Dual-boot Gentoo with Windows 8

Actually it should be triple-boot because I have installed Ubuntu as well. :) This is the guide which I followed.

1. I installed SystemRescueCD on a USB stick.

2. The USB stick was detected by rEFind without any problems. Once the GUI was up, I opened a terminal to create the partitions necessary for Gentoo. 

As recommended by the guide, I used GPT and created a 200MB ext 2 boot partition. After that I created a 2GB swap partition, a 60GB ext4 root partition and the remainder 700GB for my home partition. I'm not sure if the 60GB is enough for the root partition. My previous root partition on the old Compaq was only 15 GB and it was just enough.

3. Once the partitions were created, I started the installation of Gentoo by following the handbook starting from Step 5: Installing the Gentoo Installation Files.

Just like the Ubuntu Live DVD, my wired ethernet also did not work using SystemRescueCD but wireless was functioning.

4. A note on configuring the kernel. According to the WIKI guide, we need to enable the following:

[*] Built-in kernel command line
(root=PARTUUID=92d3d504-9e7e-4c3d-9e56-15e3bd43511b) Built-in kernel command string EXAMPLE USE CORRECT PARTUUID FOUND WITH BLKID
[*] Built-in command line overrides boot loader arguments 

I've discovered that if the kernel is saved to the boot directory which is on a separate partition from the root partition, the above is needed. But the built-in kernel command line is not needed if you don't have a separate boot partition. rEFind will automatically detect the kernel and load it. 

As for the name of the kernel, I did not have to rename the kernel to .efi extension. As long as I used bzImage-something-something, for example bzImage-3.18.3, the kernel was automatically detected by rEFind.

Rebooted the laptop and rEFind detected all the operating systems. 

Here's a screenshot of the rEFind boot manager on startup. The "orange-reddish circlish" icon is Ubuntu. The Tux icon is Gentoo kernel on the separate boot partition and the Gentoo icon is the kernel in the boot directory on the root partition.

Getting Gentoo to work was however not as easy as Ubuntu. Some problems which I encountered:

1. Black screen after booting up Gentoo with rEFind and X server was not working.

2. Wired ethernet still not working.

3. Bluetooth not working.

4. Some of the Lenovo hotkeys were not working.

I'll go through them one by one in the next few posts.