Okay, so I'm reading on the Gentoo howto pages about how a stage 1 install can only be performed with a live internet connection.

This is good for me, since I have DSL and most of the connection to myself.

However, in the event that I'm ever caught without internet access, I'm wondering, is it possible to do some kind of pre-emptive install, write files to CD or something, to use later on? Sort of like how you can build a custom Win2k/XP CD with included patches with the slipstreaming function? I'm thinking, install once with an internet connection, then create install CDs from the downloaded files (save them to a cache or something).

Can this be done, in case I'm doing a consulting job for someone or something like that, where I have no live internet connectivity? A Stage 3 is fine and all, but I hear tell it doesn't match the speed of a stage 1.

So...anyone have any experience with this sort of thing? Am I onto something here, or do you absolutely HAVE to have an internet connection to do a stage 1 build?

Thanks much, everyone.

I dont think you can build a custom CD, but if youve read far enough after chroot'ing you are writing onto your hard drive so, if you dont have internet then you can come back later and try to start it again. Or for emerge system you can do emerge --fetch-only system so that it download severything before starting to compile.
Maybe take you hard drive home, where there is internet, then bringing it back?

Steve

Okay, that's fine. And I do have Internet access readily available, it was just kind of a "what if" thing. Thought it'd be a nifty project to compile custom install CDs with all the packages and such available so I can just do a disc-swapping install.

Thanks a bunch.

I have in my hands right now a Gentoo 2004.2 DVD which enables a stage 1 fully offline install - the only stuff I had to download was about 4MB of missing for KDE. I installed it without a hitch last weekend. In fact, it's come in very handy - I just installed FC3, and it wouldn't boot, so I used the bootloader on the Gentoo partition, and now all is good!

yes you can install without Internet, but in that case i would suggest something else, gentoo's portage system is only good if you use the Internet

ok heres what you need to do: download the packages and patch's and add them to the iso image ... you can get the software thru portage "emerge -f system" the "-f" says fetch only, then /usr/portage/distfiles will have the software there

Awesome. Is there any special step I have to take to add the files to the install CD, or to install from the package archive? Also, can the CDs be created properly under Windoze with something like Nero?

Thanks again for the input.

Edit: I should clarify: how exactly do the files go into the ISO image? Is there a particular directory and/or directory structure they need to be added to, or just create a directory called Portage, or...?

Pardon my extreme n00bishness, but SuSE and Red Hat are, so far, the extent of my experience, both of which have those wonderful idiot-friendly installers.

No, I dont think there is a certain way you have to put them on the CD, but remember to put the files in /usr/portage/distfiles after you get them off the CD, or Portage will start to download. Also try emerge -pv system to see if you do need to download anything if you don't, the files will showup as 0k

--Steve

Excellent.

I am forever grateful, sir, thou art a gentleman and a scholar.

Now all I need is a bit of spare time to try this sucker.

Thanks a million.

LoL
/me Bows

You are very welcome.
Hope you get it working.

--Steve

One last question. I have on here a file (unzipped to a folder) called stage1-amd64-2004.2, containing /bin, /usr, /sbin, /opt, etc. etc. etc. folders. Looks very much like the root directory of a Linux install. I had forgotten that I'd downloaded this from the Gentoo site-is this what I'd need for an offline stage 1 install? The cached files you mentioned earlier? Or is this something else?

Thanks!

Yes, this is the very basics of the Gentoo in stallation with Portage and a couple other things. You will definetly need this. I think now there is a 2004.3 so if you would like to upgrade g owith that, and remember before doing emerge system do emerge sync as it will get the latest files.

--Steve

Also, I was browsing the Gentoo site and found out that there is now a 2004.3 DVD, so maybe you should look into that instead of trying to make your own.

--Steve

One more question-the system I'm using only has one CD-ROM drive. How do I get the files from the packages CD onto the hard disk if I'm booted from the install CD?

You would first have to install the whole system, than boot into it after you're done compiling everything and installed GRUB then follow the Gentoo Documentation for installing from GRP.

--Steve