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. -- ========================,,============================================ SUPPORT ___________//___, Philip Webb ELECTRIC /] [] [] [] [] []| Cities Centre, University of Toronto TRANSIT `-O----------O---' purslowatchassdotutorontodotca
