On 2011/05/13 02:37 (GMT+0200) Alan McKinnon composed:
That part of the doc assumes that the user is indeed running from the LiveCD-like environment provided by the official installer. There are other docs (far less verbose in their explanations) covering alternate install sources.
My actual starting point was "The Gentoo Linux alternative installation method HOWTO" <http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/altinstall.xml#doc_chap5>. It was from its link to http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=1&chap=4 that I wound up at the OP link after two next clicks.
Most distros provide a customized environment to do this in, usually in the form of a bootable CD.
I used a few of those many many moons ago, but have only installed in recent years using an installation kernel and initrd loaded by Grub, and usually via HTTP, rarely by a previously downloaded iso. This installation via chroot is completely new to me, though I suspect it's probably common among paid OS devs, not unique to Gentoo.
-- "The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation) Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/
