Vmware Installation of Gentoo Linux from scratch on an Encrypted partition

This is a tutorial on how to install Gentoo Linux from scratch on an encrypted partition of a virtual machine using VMWare. This tutorial assumes that everyone has VMware already installed and proceeds from there.

Part One: Installing the command-line OS

Download the minimal installation CD image (x86_64 / x86 depending on your machine architecture) from the Gentoo website onto your local machine.

https://www.gentoo.org/downloads/
=> http://distfiles.gentoo.org/releases/amd64/autobuilds/20191002T214502Z/install-amd64-minimal-20191002T214502Z.iso

Launch Vmware and create a new virtual machine, then boot the live image on the virtual machine

Preparing the partitions: Start by partitioning the HDD into three different partitions. The boot partition, the swap partition and the root/installation partition that would be encrypted.

we need to partition this hdd using fdisk:
# fdisk /dev/sda
We will create 3 primary partitions:
/dev/sda1 => /boot => 128mb =>  bootable, will contain the grub boot manager, kernel, decryption software (cryptsetup)
/dev/sda2 => swap (2gb)
/dev/sda3 => / => encrypted

Using fdisk:
fdisk /dev/sda => open sda hard disk for editing
d => delete a partition
n => new partition
p => print the created partitions
t => change partition type (82 is swap and 83 is ext)
a => set a partition as bootable (active)
w => write partition table

We need to initialize the encrypted volume/patition: /dev/sda3
# cryptsetup -s 512 luksFormat /dev/sda3


Now we need to format our partitions. Ideally, the /boot partition could be
ext2 and for the / partition, we will use ext4:
/dev/sda1 => ext2 # mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda1
/dev/sda2 => swap # mkswap /dev/sda2
/dev/sda3 => ext4 

Before formatting /dev/sda3, we first need to decrypt it.
# cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda3 root
by doing this, the decrypted partition will be accessible at /dev/mapper/root

# mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/root

From the VM, download Stage3 archive files from the Gentoo download repository. The stage3 archive contains files that are used to build the required boot folder.

Use the Links command to browse the Gentoo downloads page and download the archive. (ensure that this download is inside #/mnt/gentoo/ folder)

links https://gentoo.org/downloads/
Nb: In case you have the stage3 archive files on a usb stick, follow the steps below:
1- connect the USB to the VM
    2- mount the usb partition to an empty folder
    => to find the new partition of the connected usb stick
    # ls /dev/sd* 
    # mkdir /mnt/usb
    # mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb
    3- now copy the files: 
    # cp /mnt/usb/stage3* /mnt/gentoo
    4- finally, dismount the partition: 
    # umount /mnt/usb
    or
    # umount /dev/sdb1
To unzip the file, we can use:
# cd /mnt/gentoo
# tar xpvf stage3*.tar.xz

Chrooting (changing root), mounting boot partition, setting the timezone, download the Gentoo source files.

We need to copy the Portage configuration to the configuration folder:
# mkdir /mnt/gentoo/etc/portage/repos.conf
# cp /mnt/gentoo/usr/share/portage/config/repos.conf /mnt/gentoo/etc/portage/repos.conf/gentoo.conf

For faster download speed, you can select the closest mirror to your region:
# mirrorselect -i -o >> /mnt/gentoo/etc/portage/make.conf

Portage is the system used for downloading and installing softwares in gentoo.

We make sure that the newly installed gentoo environment has the correct DNS server config:
# cp /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/gentoo/etc/
Then we prepare the environment for Chrooting:
# mount --types proc /proc /mnt/gentoo/proc
# mount --rbind /sys /mnt/gentoo/sys
# mount --make-rslave /mnt/gentoo/sys
# mount --rbind /dev /mnt/gentoo/dev
# mount --make-rslave /mnt/gentoo/dev

chrooting to the new environment:
# chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash
# source /etc/profile

Once in the chroot, we can now continue with mounting the boot partition:
# mount /dev/sda1 /boot

Then updating your @world packages (all installed packages):
# emerge-webrsync

Configuring the Kernel. The purpose of this step is to select only the programs and functionalities that you need for the installation and leave every unnecessary program unchecked.

