Gentoo Installation

Network
If network doesn't work, check: lspci|egrep -i ethernet lsmod
 * that you have a Network Interface Card (NIC) and it is plugged into the network
 * that the NIC is recognized by the kernel:
 * that the appropriate driver is loaded:
 * then try something like 'net-setup eth0'
 * if you run a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server, check '/var/log/messages'

Hardware Information
lspci     list PCI devices fdisk -l  list partition tables

Profile
Just use /usr/portage/profiles/default-linux/x86/2007.0 to avoid problems.

make.conf
Choose from the beginning whether you mainly want to use the 'stable' or the 'testing' branch. You may run into reverse dependency problems if you switch later in the process.

A few examples:

CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-O2 -march=pentium2 -fomit-frame-pointer" CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}" USE="aalib acl -alsa apache2 apm -arts -audiofile -avi crypt -cups dga divx4linux doc -emacs     encode -esd fbcon -freedts  gd gif -gnome gpm -gtk -gtk2 imap -imagemagick imlib -jack      -java jpeg -kerberos -kde -ladcca libg++ libwww -mad math -mikmod mmx -mpeg msn -mssql      mysql ncurses -nls -opengl -oss pam -pcmcia pdflib perl png pnp python -qt -quicktime      readline ruby samba -slang sse svga tetex usb -vhosts -X -xml -xml2 -xmms x86" MAKEOPTS="-j2" CFLAGS="-O2 -march=pentium4 -pipe" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}" MAKEOPTS="-j2" USE="X acpi alsa audiofile bzip2 caca cdparanoia crypt cups doc dri encode examples fbcon     flac foomaticdb gd gif gnome gpm gtk2 hal howl imagemagick imap imlib jabber jack jpeg      -kde ladcca libcaca mad maildir mikmod mp3 mpeg msn mysql ncurses ogg openal opengl       pdf php png portaudio -qt quicktime readline ruby samba sdl sndfile sockets sox ssl       svg tetex threads unicode usb v4l vorbis win32codecs wxwindows xml xmms xpm zlib" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://mirror.uni-c.dk/pub/gentoo/" SYNC="rsync://rsync.de.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
 * servitor:
 * 1) vim:tw=0
 * bib:

GRand Unified Bootloader (GRUB)
If you get a 'hard drive error' after GRUB installation and reboot, your BIOS may be reportinh Logical Block Addressing (LBA) wrongly. In that case, try installing GRUB with something like grub-install /dev/hda --force-lba --root-directory=/mnt/boot (see the GRUB manual for more information)

Gentoo Guest OS on VMware
If VMware Server version is &lt; 1.0.4 and the emulated HD is SCSI, your Linux Kernel may not be able to boot. This problem has several solutions:
 * Upgrade VMware Server to version 1.0.4+
 * Change emulated HD to IDE