How gentoo used to be

Back in the day, installing gentoo meant you actually had the OPTION / CHOICE to bootstrap and then install the system manually.

Gentoo handbook from release 2004.2 (x86) --- explaining the steps to build things up (from stage 1) to stage 2 and ultimately 3

Half-thinking I want to do this (full stage 1 gentoo install) on a VPS to guarantee that everything is set up right from the beginning and 100% compatible.  Have had problems where virtual container environments (VMs or otherwise) didn't work quite right and the various hacks and workarounds got really messy and broken.

never again.

ever.


This is how to 100% roll-your-own gentoo, even if the VPS provider has prebuilt gentoo

Step 1) boot the VPS into a recovery image.

Step 2) lay down the stage 1 tarball

Step 3) bootstrap (shell script)

Step 4) emerge system (chroot happens somewhere between step 1 and 6)

Step 5) ok, now what. How do I make this bootable?

Step 6) install portage

Step 7) toss the voided warranty in the pile with the others

Step 8) fail and give up and use a MANAGED vps with something other than gentoo.

Step 9) don't do step 8

Step 10) do some thing else

prgmr.com explaining the "stage 3" version under their own hosting