One on of my gentoo boxes I got following error when trying to install xscreensaver: ... checking for inline... __inline__ checking for bc... no configure: error: Your system doesn't have "bc", which has been a standard part of Unix since the 1970s. Come back when your vendor has grown a clue. I guess a dependency is missing from the xscreensaver ebuild # emerge --info Portage 2.0.54-r2 (default-linux/x86/2006.0, gcc-3.3.6, glibc-2.3.6-r3, 2.6.16-gentoo-r7 i686) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.16-gentoo-r7 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz Gentoo Base System version 1.6.14 distcc 2.18.3 i686-pc-linux-gnu (protocols 1 and 2) (default port 3632) [disabled] ccache version 2.3 [enabled] dev-lang/python: 2.3.5-r2, 2.4.2 dev-python/pycrypto: 2.0.1-r5 dev-util/ccache: 2.3 dev-util/confcache: [Not Present] sys-apps/sandbox: 1.2.17 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.59-r7 sys-devel/automake: 1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r1 sys-devel/binutils: 2.16.1-r2 sys-devel/libtool: 1.5.22 virtual/os-headers: 2.6.11-r2 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-O3 -march=pentium4 -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/3.4/env /usr/kde/3.4/share/config /usr/kde/3.4/shutdown /usr/kde/3.5/env /usr/kde/3.5/share/config /usr/kde/3.5/shutdown /usr/lib/X11/xkb /usr/lib/mozilla/defaults/pref /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/" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-O3 -march=pentium4 -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoconfig candy ccache distlocks sandbox sfperms strict" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/pub/os/linux/gentoo http://ftp.belnet.be/mirror/rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo http://ftp.gentoo.skynet.be/pub/gentoo http://gentoo.tiscali.nl/gentoo http://linux.rz.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/download/gentoo-mirror ftp:/ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/gentoo" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="x86 X aalib acl acpi adns alsa apache2 arts artswrappersuid audiofile avi bash-completion berkdb bitmap-fonts bonobo bzip2 cdr cli crypt cups curl doc dri dvd eds emacs emboss encode esd ethereal exif expat fam ffmpeg flac font-server foomaticdb gd gdbm gif glut gmp gnome gphoto2 gpm gstreamer gtk gtk2 gtkhtml idn imagemagick imlib ipv6 isdnlog java jpeg junit kde kdeenablefinal lcms ldap libg++ libwww mad mhash mikmod ming mmx mng motif mozilla mozsvg mp3 mpeg mysql ncurses nptl objc ogg opengl oss pam pcre pdflib perl php png pppd python qt quicktime readline reflection samba sdl session slang snmp spell spl sse ssl svg svga tcltk tcpd tetex tiff truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts udev usb vorbis xine xml xml2 xmms xorg xv xvid zlib userland_GNU kernel_linux elibc_glibc" Unset: CTARGET, INSTALL_MASK, LANG, LC_ALL, LDFLAGS, LINGUAS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS, PORTDIR_OVERLAY
xscreensaver depends on sys-devel/bc, have a look at the ebuilds... So re-emerge bc if it can't be found. Works here.
