Just a quick update, and hopefully there's a Gentoo advocate/developer reading this...
Trying the 20181120 minimal installation CD fails due to the firmware for the Qlogic ISP1020 (1040.bin) SCSI adapter not being present, either as built-in to the kernel or as a standalone file. No firmware means no hard disks detected means "full stop" -- can't get there from here. --Bob
