[gentoo-user] Can't upgrade portage or update/install ebuilds

[Nikolay Pulev]

Hi community,

This is my first reach out to you. I have not update my machine for a long
time and have no reached a point where I can't install or upgrade packages.
My first concern is to update portage, however I get the error below error.
Does anybody have any suggestions how I could progress with my machine
update?

# emerge --oneshot sys-apps/portage

* IMPORTANT: 15 news items need reading for repository 'gentoo'.
* Use eselect news read to view new items.

Calculating dependencies... done!

!!! All ebuilds that could satisfy
">=app-portage/gemato-14.5[python_targets_pypy3(-)?,python_targets_python3_10(-)?,python_targets_python3_11(-)?]"
have been masked.
!!! One of the following masked packages is required to complete your
request:
- app-portage/gemato-9999::gentoo (masked by: EAPI 8)
- app-portage/gemato-20.4::gentoo (masked by: EAPI 8)
- app-portage/gemato-20.2::gentoo (masked by: EAPI 8)
- app-portage/gemato-20.1::gentoo (masked by: EAPI 8)

The current version of portage supports EAPI '7'. You must upgrade to a
newer version of portage before EAPI masked packages can be installed.
(dependency required by "sys-apps/portage-3.0.45.3-r2::gentoo" [ebuild])
(dependency required by "sys-apps/portage" [argument])
For more information, see the MASKED PACKAGES section in the emerge
man page or refer to the Gentoo Handbook.

[Grant Edwards]

Post by Nikolay Pulev
This is my first reach out to you. I have not update my machine for
a long time

How long?

Post by Nikolay Pulev
and have no reached a point where I can't install or upgrade
packages.

My experience is that if you haven't updated up for more than 6-9
months, the easiest/fastest thing to do (usually) is back up /etc,
/home, /root and /usr/src/linux/.config and re-install from scratch.

If you've got /home in a separate partition, that makes the reinstall
particularly easy.

--
Grant

[John Covici]

On Fri, 09 Jun 2023 15:40:36 -0400,

[1 <text/plain; UTF-8 (7bit)>]
Hi community,
This is my first reach out to you. I have not update my machine for a long
time and have no reached a point where I can't install or upgrade packages.
My first concern is to update portage, however I get the error below error.
Does anybody have any suggestions how I could progress with my machine
update?
# emerge --oneshot sys-apps/portage
* IMPORTANT: 15 news items need reading for repository 'gentoo'.
* Use eselect news read to view new items.
Calculating dependencies... done!
!!! All ebuilds that could satisfy
">=app-portage/gemato-14.5[python_targets_pypy3(-)?,python_targets_python3_10(-)?,python_targets_python3_11(-)?]"
have been masked.
!!! One of the following masked packages is required to complete your
- app-portage/gemato-9999::gentoo (masked by: EAPI 8)
- app-portage/gemato-20.4::gentoo (masked by: EAPI 8)
- app-portage/gemato-20.2::gentoo (masked by: EAPI 8)
- app-portage/gemato-20.1::gentoo (masked by: EAPI 8)
The current version of portage supports EAPI '7'. You must upgrade to a
newer version of portage before EAPI masked packages can be installed.
(dependency required by "sys-apps/portage-3.0.45.3-r2::gentoo" [ebuild])
(dependency required by "sys-apps/portage" [argument])
For more information, see the MASKED PACKAGES section in the emerge
man page or refer to the Gentoo Handbook.

If it were me, I would either reinstall from scratch, or change your
repository to use git and check out old enough versions so you could
get one two months after your current version, and update to that,
then advance your git by a couple of months and try again and
gradually get up to date. Its going to be a real PITA, I am sure, so
consider a re install.

