Gentoo Install

About Gentoo

Gentoo is a distribution that prides itself on being extra-configurable, processor native, and easy to update. Gentoo users usually compile their installation from srouce, but while it's great to nitpick on the details, Gentoo also has the option of installing a precompiled system quickly from a LiveCD.

Why Gentoo?

• Other distros have a one-size-fits-all approach, including full GUI environments unnecessary for a ZoneMinder CCTV DVR box.
• Binary distributions make it difficult to locate the appropriate libraries for ZoneMinder to build properly. Packages for these distrubutions often do not include development libraries and headers necessary for building software from source.
• A Gentoo system is highly configurable, and is easy to update and maintain.
• Gentoo's portage package system in conjunction with the emerge command makes it much easier to obtain the needed packages for ZoneMinder and whatever else you might need.

What You Will Need

• A Gentoo LiveCD
• An internet connection, to download and install the necessary packages

About ZoneMinder for Gentoo

There are some ZoneMinder packages (called 'ebuilds') available for Gentoo in the 'portage' tree. However, they are not readily available in the mainstream portage tree and are a few releases behind. In addition, these ebuids have questionable configurability. It is best to compile from source.

Installation of Gentoo Linux

Overview of a Gentoo Installation

• Booting the LiveCD
• Prepare filesystems
• Mount filesystems
• Copy over base system from CD
• Retrieve latest portage tree from the internet
• Build a kernel
• Install necessary system packages
  • grub
  • dhcpcd
• Set Up Init Scripts

The quickest way to install Gentoo is to use the bootable Gentoo LiveCD. I've found that the automatic installer does not work well and randomly fails over CDROM read "errors". Instead, use the commands from the Gentoo Install Guide to manually copy over the system to your hard drive.

Booting the LiveCD

Insert, the LiveCD will configure most devices and will also grab a DHCP IP address if you have a live internet connection.

Preparing Filesystems

For the purposes of ZoneMinder, I recommend the following /boot /root swap /var

Chrooting Your New System

That's it! You're ready to change your context into the actual running of your new system environment. That's where chrooting comes in.

Setting USE Flags to Determine Compile Behavior

Gentoo has a neat concept of system management called USE flags. The USE variable is set by the file /etc/make.conf. In the USE variable, you specify what kinds of features you want included in packages. For example, if you set the 'apache2' use flag, any software that can take advantage of the apache webserver will be compiled to do just that. In addition, if you do not have apache installed and you try to install that same software, Apache will be automatically installed. There are many, many USE flags available. Many of them, along with their descriptions can be found here.

Here are the flags I use on my Gentoo system that's meant to be a media/ZM/camera server. USE="-3dfx -arts -berkdb -cups -doc -esd -flac -fortran -gnome -gps -gtk -gtk2 -hardened -imap -ipv6 -kde -nls -opengl -oss -recode -qt -X -xv apache2 mpm-prefork bzip2 mysql php encode exif ffmpeg fbcon gd java javascript jpeg jpeg2k matroska mime mmx sse mp3 mpeg ogg oggvorbis vorbis pcre perl quicktime readline samba ssl symlink theora usb v4l vcd wifi xml xml2 xvid"

As you can see, this says a lot about how my system behaves. I do not use an X Server, so I disabled X, gtk, gtk2, gnome, kde, qt, xv (everything having to do with a graphical desktop). I enabled things like apache2, php, jpeg, mpeg, v4l, xvid (anything media related).

Building a Kernel

Before Building a kernel, you may want to get some details about the hardware on your computer. You can do this using the tools on your LiveCD. Switch to another virtual console (Ctrl+Alt+F2-F6). These consoles are still running in the CD environment, NOT chrooted in the system you are building. From here you can do a dmesg|less and lspci to see what devices you have installed. Follow the standard procedure in compiling a kernel. The process usually proceeds as:

1. make menuconfig, to configure the kernel
2. make, to comile the kernel
3. make install,
4. make modules
5. make modules_install

Be sure to included the drivers for your capture cards/cameras in the kernel if applicable.

Necessary Packages

ZoneMinder mentions a few packages that are required; namely php, mysql and apache. But in my experience ZM requires many more.

You'll need:

• apache
• php
• mysql
• ffmpeg
• libperl
• openssl
• jpeg
• libpcre

Luckily, many of these packages are installed automatically as a result of dependencies. Gentoo will let you know what packages will also be installed with a selected package.

You may also want:

• pciutils, to get information about PCI devices to assist in troubleshooting.
• usbutils, to get information about USB devices to assist in troubleshooting.
• syslog-ng, to manage system logs. ZoneMinder will need to be configured to use it. (/etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf)
• vixie-cron, for ZoneMinder to complete scheduled cron jobs.
• samba, to exchange files with Windows clients/servers.
• camsource, lets you serve up web images from your capture card. Can be useful for diagnosis.

These packages are easily installed by typing emerge <package_name>

Setting Up Init Sripts

Gentoo, like most distributions, has its own unique way of starting and stopping services upon boot.

ZoneMinder Installation

Overview of ZoneMinder Installation

• Downloading Source
• Extracting the Source
• Building ZoneMinder
• Configuration
• Initializing the Database
• Defining Monitors
• Defining Zones

Downloading Source

You can retreive the ZoneMinder source by using the Links web browser and navigating to http://www2.zoneminder.com/downloads. If anyone has a better way, could you please amend the Wiki?

• See the ZoneMinder Manual for further instructions

Extracting the Source

• Extract the source of the tarball to the /usr/src directory

tar -xjvf ZoneMinder-src.tar.bz2 /usr/src

Building ZoneMinder

• Change to the source directory

cd /usr/src/ZoneMinder-src ./configure make make install

Configuration

Configuration files

Initializing the Database

database command here

Defining Monitors

You will need another computer with a webbrowser connected to the ZoneMinder box by a network.

1. Open a web browser and type in the IP address of the Zoneminder box (Obtain the IP by issuing a ifconfig command on the ZoneMinder box.