Gentoo on my ltop - part I

I have gone back to installing Gentoo on my laptop. Last time I did this, I spent quite a bit of time tweaking things, and then I broke everything. Lost all I had done, had no track of all the effort I had put to making it mine. So, here is me trying to keep track of some of the things I've done to put Gentoo on my laptop. If anyone has good tips on how to put source code bits on this blog engine, it will be much appreciated. Before I begin, I'll specify some of the goals that I have for my Gentoo install. I usually build a pretty minimalistic setup, so don't be surprised by the lack of shine :). Minimally, I want to have the following working:

• wireless
• suspend/hibernate
• xmonad
• sound
• mplayer

Here are the specs for my laptop, from the manufacturer's website:

Based on 7733-CTO: T7300(2GHz), 2GB RAM, 80GB 5400rpm HD, 14.1in 1280x800, Intel X3100, CDRW/DVD, Intel 802.11abg wireless, Bluetooth, Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, FPR, 6c Li-Ion

Before I started the install, I went into BIOS and put my hdd into "AHCI" mode instead of "Compatibility" mode. Seems I read somewhere I should do that. I used the "amd64/2008.0" image. Went, as usual, with the no-gui, bootstrap-it method. I was literally blown away that I even got the wireless card to work immediately with "net-setup wlan0". Rocking! I was even able to browse the web graphically by using "links -g". I installed "net-wireless/wireless-tools" and "net-wireless/iwl3945-ucode" to make the wireless card work after install. I'm currently able to connect to an open wireless signal by running:

ifconfig wlan0 up
iwlist wlan0 scanning
iwconfig wlan0 essid $SOMESSID
dhcpcd wlan0
ping -c 3 google.com

I was getting annoyed that at boot up "eth0" kept on wanting to come up. Finally found the guilty culprit: "/etc/conf.d/rc". (here is me wishing I could put a diff here...)

-RC_PLUG_SERVICES=""
+RC_PLUG_SERVICES="!net.*"

Time to go see some soccer. I've got sound and suspend working, so I'll need to make a follow-up for this post.