[Daniel Pielmeier]

Post by Nikolay Pulev
Hi community,
This is my first reach out to you. I have not update my machine for a long
time and have no reached a point where I can't install or upgrade packages.
My first concern is to update portage, however I get the error below error.
Does anybody have any suggestions how I could progress with my machine
update?
# emerge --oneshot sys-apps/portage
* IMPORTANT: 15 news items need reading for repository 'gentoo'.
* Use eselect news read to view new items.
Calculating dependencies... done!
!!! All ebuilds that could satisfy
">=app-portage/gemato-14.5[python_targets_pypy3(-)?,python_targets_python3_10(-)?,python_targets_python3_11(-)?]"
have been masked.
!!! One of the following masked packages is required to complete your
- app-portage/gemato-9999::gentoo (masked by: EAPI 8)
- app-portage/gemato-20.4::gentoo (masked by: EAPI 8)
- app-portage/gemato-20.2::gentoo (masked by: EAPI 8)
- app-portage/gemato-20.1::gentoo (masked by: EAPI 8)
The current version of portage supports EAPI '7'. You must upgrade to a
newer version of portage before EAPI masked packages can be installed.
(dependency required by "sys-apps/portage-3.0.45.3-r2::gentoo" [ebuild])
(dependency required by "sys-apps/portage" [argument])
For more information, see the MASKED PACKAGES section in the emerge
man page or refer to the Gentoo Handbook.

If it is only about gemato then temporary disable the rsync-verify flag
which pulls it in.

# USE="-rsync-verify" emerge sys-apps/portage

[Grant Edwards]

Post by Daniel Pielmeier
If it is only about gemato then temporary disable the rsync-verify flag
which pulls it in.
# USE="-rsync-verify" emerge sys-apps/portage

The problem I ran into is that you never know how many issues there
are standing in the way of upgrading. The one time I decided to muscle
my way through updating an "obsolete" Gentoo install, I spent a very
long day fixing "one more problem" and trying again. It took many
more hours than a scratch install would have taken, but at some point
I decided to keep going just to see if I could make it all the way
through the process. I did. Then I promised myself never to try that
again.

You do learn alot about how portage/emerge works...

--
Grant

[Wol]

Post by Grant Edwards

Post by Daniel Pielmeier
If it is only about gemato then temporary disable the rsync-verify flag
which pulls it in.
# USE="-rsync-verify" emerge sys-apps/portage

The problem I ran into is that you never know how many issues there
are standing in the way of upgrading. The one time I decided to muscle
my way through updating an "obsolete" Gentoo install, I spent a very
long day fixing "one more problem" and trying again. It took many
more hours than a scratch install would have taken, but at some point
I decided to keep going just to see if I could make it all the way
through the process. I did. Then I promised myself never to try that
again.
You do learn alot about how portage/emerge works...

Learning that is a good idea maybe :-)

But last time I had a well-out-of-date system, it was a long and messy
process ...

What I did was, every time portage said "giving up" or "conflict found"
or whatever, I just took a note of as many of the packages I could
remember that portage said it could emerge, and then manually updated
them "emerge --update --one-shot".

And any conflicts, if I dared, I simply deleted then "emerge -C --one-shot".

And once I managed to get the system to complete an update, I then did a
--deep --new-use. The idea is to update the absolute minimum possible to
get your system up-to-date, so you probably only want to update @system
not @world. If @system is up-to-date, it's not major if you break other
stuff.

Cheers,
Wol

[Grant Edwards]

Post by Wol

Post by Grant Edwards

Post by Daniel Pielmeier
If it is only about gemato then temporary disable the rsync-verify flag
which pulls it in.
# USE="-rsync-verify" emerge sys-apps/portage

The problem I ran into is that you never know how many issues there
are standing in the way of upgrading. The one time I decided to muscle
my way through updating an "obsolete" Gentoo install, [...]
You do learn alot about how portage/emerge works...

Learning that is a good idea maybe :-)
But last time I had a well-out-of-date system, it was a long and
messy process ...
What I did was, every time portage said "giving up" or "conflict found"
or whatever, I just took a note of as many of the packages I could
remember that portage said it could emerge, and then manually updated
them "emerge --update --one-shot".
And any conflicts, if I dared, I simply deleted then "emerge -C --one-shot".

IIRC, at one point Python was one of those problems, and I stupidly
removed Python before realizing what that meant...

Hilarity ensued.

Removing/skipping as many of the non-essential "big" packages and
their dependancies and getting the base system updated is indeed the
best way to go.

[Mitch D.]

