Gentoo Linux installation on a Raspberry Pi

This guide describes how to install and set up Gentoo Linux on a Raspberry Pi 5 8GB, turning it into a self-hosted server.

Main steps

The Gentoo Wiki offers a comprehensive and user-friendly guide for installing Gentoo on any Raspberry Pi board. Follow the guide for the basic installation:

Gentoo Wiki: Raspberry Pi Install Guide

Hardware

Raspberry Pi 5 Cooling

For understanding of temperature limits and cooling approaches, refer to the following post: Heating and cooling Raspberry Pi 5.

Running a Gentoo system on a Raspberry Pi 5, especially during initial setup or system rebuilds, requires additional cooling. Even with distributed compilation, the linking and build process management can lead to overheating and throttling.

The official active cooler [1] is highly effective and operates quietly. The Raspberry Pi 5's PWM fan control allows the fan to turn off or slow down during idle periods. This noise reduction is a significant advantage for a home self-hosted server.

To see CPU temperature, use either the sensors or the following script:

echo "$(((`cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp` + 500) / 1000)) C"

You can check the fan status using the sensors tool:

$ sensors
…
pwmfan-isa-000c
Adapter: ISA adapter
fan1:        2480 RPM
pwm1:             38%  MANUAL CONTROL

Choosing an SD card

TBD

Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/root        50G  4.1G   44G   9% /

Network configuration

TBD

Security

TBD

Services

TBD

Performance

TBD