According to bug #48974, LINGUAS should be settable in /etc/make.conf, but it doesn't work for me. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. grep ^LINGUAS /etc/make.conf 2. emerge -v --oneshot kde-i18n 3. LINGUAS="en_US en_GB en de_DE de" emerge -v --oneshot kde-i18n Actual Results: root@caravan:/# grep ^LINGUAS /etc/make.conf LINGUAS="en_US en_GB en de_DE de" root@caravan:/# emerge -v --oneshot kde-i18n Calculating dependencies ...done! >>> emerge (1 of 1) kde-base/kde-i18n-3.4.1 to / >>> md5 files ;-) kde-i18n-3.4.1.ebuild >>> md5 files ;-) kde-i18n-3.4.2.ebuild >>> md5 files ;-) kde-i18n-3.2.3.ebuild >>> md5 files ;-) kde-i18n-3.3.2.ebuild >>> md5 files ;-) files/digest-kde-i18n-3.4.1 >>> md5 files ;-) files/kde-i18n-ru-3.3.2-kmplot.diff >>> md5 files ;-) files/digest-kde-i18n-3.2.3 >>> md5 files ;-) files/digest-kde-i18n-3.4.2 >>> md5 files ;-) files/digest-kde-i18n-3.3.2 * You must define a LINGUAS environment variable that contains a list * of the language codes for which languages you would like to install. * Look at the LANGS variable inside the ebuild to see the list of * available languages. * e.g.: LINGUAS="sv de pt" !!! ERROR: kde-base/kde-i18n-3.4.1 failed. !!! Function pkg_setup, Line 35, Exitcode 0 !!! (no error message) !!! If you need support, post the topmost build error, NOT this status message. root@caravan:/# LINGUAS="en_US en_GB en de_DE de" emerge -v --oneshot kde-i18n Calculating dependencies ...done! >>> emerge (1 of 1) kde-base/kde-i18n-3.4.1 to / >>> Downloading ftp://ftp.easynet.nl/mirror/gentoo/distfiles/kde-i18n-de-3.4.1.tar.bz2 --21:11:35-- ftp://ftp.easynet.nl/mirror/gentoo/distfiles/kde-i18n-de-3.4.1.tar.bz2 => `/usr/portage/distfiles/kde-i18n-de-3.4.1.tar.bz2' [...] Expected Results: Install kde-i18n with the supported languages (i.e. de and en_GB) defined in /etc/make.conf. Portage 2.0.51.22-r2 (default-linux/x86/2005.0, gcc-3.3.5-20050130, glibc-2.3.5-r0, 2.6.11.10-infra i686) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.11.10-infra i686 mobile AMD Athlon(tm) XP2500+ Gentoo Base System version 1.6.13 distcc 2.18.3 i686-pc-linux-gnu (protocols 1 and 2) (default port 3632) [disabled] ccache version 2.3 [disabled] dev-lang/python: 2.3.5 sys-apps/sandbox: 1.2.11 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.59-r6 sys-devel/automake: 1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.5 sys-devel/binutils: 2.15.92.0.2-r10 sys-devel/libtool: 1.5.18-r1 virtual/os-headers: 2.6.11-r2 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-O3 -march=athlon-xp -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3.3/env /usr/kde/3.3/share/config /usr/kde/3.3/shutdown /usr/kde/3.4/env /usr/kde/3.4/share/config /usr/kde/3.4/shutdown /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/lib/X11/xkb /usr/share/config /usr/share/texmf/dvipdfm/config/ /usr/share/texmf/dvips/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/platex/config/ /usr/share/texmf/xdvi/ /var/qmail/control" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/afs/C /etc/afs/afsws /etc/afs/modload /etc/gconf /etc/make.globals /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-O3 -march=athlon-xp -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoconfig collision-protect distlocks fixpackages sandbox severe sfperms strict test userpriv usersandbox" GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://ftp.easynet.nl/mirror/gentoo/ http://gentoo.inode.at/ ftp://gentoo.inode.at/source/" LANG="en_US" LINGUAS="en,de" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/share/infra/work/portage-local--main--1.0" SYNC="rsync://copper.sascha.silbe.org/gentoo-portage" USE="x86 3dnow 3dnowex 3dnowext X a52 aac accessibility acl acpi afs alsa avi bash-completion berkdb bitmap-fonts blas bzlib ccache cdparanoia cdr chipcard crypt cups curl doc dts dv dvd dvdread ecc eds emboss encode f77 fam flac foomaticdb fortran gatos gd gdbm gif gimpprint gps gstreamer gtk gtk2 gtkhtml guile hbci imagemagick imap imlib ipv6 jpeg jpeg2k krb4 lcms libg++ libwww lua lzo mad maildir makecheck mbox mikmod mmx mmxext monitor mp3 mpeg nas ncurses nls nodrm ogdi ogg oggvorbis opengl pam pcmcia pdflib png postgres python qt qtmt quicktime readline rtc samba sdl skey smartcard socks5 spell sse ssl tetex theora tiff truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts unicode usb userlocales vorbis win32codecs xine xml xml2 xosd xv xvid zlib video_cards_radeon input_devices_synaptics linguas_en,de userland_GNU kernel_linux elibc_glibc" Unset: ASFLAGS, CTARGET, LC_ALL, LDFLAGS
As you see in your emerge --info output LINGUAS is set to LINGUAS="en,de" and I suspect that you have set LINGUAS in your environment, overriding the make.conf setting. If you do LINGUAS="..." emerge you'll override your environment for this one execution.
You're right, it was caused by the environment passing feature of OpenSSH. It's rather unfortunate Portage uses the same variable for determining system-wide settings (what languages to support at all) as other programs use for determing user (in this case administrator) preferences (what language to use for current session).
