The web page http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/kde-split-ebuilds.xml requested a bug if there are reasons I prefer monolithic KDE. First let me admit I have a system both fast enough and large enough not to be bothered by the fairly long compiles. The reason I favor monliths is that they seemed to work. The changeover has already made my system sufficiently unstable that I have no confidence in the process. I understand that gentoo is a DIY distro, but management of 330 packages that I don't really even *want* to understand is a bit much. I just want it to Just Work (TM). 1) I'm distressed to find myself right now with an unmaintainable system where "emerge -aDvu world" won't work because parts of KDE are blocking each other. The above web page promised that would not happen. In particular, it's suggested fix of "emerge kde-meta" fails for the same reason. 2) For more of the distress this is causing, here is an excerpt from a gentoo-users mail I'm sending right now explaining a few things about what is hard about this situation: It begins by making reference to the above web page, which was offered as "everything I need to know". It ain't, as I try to explain below. Hmm.. I read this. It's *very far* from being everything I need to know. It says portage protects me from an illegal state. I surmise this is false, because I cannot now do a simple emerge -aDvu world. I need to know how to get to a legal state, and all that page provides is background; it leaves figuring it out up to me. And frankly, it looks like a lot of work just to figure out. Besides being scary because it seems likely I'll have to emerge everything the eye can normally see and hope that it will come up working again. I first guess is to unmerge everything KDE, but even then, I'm not quite sure what I should emerge in its place. kde-meta? And what will my system be capable of in the meantime? Is there some subset that will get my desktop back in working order relatively quickly (would "emerge konsole kalarm" do? What's the name of the app that displays a panel/taskbar). Dang, but this is a lot to figure out and trust that I've got it right while I destroy my ability to ask for help if I get it wrong. What's the name of the gizmo that puts the clock in my panel/taskbar? Is that a panel or a taskbar, and will a mistake in terminology prevent my system from ever looking like this again? Is there some little gizmo I'm used to using hat will suddenly disappear, and how will I know what its name anyway when I can no longer see it? Does this communicate my premonitions of impending doom? Would some kind soul who understands such stuff spell out the steps to get to a useable and maintainable system. I no longer have a maintainable one. That web page said that if one prefers the monolithic KDE one should tell them why. I think I just did (I submitted a bug). ++ kevin
*** Bug 136602 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
(In reply to comment #1) > *** Bug 136602 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. *** > I know this is a late response.. in a situation like that I would emerge -C all the blocking packages, and then emerge kde-meta or whatever, and hope there's no compilation failure. I also agree that portage doesn't protect anything from being in an illegal state, as far as I know, and the only solution to that is to emerge -vua(N)D world until there's nothing to do. I hope you managed to get help from somewhere other than this bug though.
Ehm..... when you plan to update your kde to a newer version, you just unmerge all the monolithic ebuilds and then pull-in all the meta (or just kdebase-meta and the splitted ebuilds for your other needs). Using the meta grants you a 1:1 conversion from your previos versions.... P.S.: for things missing that don't need to compile, try ebuilds with extra in the name or check http://docs.kde.org/
Thanks for feedback, closing this as it's not really a bug.
