DEPEND="|| ( x11-base/xorg-x11 >=x11-base/xfree-4.3.0-r6 ) This makes it impossible to compile something like xorg-unichrome, as xorg depends on >=xterm-1.79 and xterm depends on xorg-x11. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. emerge -p xorg-unichrome 2. 3. Actual Results: both xorg-x11 and xorg-unichrome try to be emerged. Expected Results: only xorg-unichrome should be emerged.
What the heck is xorg-unichrome? Nothing supported by Gentoo. If you want to use stuff like that, you need to be prepared to hack a little. Try changing that DEPEND line to include x11-base/xorg-unichrome locally -- we're not going to be doing anything about it.
Well, I can understand why xterm depends on X, but why does X depend on xterm anyway? Also, will changing the 2 X dependencies to virtual/x11 really break anything?
1) Because a full X distribution includes xterm, among other minor applications. 2) Yes, because portage is broken and won't include to-be-merged packages in its dependency calculation (bug #1343). It will try to merge the default to fulfill the virtual/x11 dependency, which results in a simultaneous merge of xfree and whatever other x11 you're trying to get.