such as -private by running, eg /usr/bin/sandfox -private

sudo mkdir -p /etc/portage
sudo echo "www-browser/firefox hardened" >> /etc/portage/package.use

sudo emerge -q tint2 tintwizard

nano ~/.fluxbox/init

Change change session.screen0.toolbar.visible: to false

To enable dropshadows and fading:

sudo emerge -q xcompmgr

~/.fluxbox/startup

Add, at the end of Applications you want to start with Fluxbox:

xcompmgr -c -r 6 -f -D 5 -t -9 -l -9 & 
tint2 &

Make sure the last line is exec fluxbox

nano ~/.fluxbox/menu

Change every occurance of xterm to 'aterm -tr -trsb -sh 40' without the , if xterm is being used to execute something else, add -e so 'aterm -tr -trsb -sh 40 -e sudo -s' for an automatic root terminal.

Add sandfox, it should be pretty easy to figure out.

For fluxbox themes you can check out box-looks.org.

BASH

Part 1: Reading files

Cat The basic file reader is cat. Cat means conCATonate, and it displays a file. It doesn't actually alter the displayed text in any way, so is useful for small files, but does not scale well.

More A step up from cat is the more command. It allows you to read page by page. Extended versions can allow searching aswell

Less The less command is again, one step up from more. Less is a newer version of more that allows for scrolling. This is great for larger files and logs that won't fit in the backbuffer.

Head & tail head and tail will display just the first or last couple of lines, depending on the value of the -n switch you pass to them. tail -n 2 /etc/passwd, for example, will show the last two lines from the file /etc/passwd. You can use head and tail in more advanced ways, for example tail -n +2 will skip the first line of a file.

Grep Grep will find patterns in files, ie. grep root /etc/passwd will find any lines in /etc/passwd that contain root and print them to stdout (standard out, ie they will be pritned on the screen by default).

Part 2: Navigation

cd cd is to change directory, using cd /usr/src/linux will set your current working directory (viewable in prompt or with pwd) to /usr/src/linux, or cd ~ will set your working dir to /home/<youruser>

Other useful commands

touch [filename] &&

This will create the named file if it doesn't exist, or exit if it does exist and is read only. Otherwise it updates the timestamp.

time [command]

This will 'time' the command, it will give you the cpu time in real terms that it took to execute that command, allowing you to do a sort of rudimentary benchmark.

tac [filename]

This will print a file in reverse, tac is to tail what cat is to head.

Directing output

To file:

Using > or >> you can direct stdout (standard output, ie text) to any file. > will overwrite any currently existing file, >> will append the text to the end of an existing file or create a file if it doesn't exist. An example is

lspci > hardwaredevices

or

man bash >> /root/bashmanual

To another command:

Using | (a pipe), you can direct the output of one command to another, and even chain multiple commands together, using both pipes and appends/overwrites. An example of this would be

cat /usr/src/linux/.config | wgetpaste | grep pocoo >> kernelurl

(this would print your kernel config to wgetpaste, which would upload it and print a url and some extra info. Only the url line would match the grep, and this line would be added onto the end of the kernelurl file in the current working directory.