Normally ant gives a good error message when the java VM isn't found.... Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1.emerge blackdown-jdk-1.4.2-01-r2 2.java-config -S blackdown-jdk-1.4.2.01 && env-update && source /etc/profile 3.emerge blackdown-jdk-1.4.2-02 4.emerge xerces Actual Results: >>> Unpacking Xerces-J-src.2.6.2.tar.gz to /var/tmp/portage/xerces-2.6.2-r2/work tar: A lone zero block at 19572 * Applying xerces-2.6.2-r2-gentoo.patch ... [ ok ] * Applying xerces-2.6.2-javadoc.patch ... [ ok ] >>> Source unpacked. Buildfile: build.xml BUILD FAILED /var/tmp/portage/xerces-2.6.2-r2/work/xerces-2_6_2/build.xml:22: taskdef class org.apache.xerces.util.XJavac cannot be found Total time: 0 seconds !!! ERROR: dev-java/xerces-2.6.2-r2 failed. !!! Function src_compile, Line 49, Exitcode 1 !!! Compile failed. !!! If you need support, post the topmost build error, NOT this status message. Expected Results: A sensible error message like: bash-2.05b$ ant jc_options: java not found at /opt/blackdown-jdk-1.4.2.01/bin/java or /opt/blackdown-jdk-1.4.2.01/jre/bin/java Error: JAVA_HOME is not defined correctly. We cannot execute bash-2.05b$ emerge info PORTAGE_GPG_DIR is invalid. Removing gpg from FEATURES. Portage 2.0.51.22-r2 (default-linux/x86/2005.0, gcc-3.3.5-20050130, glibc-2.3.4.20041102-r1, 2.6.11-gentoo-r6 i686) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.11-gentoo-r6 i686 AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2000+ Gentoo Base System version 1.4.16 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: 1.5.16 virtual/os-headers: 2.6.8.1-r2 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-O2 -march=athlon-xp -fomit-frame-pointer -mfpmath=sse -mmmx -m3dnow -msse -pipe" 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/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/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=athlon-xp -fomit-frame-pointer -mfpmath=sse -mmmx -m3dnow -msse -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoconfig distlocks fixpackages parallel-fetch sandbox sfperms strict" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://ftp.du.se/pub/os/gentoo http://vlaai.snt.ipv6.utwente.nl/pub/os/linux/gentoo/" LC_ALL="da_DK" LINGUAS="dk da da_DK en en_US" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage" SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="x86 3dnow 3dnowext X acpi alsa apache2 arts avi bash-completion berkdb bitmap-fonts bzlib cdparanoia cdr crypt cscope curl dvd dvdr eds emboss encode fam firefox foomaticdb fortran ftp gd gdbm ggi gif gpm gstreamer icq imagemagick imap imlib jabber java jpeg junit kde libedit libg++ libwww mad mikmod mmx mmx2 mmxext motif mozilla mp3 mpeg msn mysql mysqli ncurses nlsnvidia ogg oggvorbis opengl oscar pam pcntl pdflib php png qt quicktime readline samba sdl spell sse ssl svga tcpd tetex tiff truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts unicode usb vcd vorbis wmf xml xml2 xmms xv zlib linguas_dk linguas_da linguas_da_DK linguas_en linguas_en_US userland_GNU kernel_linux elibc_glibc" Unset: ASFLAGS, CTARGET, LANG, LDFLAGS
the first error has notting todo with not finding the java VM but with you having old versions of the deps(ant-core,xjavac), we can't probably dep because of portage short comings (will be fixed next release) you should always keep everything to date to not have any problems anyway so try emerge -uvD xerces
reopen if you still have issues
