So here goes...

Time for another try.

Here are some docs I've been referencing:

• Gentoo Linux Handbook (http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml)
  

Here are the steps I'm following:

• Insert 2006.0 Gentoo Minimal Install CD and power on.
• Type gentoo at the prompt and hit [enter]

  Things don't work correctly if I skip typing gentoo, even if gentoo is supposed to be the default kernel. No "gentoo", no networking.

• Hit [enter] or stop paying attention long enough to accept the default keymap.
• Hit [F2] to switch to verbose mode & make sure that it's detecting the onboard neworking.
• Make sure networking was configured correctly: ifconfig eth0
• Test networking some more: ping -c 3 www.google.com
• Figure out a partitioning scheme
• /dev/sda1: ext3, 32M, /boot
• /dev/sda2: swap, 1024M, swap
• /dev/sda3: ext3, 10240M, /
• /dev/sda4: extended
• /dev/sda5: ext3, 2048M, /var
• /dev/sda6: ext3, remainder, /video
• Partition the hard drive
• Start fdisk: fdisk /dev/sda
• Display current partition configuration: p
• Remove all current partitions: d,
• Verify all partitions are deleted: p
• Create /boot partition
• create new partition: n
• primary partition: p
• select first partition: 1
• accept default first cylinder: [enter]
• size: +32M
• Make boot partition bootable
• toggle a bootable flag: a
• select the partition to toggle: 1
• Verify boot partition: p
• Create swap partition
• create new partition: n
• primary partition: p
• select second partition: 2
• accept default first cylinder: [enter]
• size: +1024M
• Set the swap partition's type
  
• change partition type: t
• select second partition: 2
• select linux swap type: 82
• Verify the swap partition: p
• Create / partition
• create new partition: n
• select primary partition: p
• select third partition: 3
• accept default first cylinder: [enter]
• size: +10240M
• Create extended partition
• create new partition: n
• selected extended partition: e
• selects partition 4 by default
• accept default first cylinder: [enter]
• accept default last cylinder: [enter]
• Create /var partion
• create new partition: n
• accept default first cylinder: [enter]
• size: +2048M
• Create /video partition
• create new partition: n
• accept default first cylinder: [enter]
• accept default last cylinder: [enter]
• Save the filesystem layout: w
• Create the filesystems
• Make /boot ext3: mke2fs -j /dev/sda1
• Make / ext3: mke2fs -j /dev/sda3
• Make swap swap
  
• mkswap /dev/sda2
• swapon /dev/sda2
• Make /var ext3: mke2fs -j /dev/sda5
• Make /video ext3: mke2fs -j /dev/sda6
• Mount the partitions
• Mount / partition: mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/gentoo
• Make mount directories for all the other partitions
• mkdir /mnt/gentoo/boot
• mkdir /mnt/gentoo/var
• mkdir /mnt/gentoo/video
• Mount /boot partition: mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/gentoo/boot
• Mount /var partition: mount /dev/sda5 /mnt/gentoo/var
• mount /video partition: mount /dev/sda6 /mnt/gentoo/video
• Verify filesystems & mounts: df -h
• Set system time
• See www.timeanddate.com/worldclock to get UTC local time
• date [month,2][day,2][hour, UTC,2][minute,2][year,4]
• Get the stage tarball
• Change to the gentoo mountpoint: cd /mnt/gentoo
• Use links to open mirror listing for tarballs: links http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/mirrors.xml
• Select mirror from list
• Browse to /releases/x86/2006.0/stages/
• Select a stage3 tarball (stage3-x86-2006.0.tar.bz) and press d to download
  
• select the digests file and press d to download
• Verify the integrity of the tarball: md5sum -c stage3-x86-2006.0.tar.bz2.DIGESTS
• Unpack the tarball: tar xvjpf stage3-x86-2006.0.tar.bz2
• Install a Portage snapshot:
• Change directory: cd /mnt/gentoo
• Open mirror listing: links http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/mirrors.xml
• Select mirror from list
• Browse to /snapshots
• Download the latest portage snapshot and md5sum (portage-20060722.tar.bz2, portage-20060722.tar.bz2.md5sum)
• Verify the integrity of the snapshot: md5sum -c portage-20060722.tar.bz2.md5sum
• Extract the snapshot (case is important here): tar xvjf /mnt/gentoo/portage-.tar.bz2 -C /mnt/gentoo/usr
• Configure compile options
• Edit /mnt/gentoo/etc/make.conf
• CFLAGS="-O2 -mtune=i686 -pipe"
• CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"
• MAKEOPTS="-j2"
• Select mirrors
• mirrorselect -i -o >> /mnt/gentoo/etc/make.conf
• select one or more mirrors by pressing [space] and press [enter]
• Set the SYNC setting
• mirrorselect -i -r -o >> /mnt/gentoo/etc/make.conf
• select a mirror by pressing [space] and press [enter]
• Copy the DNS info into the new environment: cp -L /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/gentoo/etc/resolv.conf
• Mount the /proc fileystem to allow the install to use the kernel-provided information within the chrooted environment: mount -t proc none /mnt/gentoo/proc
  
• Mount-bind the /dev filesystem: mount -o bind /dev /mnt/gentoo/dev
• Chroot into the new environment
• Change the root from / on the cd to /mnt/gentoo: chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash
• Create a new environment (create new environment variables): env-update
• Load the environment variables into memory: source /etc/profile
• export PS1="(chroot) $PS1"
• Update the portage tree to the latest version
• emerge --sync
• If a new version is available, update portage: emerge portage
• If config files need to be updated: find /etc -iname '._cfg*'
• For help on updating config files: emerge --help --config
• Merge the file differences if necessary, or just move the new files over the old ones
• Verify the system profile
• ls -FGg /etc/make.profile
• Profile points to ../usr/portage/profiles/default-linux/x86/no-nptl, which isn't the preferred default
• Check if the preferred default exists: ls -d /usr/portage/profiles/default-linux/x86/2006.0
• Link to the preferred profile: ln -snf /usr/portage/profiles/default-linux/x86/2006.0 /etc/make.profile
• Verify the profile was updated: ls -FGg /etc/make.profile
• Set USE Flags
• emerge ufed
• back up /etc/make.conf: cp /etc/make.conf /etc/make.conf.good
• run ufed & make selections: ufed
• Ufed edits /etc/make.conf. My resulting flags are as follows: "audiofile bittorrent c++ cdr dvd dvdr dvdread emacs ethereal ftp gimp lirc mozilla mule mysql pdf php"
• Activate the userlocales flag
• mkdir -p /etc/portage
• echo "sys-libs/glibc userlocales" >> /etc/portage/package.use
• Specify the locales that should be supported
• edit /etc/locales.build
• comment out everything except for en_US/ISO-8859-1 and en_us.UTF-8/UTF-8
• Specify the timezone
• less /usr/share/zoneinfo
• less /usr/share/zoneinfo/US
• choose /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Eastern: cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Eastern /etc/localtime