This is a full paste of the error on Gentoo Base System version 1.4.3.11, on an athlon xp based pc. I've tried with and without the USE statement: $ USE="scanner pda samba" emerge kde Calculating dependencies ...done! >>> emerge (1 of 16) kde-base/kdebase-3.1.4 to / >>> md5 src_uri ;-) kdebase-3.1.4.tar.bz2 >>> Unpacking source... >>> Unpacking kdebase-3.1.4.tar.bz2 to /var/tmp/portage/kdebase-3.1.4/work * Applying focus-patch.diff... [ ok ] * Applying konq-crash-patch.diff... [ ok ] >>> Source unpacked. configure: WARNING: you should use --build, --host, --target configure: WARNING: invalid host type: No configure: WARNING: you should use --build, --host, --target configure: WARNING: you should use --build, --host, --target configure: WARNING: invalid host type: set! configure: WARNING: you should use --build, --host, --target configure: WARNING: invalid host type: No configure: WARNING: you should use --build, --host, --target configure: WARNING: you should use --build, --host, --target configure: WARNING: invalid host type: set! configure: WARNING: you should use --build, --host, --target configure: WARNING: invalid host type: No configure: WARNING: you should use --build, --host, --target configure: WARNING: you should use --build, --host, --target configure: WARNING: invalid host type: set! checking build system type... Invalid configuration `No': machine `No' not recognized configure: error: /bin/sh admin/config.sub No failed !!! ERROR: kde-base/kdebase-3.1.4 failed. !!! Function kde_src_compile, Line 125, Exitcode 1 !!! died running ./configure, kde_src_compile:configure Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. emerge sync to make sure everything is up to date. 2. emerge kde 3. Actual Results: Pasted full output above. Expected Results: Successful emerge of package. System uname: 2.4.20-dc i686 AMD Athlon(TM) MP 1800+ Gentoo Base System version 1.4.3.11 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86 ~x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CFLAGS="-mcpu=athlon-xp -O3 -pipe" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" COMPILER="gcc3" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /var/qmail/control /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="-mcpu=athlon-xp -O3 -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="sandbox ccache autoaddcvs" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://gentoo.oregonstate.edu http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="" SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="x86 oss apm avi crypt cups encode foomaticdb gif jpeg kde gnome libg++ libwww mad mikmod mpeg ncurses nls pdflib png quicktime spell truetype xml2 xmms xv zlib gdbm berkdb slang readline arts aalib svga java X sdl gpm tcpd pam ssl perl python esd imlib oggvorbis gtk qt motif opengl mozilla"
Something else is wrong here. Look in the config.log in the work directory for the build and see if you can identify what's causing the problem: checking build system type... Invalid configuration `No': machine `No' not recognized That's not a very normal error..most like a misconfig.
I think I've figured out that issue. As suggested by Caleb Tennis, I took a look at config.log and found that it was looking for JDK_HOME to be set. That appeared to be my problem. I was able to compile with USE="-java" and it worked out. So next thing I tried was I edited my /etc/env.d/30java-finalclasspath and added a CLASSPATH, JDK_HOME, JAVAC, and JAVA_HOME and it looks like it's compiling.