ABOUT exGENT Rpi5
I’ve built a Gentoo system for Raspberry Pi 5. Just for fun, but it took me four days to compile everything from “scratch”. exGENT Rpi5 is a full Gentoo/Linux Desktop system with LXDE (an extremely fast-performing and energy-saving desktop environment). Study all other included packages in exGENT Rpi5. The most important apps are NetworkManager and Firefox. 

What is Raspberry Pi?
The Raspberry Pi is a low cost, credit-card sized computer that plugs into a computer monitor or TV, and uses a standard keyboard and mouse. It is a capable little device that enables people of all ages to explore computing, and to learn how to program in languages like Scratch and Python. It’s capable of doing everything you’d expect a desktop computer to do, from browsing the internet and playing high-definition video, to making spreadsheets, word-processing, and playing games.
Read more about Raspberry Pi…
NOTE: A Raspberry Pi 5 is about twice as fast as the Raspberry Pi 4.

REPLACEMENT
exGENT Rpi5 is a replacement for exGENT Rpi4 from 200410 (!?). The performance is much better on a Rpi5. You can also run exGENT Rpi5 Build 251228 on a Rpi4. Just replace /boot/config.txt (on the boot partition) with this file.

KERNEL
Kernel 6.12.62-v8-16k+ is used when running on a Rpi5.
Kernel 6.12.64-v8+ is used when running on a Rpi4.

PERFORMANCE
The system is quite fast and responsive. All included applications work very well.

How do I install exGENT Rpi5 in Windows?
Just like any other Raspberry Pi system. I.e.: Unpack the downloaded raw.xz file (exgent-rpi5-64bit-lxde-1000mb-251228.raw.xz) and transfer the IMAGE file (exgent-rpi5-64bit-lxde-1000mb-251228.img) to your Micro SD card of at least 16 GB. For that you shall use Rufus 4.11 in Windows. It will look like this – see below. NOTE: The .raw.xz file is of 1000 MB. The .raw file is of 6050 MB. Before using Rufus you’ll have to change the file extension from .raw to .img.

How do I install exGENT Rpi5 in Linux?
You can of course also install exGENT Rpi5 in any Linux system. Just open up at terminal and run the following command (as root):
xzcat exgent-rpi5-64bit-lxde-1000mb-251228.raw.xz | dd bs=4M of=/dev/sdX iflag=fullblock oflag=direct status=progress; sync
Note: Change /dev/sdX to for example /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc, /dev/sde or…
(Check it carefully before you run the above command so you won’t lose important data).

Different Micro SD Cards
For best performance you should use SD Cards of good quality. I can recommend Samsung MicroSD Pro Plus 32GB Class 10. Write speed up to 140 MB/s. Also SanDisk MicroSD Ultra 128GB Class 10. Write speed up to 170 MB/s. NOTE: If you can’t run exGENT Rpi5 at all you should try with a new “better” card.

How do I use exGENT Rpi5?
When you start up your Raspberry Mini computer with exGENT Rpi5 you will (after a few seconds) end up at SLiM‘s login page. Log in as the ordinary user pi or as root (admin). The password for pi is raspberry. When logged in as pi you can use Sudo to become root. Example: sudo su and sudo pcmanfm. The password for root (superuser) is root. You can log out from LXDE and log in again as root (if you want). 

First thing to do after installation to your SD card
Run the command sudo sh /root/resize_rootfs.sh
After that all the space on the SD card will be used. If you look at Conky‘s window (system monitor) in the upper left corner you can see that you only have about 800 MB free space before resizing. Watch this screenshot when the resize command is used.

WiFi
Very simple. Just give your password and connect. You’ll find the NetworkManager applet to the right in the panel.

SOUND
You will have excellent HDMI sound without doing anything. Also when running exGENT as root.

DISPLAY
I’m using a display of 3440×1440. You can of course use a smaller or a bigger monitor.

UPGRADE the System
The exGENT Rpi5 System (Build 251228) is in very good shape, since I, without problems, have been able to update the whole system with the following commands:

# emerge ‐‐ask ‐‐update ‐‐newuse ‐‐deep ‐‐with-bdeps=y @world
# emerge ‐‐depclean
# revdep-rebuild

NOTE 1: Before running the above three commands you’ll have to run the commands emerge ‐‐sync followed by emerge ‐‐oneshot portage

NOTE 2: You should run the above commands at least every month (to keep the system in good shape).

WHO should run Gentoo Linux/exGENT Rpi5?
My answer: The system fits the “advanced” Linux user/enthusiast, who would be willing to run an occasional command from time to time.

Is exGENT Rpi5 UNIQUE?
I believe so. In any case you can’t find another Gentoo System for Raspberry Pi 5 for downloading.

SCREENSHOTS
1. The Desktop for root
2. The Desktop for pi
3. Resizing the rootfs
4. YouTube is running
5. Running on a Rpi4

DOWNLOAD – exgent-rpi5-64bit-lxde-1000mb-251228.raw.xz from SourceForge.net

exGENT Rpi5 can also be downloaded from The Swedish Linux Society

md5sum for exgent-rpi5-64bit-lxde-1000mb-251228.raw.xz, which is of 1000 MB

Raspberry Pi is a trademark of Raspberry Pi Foundation