Post by Wol

Post by Wol

Post by Grant Edwards

Post by Daniel Pielmeier
If it is only about gemato then temporary disable the rsync-verify flag
which pulls it in.
# USE="-rsync-verify" emerge sys-apps/portage

The problem I ran into is that you never know how many issues there
are standing in the way of upgrading. The one time I decided to muscle
my way through updating an "obsolete" Gentoo install, [...]
You do learn alot about how portage/emerge works...

Learning that is a good idea maybe :-)
But last time I had a well-out-of-date system, it was a long and
messy process ...
What I did was, every time portage said "giving up" or "conflict found"
or whatever, I just took a note of as many of the packages I could
remember that portage said it could emerge, and then manually updated
them "emerge --update --one-shot".
And any conflicts, if I dared, I simply deleted then "emerge -C

--one-shot".
IIRC, at one point Python was one of those problems, and I stupidly
removed Python before realizing what that meant...
Hilarity ensued.
Removing/skipping as many of the non-essential "big" packages and
their dependancies and getting the base system updated is indeed the
best way to go.

I second this approach. When rescuing a Gentoo system, my first step would
be to deselect any and every non-critical package from @world, then try to
get @system updated through any means necessary. In the past, I've removed
packages instead of deselecting them, but I've had cases where depclean
refused to do anything because there were already dependency problems, and
sometimes it's hard to know what's safe to unmerge with "-C".

[Michael]

Sent: Tuesday, June 13, 2023 9:36 AM
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Can't upgrade portage or update/install
ebuilds
On Tue, Jun 13, 2023 at 10:38 AM Grant Edwards

On

wrote:>

Post by Wol

On 2023-06-09, Daniel Pielmeier

Post by Daniel Pielmeier
If it is only about gemato then temporary disable the rsync-verify flag
which pulls it in.
# USE="-rsync-verify" emerge sys-apps/portage

The problem I ran into is that you never know how many issues there
are standing in the way of upgrading. The one time I decided to muscle
my way through updating an "obsolete" Gentoo install, [...]
You do learn alot about how portage/emerge works...

Learning that is a good idea maybe :-)
But last time I had a well-out-of-date system, it was a long and
messy process ...
What I did was, every time portage said "giving up" or "conflict found"
or whatever, I just took a note of as many of the packages I could
remember that portage said it could emerge, and then manually updated
them "emerge --update --one-shot".
And any conflicts, if I dared, I simply deleted then "emerge -C
--one-shot".

IIRC, at one point Python was one of those problems, and I stupidly
removed Python before realizing what that meant...
Hilarity ensued.
Removing/skipping as many of the non-essential "big" packages and
their dependancies and getting the base system updated is indeed the
best way to go.
I second this approach. When rescuing a Gentoo system, my first step would
packages instead of deselecting them, but I've had cases where depclean
refused to do anything because there were already dependency problems, and
sometimes it's hard to know what's safe to unmerge with "-C".

I have noticed that doing a --unmerge on virtual/* clears away whole
sections of conflicts in a lot of cases.
Doing the same on dev-perl/* is a decent trick too if it's snarled enough
that perl-cleaner runs into conflicts. But sometimes perl dependencies
aren't correctly spelled out, so you may have to reinstall some of it by
hand in some cases.
And you'd be surprised how many “hard” dependency version requirements are
“softer” than expected. Using the "ebuild" tool to force it to "just do
the end of it all to clean up any mess uses a lot of machine time, but it
can save a lot of human time.
LMP

I start with the basic toolchain and if this succeeds, I proceed with @system.
I never remove packages belonging to the toolchain. If the toolchain Blockers
are impossible to resolve, I download a Stage 3, chroot into it with a LiveUSB
and build binary packages for the blocked toolchain components. Then it is a
matter of copying them over, emerging them and trying again to update/upgrade
the toolchain, before I start on @system.

If things are seriously broken I tend to reinstall, because in many cases it
is a faster route.

[Nikolay Pulev]

Thank you Daniel. You suggestion got me going.

Kind regards,
Nikolay

[Daniel Pielmeier]

Post by Nikolay Pulev
Thank you Daniel. You suggestion got me going.

You are welcome!

I hope it was the only problem. If yes then installing from scratch
would have been a waste of time. It is never wrong to get to know your
system better. Then in most cases you can solve such things within
minutes and you don't need the sledgehammer.