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Gentoo Linux 2004.0

March 3, 2004

This article was contributed by Ladislav Bodnar

A new version of Gentoo Linux was announced earlier this week, the first new release since version 1.4 in August 2003. Although many people will argue that Gentoo releases are effectively just "reference points", since Gentoo installations are continuously updated, this release has enough innovative new features to warrant a closer look. Also, according to a recent Netcraft report, Gentoo is one of the fast growing Linux distributions in terms of usage as web servers. Although its total market share is still comparatively low, Gentoo Linux is slowly finding its way into server usage statistics, proving that it is no longer just a hobbyist distribution for users with much time on their hands, but a serious product with a lot of potential. Besides the immediately apparent new versioning scheme, what else does Gentoo Linux 2004.0 bring to the table?

Updated software. Source-based distributions tend to keep highly up-to-date and Gentoo Linux 2004.0 is no exception. It comes with Linux kernel 2.6.3, GCC 3.3.2, glibc 2.3.2, KDE 3.2 and GNOME 2.4.2, just to mention the main components. Although this release claims to be fully compatible with the 2.6 kernel series, the two recommended kernels, according to the release notes, are 2.4.24 for uniprocessor machines and 2.6.1-smp for multiprocessor systems. Higher kernel versions are provided in the so-called "unstable" tree; the Gentoo developers were unable to overcome numerous problems with integrating a fully functional 2.6 kernel into the distribution before the release - hence the experimental nature of the 2.6 kernel provided for experts, rather than general use.

Support for five architectures. Gentoo 2004.0 now supports five architectures: x86, AMD64, PowerPC, Sun SPARC, and SGI MIPS. The aim of these individual sub-projects is to provide not only a distribution, but also architecture-specific kernels, stage tarballs, live CDs, specialist packages, and complete documentation.

Increased security. Hardened Gentoo is a Gentoo subproject with the goal of "making Gentoo viable for high security, high stability production server environments". This is an ambitious project with many of the well-known Linux security tools, including SELinux, Propolice, PaX/Grsecurity, Hardened GCC, Prelude and Bastille now incorporated into Gentoo. Secure Auditing for Linux (SAL) with encrypted and protected logs, as well as CryptoAPI support for a cryptographic file system are planned for future releases. Hardened Gentoo is available from mirrors as stage tarballs, marked as "pie-ssp" in their file names, for the x86 architecture.

Because a Gentoo installation is usually compiled from source, implementing some of the security features is easier than with binary distributions. As an example, using Hardened GCC is just a matter of installing the "hardened-gcc" package which is then able to compile all source code into executables with stack smashing protection support. Similarly, those who prefer Propolice as their way to guard against stack overflows can simply add -fstack-protector as one of the CFLAGS in make.conf before compilation. Getting SELinux work is somewhat more complex, but the excellent installation and quick start guides are well-written and in line with other Gentoo documentation. Installation and use of Prelude Intrusion Detection System is also covered. Documentation is definitely one of the strong points of Gentoo.

Catalyst. Although it has been in development for several months, catalyst makes its first official appearance in Gentoo 2004.0. What is catalyst? In simple terms, it is a tool that can be used to build all forms of a Gentoo Linux release: Live CDs, stage tarballs and GRP package sets (more on these momentarily). Its purpose is to provide a reliable tool for those users who wish to build a custom distribution or a live CD. To build one, the user will need the catalyst package, a portage tree snapshot and a "spec" file specifying a handful of variables, such as target, architecture, path to the portage tree and a few identifiers. A stage tarball or a Gentoo live CD can then be built with one simple command. As always, the catalyst project page and its reference manual cover all the details.

Live CDs, stages and GRP. Unlike the products created by most other distributions, Gentoo releases consist of a large number of files, which can be confusing at times. Here is a quick summary of what is available:

Gentoo Live CDs. There are three sets of live CDs, two of which (labeled "minimal" and "universal") are bootable, while the third one ("packages") is not. The "minimal" and "universal" ISO images can be used to install Gentoo, while the "packages" ISO contains binary packages of some of the more popular applications. It is provided as a convenience to those users who prefer to setup their Gentoo system fast, without having to undergo the time-consuming compilation process.
Gentoo Stages. Stages represent a traditional way of installing Gentoo Linux. The installation program can be launched from an existing Linux installation, from a third-party live CD, such as Knoppix, or from another machine on a network. There are three "stage" tarballs, ranging from a very small (~10MB) "stage1" tarball which requires all software to be compiled by the user, to a large (~90MB) "stage3" tarball, which includes a pre-compiled base system and which can be installed in a relatively short time. The "stages" method of installation has been superseded by the more popular Gentoo Live CD method.
Gentoo Reference Platform (GRP). The Gentoo Reference Platform is a pre-compiled, binary release of Gentoo Linux. The release includes not only a base system, but also some of the large packages that would otherwise require long compilation time, such as KDE, GNOME, OpenOffice, Mozilla, etc. This is the fastest method to get Gentoo Linux up and running, at the expense of optimization and control. The packages can however be recompiled at a later stage.

The Gentoo project continues to impress with innovative ideas, their effective implementation, and superb documentation. Gentoo Linux 2004.0 improves on an already excellent product - a multi-platform, highly secure distribution, suitable for both the enthusiast and, increasingly, for the enterprise.

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