---
layout: post
title: "Installing Gentoo on a Lenovo ThinkPad X60s"
date: 2016-07-12 13:00:00 +0200
categories: linux
---

<p>
  Currently, my only laptop is a
  <a href="http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:X60s"
    >IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad X60s</a
  >, a top line <em>ultrabook</em> from 2006 that features:
</p>

<ul>
  <li>An Intel Core Duo L2400 dual core 32 bit CPU, clocked at 1.66 Ghz;</li>
  <li>2GB of RAM;</li>
  <li>60GB of SATA1 hard drive;</li>
  <li>
    Wifi, Bluetooth, trackpoint mouse only, 56k modem, and a decent set of I/0
    ports (including a CardBus slot!).
  </li>
</ul>

<p>
  <img src="/images/thinkpad1.jpg" alt="An image of the ThinkPad X60s" />
</p>

<p>
  <img src="/images/thinkpad2.jpg" alt="Another image of the ThinkPad X60s" />
</p>

<p>
  This machine had an installation on <em>Arch Linux</em>, and I was using it
  for school stuff. It runned smoothly <em>KDE5</em>, <em>Atom</em> (great
  editor, I am using it to write this article), and it was usable even with
  <em>PhpStorm</em>. Pretty impressive for such an old thing, right?
</p>

<p>
  Since now I don't need this laptop every day I decided to give a try at
  Gentoo, another rolling relase, DIY install distro. This was both a test of my
  skills, my patience and the performances of the machine. For those of you that
  don't know, Gentoo hasn't binary packages: imagine using Arch with just a
  developer mantained AUR.
</p>

<p>
  I followed the
  <a href="https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:Main_Page">
    installation guide</a
  >
  without any problem until I had to <em>emerge</em> and install 309 packets
  from my <code>@world</code> set: it took 15 hours! The compilation of
  <code>cmake</code> crashed because of memory starvation, and so I had to use a
  spare USB stick as swap (the root file system was not resizable as it was
  JFS). After some research and a couple of seconds in <code>top</code> I
  discovered that
  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension">PAE</a>
  was not implemented in the install disk kernel. <strong>TIP:</strong> if you
  want to use a nicer install enviroment, use the <em>Arch</em> ISO. With
  <em>Gentoo</em>, the initialisation of the file system is made with a
  <a href="https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Stage_tarball#Stage_3"
    ><em>stage 3 tarball</em></a
  >
  and not by tools like
  <a
    href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/beginners'_guide#Install_the_base_packages"
  >
    <code>pacstrap</code></a
  >.
</p>

<p>
  I had another problem with <code>make menuconfig</code>, the tool used to
  specify what features add or remove in your compiled from source Linux kernel.
  The <code>ncurses</code> menu showed me 64bit options, even if the install
  disk and the CPU were both 32 bit. If you have this issue too, you can set the
  <code>ARCH</code> variable by your own:
</p>

<p>
{% highlight bash %}
make ARCH=i386 menuconfig
make ARCH=i386
make ARCH=i386 install
{% endhighlight %}
</p>

<p>
  At the end, I made it! I only have a base install, but i can show you
  <code>screenfetch</code>:
</p>

<p>
  <img src="/images/screenfetch.jpg" alt="The laptop running 'screenfetch'" />
</p>

<p>
  I have not installed <em>Gentoo</em> in dual boot because I did not figure out
  how to switch my bluetooth dongle in HID mode yet, so I can't select the OS
  with <code>rEFInd</code>. Hope this rambling was, if not useful, at least
  entertaining!
</p>