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.
