Re: [gentoo-user] update problems

[Philip Webb <purslow@ca.inter.net>]

150920 Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On 20/09/2015 00:17, Rich Freeman wrote:
>> While Gentoo doesn't do as much handholding as many distros,
>> the Portage output above should not be viewed
>> as something we are proud of.
> It's either due to it being a really hard problem
> or the Portage team is short of manpower.
> Either way, I'm content not to bitch about it mainly
> as the tree is a unique thing in the Linux world
> Portage only knows what it has in it's internal data structures
> when it decides it can't continue.  It can't provide the user
> with a meaningful answer as is so often asked for here,
> so what is it supposed to do?

My impression is that using Portage has become more complicated
& its warning/error messages have not been given the necessary attention.
Complaints or pleas for help like the OP's here are quite frequent
& not all of them come from novices who don't understand what Gentoo does.

Portage sb able to report eg

  "Pkg1 & Pkg2 (of Version1 & Version2) can't be installed together ;
  Pkg1 is needed for Pkg3, which you already have installed ;
  Pkg2 is needed for Pkg4, which you are trying to install.
  Please review your needs : you may need to remove a package temporarily
  in order for Portage to proceed, then restore a different version of it".

That's a common problem, which experienced users can diagnose themselves,
but the present Portage output is too opaque to help newcomers.

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