Actually it installs it and then yanks it right back out. Here aer teh relevent sections of the emerge. >>> Merging media-gfx/imagemagick-5.5.6-r1 to / ..."ommitted to save space" >>> /usr/lib/libMagick.so.5 -> /usr/lib/libMagick-5.5.5-Q16.so.0.0.0 >>> Safely unmerging already-installed instance... ..."ommitted to save space" <<< sym /usr/lib/libMagick.so.5 ..."ommitted the rest" I belive the symlink is getting removed because the one installed points to the wrong file. Notice /usr/lib/libMagick.so.5 -> /usr/lib/libMagick-5.5.5-Q16.so.0.0.0 Should be /usr/lib/libMagick.so.5 -> /usr/lib/libMagick-5.5.6-Q16.so.0.0.0 Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. 2. 3. $ emerge info Portage 2.0.49-r3 (default-x86-1.4, gcc-3.2.2, glibc-2.3.1-r4, 2.4.20-gentoo-r5) ================================================================= System uname: 2.4.20-gentoo-r5 i686 AMD Athlon(TM) XP 1700+ distcc 2.9 i686-pc-linux-gnu (protocols 1 and 2) (default port 3632) [enabled] ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CFLAGS="-march=athlon-xp -O3 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" COMPILER="gcc3" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /var/qmail/control /usr/share/config /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb:/usr/kde/3.1/share/config:/usr/share/config" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-march=athlon-xp -O3 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="ccache autoaddcvs distcc sandbox userpriv usersandbox" GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://ftp.gtlib.cc.gatech.edu/pub/gentoo http://gentoo.oregonstate.edu http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo" MAKEOPTS="-j4" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage" SYNC="rsync://muck/gentoo-portage/" USE="x86 oss apm avi crypt cups encode foomaticdb gif jpeg libg++ mad mikmod mmx mpeg ncurses nls pdflib png quicktime spell truetype xml2 xmms xv zlib alsa gdbm berkdb slang readline arts tetex svga tcltk java guile X sdl tcpd pam libwww ssl perl python esd imlib oggvorbis gtk qt kde motif opengl mozilla gphoto2 ldap cdr scanner 3dnow samba sse tiff usb -gpm -gnome"
thx, fixed :)