1. About MKG

A tool to build and install Gentoo

Purpose

This software is a set of simple scripts to automate the installation of the Gentoo GNU/Linux distribution. It follows the official AMD64 install handbook, with a limited number of configuration options and a few departures from the canonical building process, aimed at enhancing stability and robustness.
It creates a Plasma or Gnome desktop platform compiled out of the latest available sources in the stable branch.
Available init systems are OpenRC (default) and systemd. Supported Gentoo profiles are:

default/linux/amd64/[latest stable version tag]/hardened (stable)  
default/linux/amd64/[latest stable version tag]/desktop/gnome (stable)  
default/linux/amd64/[latest stable version tag]/desktop/gnome/systemd (stable)  
default/linux/amd64/[latest stable version tag]/desktop/plasma (stable) *  
default/linux/amd64/[latest stable version tag]/desktop/plasma/systemd (stable)  

MKG can install Gentoo on a device, and/or create an installation ISO file that holds on a single DVD.
MKG also backs up any device into a recovery medium.

Core concepts

This project builds on several others, notably by using a virtual machine to encapsulate the building process.
Compared to other projects, MKG differs by the following special features:

• the squashfs file system is used throughout the project to wrap up the building scripts into the virtual machines.
• virtual machines are used in combination with the CloneZilla backup tool, with a view to closely integrating backup and building workflows.
• the project lays emphasis on robustness and reproducibility. This accounts for the intentionally limited set of (currently) supported platforms: MKG should (almost) always complete a successful build on the supported platforms. To help with reproducibility, an extensive Doxygen documentation of the bash scripts is included in the repository.

Output

The output is a direct install to disk and/or an installation medium (ISO file, DVD, or bootable USB stick). Currently the minimal build ISO size is 2.9 GB for Plasma. The standard build ISO size is 3.9 GB.

Target

This software is targeted at:

• users who would like to experiment with Gentoo but are somewhat discouraged by the amount of time that installing it the hard way takes; yet who are open to face the technical challenge to some extent,
• users who already know how to install and manage Gentoo, yet who forgot to back up their OS for some time and need a quick recovery process for want of free time,
• users who bump into intractable dependency conflicts in their portage tree and want a clean bootstrap into a new platform.

Think of MKG as a bootstrapping tool, not as an Anaconda installer! Please take a look at the Gentoo AMD64 manual for more details.

The standard MKG Gentoo build is more specifically geared towards data science, with R installed along with a reasonably complete set of R libraries and Emacs. Other software included are Libreoffice and Okular, a complete TeX Live distribution for PDF-report creation, and core libraries of the Qt5 platform for the Plasma version. A minimal build is also available with just the basic desktop software.

Prerequisites

This software is designed to work on *nix platforms. It has only been tested under GNU/Linux (Ubuntu-20.04, 21.04 and Gentoo itself, current stable AMD64 branch).

For the time being, supported configurations should include the following features:

• 64-bit processor of the AMD64 (x86_64).
• Intel or Nvidia-compatible video card.
• Pre-installed software: see FAQ on dependencies.
• A working, preferably wired, direct internet connection (firewalls are not supported).
• At least 55 GB of spare disk space (in some cases up to 100 GB, see FAQ).
• A removable USB storage device (USB stick or external USB drive) with at least 55 GB of reachable space if Gentoo is to be directly installed to an external device.