On Wednesday 06 June 2007 20:54:30 Thierry de Coulon wrote:
> I've a somewhat old system (it was installed with 2005.1 at the time) that
> I wanted to try updating.
>
> However, emerge --update --pretend world thows an awfull lot of blocking
> packages, mostly x11-something, but including KDE, java and others.
>
> There is no question of unmasking all these packages, as has been suggested
> in another thread for one blocking package.

That thread was the exception from the rule. Usually blocks mean that 
something needs to be unmerged. The only reason I didn't tell him to unmerge 
anything was because it was apparent from the output that it was not 
installed.

> Is there a way to say "try to upgrade all you can and we'll if it works" or
> does it simply mean the system is screwed beyond repair and a new install
> is the only hope?

Neither. You need to unmerge the blockers. Do make sure you get a clean update 
complete and run etc-update (or equivalent) before logging out or rebooting.. 
There's a section on blockers in the handbook. Read it.

-- 
Bo Andresen