Installing the software

Installing the overlay

The sys-boot/last-known-good and sys-boot/last-known-good-dracut-module packages are not currently available as part of the official Gentoo Linux distribution but are distributed using an overlay maintained and supported by us at Hacking Networked Solutions. Before the sys-boot/last-known-good or sys-boot/last-known-good-dracut-module packages can be installed therefore the overlay must first be installed by following the instructions in the Installing the Hacking Networked Solutions overlay for Gentoo Linux section of the Hacking Networked Solutions overlay for Gentoo Linux documentation.

Once the required overlay has been installed the installation of the sys-boot/last-known-good and sys-boot/last-known-good-dracut-module packages is as easy as any other on Gentoo Linux and is performed using the emerge application as usual.

Installing the Dracut module package

As mentioned above the Last Known Good Configuration (LKGC) system consists of two components. The first is a module for the Dracut application and is contained in the sys-boot/last-known-good-dracut-module package. The Dracut module only needs to be installed on the machine you use to prepare your initramfs images. To perform a pretend install you can use the command shown below.

Once you are satisfied that the sys-boot/last-known-good-dracut-module package will not install any dependencies you do not require, and that the dependencies which will be installed have the correct use-flags set, you can install the package as shown below.

Installing the user tools package

The second component of the Last Known Good Configuration (LKGC) system are the user tools contained in the sys-boot/last-known-good package. The user tools are required on any system which will be using an initramfs containing the Dracut module above. To perform a pretend install you can use the command shown below.

Once you are satisfied that the sys-boot/last-known-good package will not install any dependencies you do not require, and that the dependencies which will be installed have the correct use-flags set, you can install the packages as shown below.