Install MariaDB on Gentoo Linux

Step 1 – Install and secure MariaDB

emerge --ask dev-db/mariadb
emerge --config dev-db/mariadb
rc-update add mariadb default
rc-service mariadb start
mysql_secure_installation

Step 2 – Connect

mysql -u root -p

Step 3 – Create database and user

CREATE DATABASE appdb CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'appuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongPass!';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON appdb.* TO 'appuser'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Configuration

Main file: /etc/mysql/my.cnf

[mysqld]
innodb_buffer_pool_size = 1G
character-set-server    = utf8mb4
collation-server        = utf8mb4_unicode_ci