the ebuild for apmd-3.0.2-r3 had -ppc in the keywords when it should be just ppc -- no '-'
umm, the KEYWORDS var in /usr/portage/sys-apps/apmd/apmd-3.0.2-r3.ebuild reads: KEYWORDS="x86" so i dunno what you're talking about ;) besides, according to the apmd homepage: 'apmd talks to the Linux kernel APM layer, which does all the hardware- dependent stuff' which means maybe KEYWORDS should read "x86 ppc sparc sparc64" ... of course i only have x86 machines so i cant test on the other arch's
-ppc is correct, apmd doesn't run on ppc, you should be using pmud (there is now apm emulation in ppc kernel but is only for programs that look in /proc to read apm settings)