Re: [gentoo-amd64] Re: system broken?

[Richard Freeman <rich0@gentoo.org>]

Martin Herrman wrote:
> Of course (using Gentoo now for a month or so), I don't have buildpkg
> in my config. So I used the manual on the URL you provided. It says
> that one should emerge portage first to get a correct system first.
> But when I do that, I get an error:
> 

Yeah - once you break it you get stuck with the pieces.  Somebody might 
have a clever solution for you - if not your best best might be to find 
a stage3 tarball off the distribution site and unpack it somewhere.  In 
there you'll find good (but stale) copies of anything you need.

If nothing else you can install the stage3 to a directory, then set up 
your environment per the install guide and chroot to it.  Then type 
"quickpkg portage" to generate a binary package in /var/packages (within 
the chroot).  You can then use that binary package to reinstall portage. 
  Best way to do that is with emerge -k, but if that doesn't work you 
can always just expand the tarball into your root.  I'd re-emerge 
portage just to clean up after doing that.

It could be something other than portage that is broken.  If you're 
still able to boot and generally function, it can't be anything too 
critical (like glibc).

I wouldn't jump the gun on my stage3 idea - somebody else might have a 
more clever and clean solution.  However, I've cleaned up after a few 
disasters via partial manual reinstalls.  And if you just quickpkg 
specific packages from your chroot you won't be overwriting files 
en-masse.  You could also update your chroot (emerge -uD system) and 
then you wouldn't need to worry too much about copying over files left 
and right.  Just be careful not to wipe out your /etc files (fstab and 
passwd come to mind) by copying them from the stage3.