Setting the timezone: from /usr/share/zoneinfo we find our timezone to be Europe/London
# echo "Europe/London" > /etc/timezone
# emerge --config timezone-data

Setting the locales:
# nano /etc/locale.gen
     en_US ISO-8859-1
     en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
then, we generate them:
# locale-gen
and apply them:
# eselect locale list
select the en_US.utf8
# eselect locale set en_US.utf8
Finally, we update the whole environment with:
# env-update && source /etc/profile

Now we download the linux sources:
# emerge gentoo-sources
Then we change our directory and move to the linux sources folder:
# cd /usr/src/linux

Press the space bar to select any program and the arrow keys to navigate through the functionalities.

To enable a feature, you have 2 options:
    <*> my module => press space bar or "y", this will make the feature built-in
    <M> my modyle => press "m", this will build the feature as module
And start the kernel configuration menu:
# make menuconfig

VIRTUALBOX:
	If you are in installing Gentoo inside virtualbox, you may want to enable some virtualbox drivers in the kernel:
	Device Drivers
		[*] Virtualization drivers  --->
			<M>   Virtual Box Guest integration support
		I2C support  --->
			I2C Hardware Bus support  --->
				<M> Intel PIIX4 and compatible (ATI/AMD/Serverworks/Broadcom/SMSC)
Once you save and exit the menuconfig you can compile your kernel by using:
# make && make modules && make modules_install && make install
Then we need to install genkernel with the support of cryptsetup:
# nano /etc/portage/make.conf
and add cryptsetup to the USE flags so it becomes a dependency of genkernel and gets installed to decrypt /dev/sda3 at boot:
    USE="cryptsetup"

Installing Initial ramdisk (initramfs), the boot loader (grub), defining how the partitions should be mounted in fstab, installing dhcp and configuring the network interface for automatic network config. Next, installing cronie for time-based job scheduling and sysklogd for system logging.

Then we generate the initramfs (this does the decryption of /dev/sda3 for us):
# emerge --autounmask-write genkernel
# dispatch-conf (press "u" to confirm the changes)
# emerge genkernel
# genkernel --luks --install initramfs

Finally, unmount the boot partition and the system and dev partitions and reboot the system.

We need to setup/configure the partitions scheme in /etc/fstab:
# nano /etc/fstab
/dev/sda1           /boot        ext2    defaults,noatime     0 2
/dev/sda2           none         swap    sw                   0 0
/dev/mapper/root    /	         ext4    noatime              0 1

We setup GRUB boot manager:
# emerge grub
Configure the grub configuration file /etc/default/grub with the encryption of /dev/sda3:
# nano /etc/default/grub
     GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="crypt_root=/dev/sda3"

# grub-install /dev/sda
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

We make sure that required files for networking are installed:
# emerge dhcpcd
The network interface name (eg. enp0s3) can be obtained using
# ifconfig
# nano /etc/conf.d/net
      config_enp0s3="dhcp"

Enable automatic networking start at boot:
# cd /etc/init.d
# ln -s net.lo net.enp0s3
# rc-update add net.enp0s3 default

Set up your hostname:
# nano /etc/conf.d/hostname
    hostname="gentoovm"

Edit the hosts file:
# nano /etc/hosts
    127.0.0.1   localhost gentoovm

Set the keymaps settings if required:
# nano /etc/conf.d/keymaps
     keymap="us"

Install cron and log managers:
# emerge cronie sysklogd
Add them to boot list:
# rc-update add cronie default
# rc-update add sysklogd default

Finally, we set a password for root:
# passwd root
User creation:
# useradd -m -G users,wheel,audio -s /bin/bash claude
# passwd claude
Exit the chroot:
# exit
Umount all mounted devices:
# umount /mnt/gentoo/boot
# umount /mnt/gentoo/proc
# umount -R /mnt/gentoo/dev
# umount -R /mnt/gentoo/sys
# cd /
# umount /mnt/gentoo

And reboot:
# reboot

Check out part two of the installation where we will be installing a minimal windows manager called i3.

Vmware Installation of Gentoo Linux from scratch on an Encrypted partition Part 2: i3 windows…

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial.