I think it would be helpful if our upgrade guides suggested using the following method for really outdated systems: extracting a stage3 into a chroot, bind-mount host system, and upgrading it using 'ROOT=... emerge ...' inside the chroot.
Maybe it makes sense for the portage team to maintain this kind of doc. I was thinking about creating a doc like this to go along with this other one: http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/portage/doc/manually-fixing-portage.xml
I don't mind updating the upgrade guides (but I'm not against a separate doc maintained by the Portage team as Zac suggested, and then only link to it in the upgrade guide). However, I'm a bit at loss with the instructions you gave. If we extract stage3 in a chroot, but then bind-mount the host system on top of it, doesn't that remove the stage3 again? Or do you think in the other order (i.e. first bind-mount, then extract stage3)?
Let me write that a bit clearer :). Step 1: create a temporary build root, say, /mnt/build and unpack stage3 there. Prepare the build root for chroot, so like: mkdir /mnt/build cd /mnt/build tar -xf ... mount --bind /dev dev ... Step 2: create a mount point for the host system inside the chroot and bind-mount it there. mkdir /mnt/build/mnt/host mount --rbind / /mnt/build/mnt/host Step 3: enter the chroot and upgrade the host system using portage's ROOT support. chroot /mnt/build [inside:] ROOT=/mnt/host emerge -1v portage [and potentially others] This way, the packages in host system can be updated using build tools from stage3 even if the host system is way too old to be able to handle the upgrade itself.
Aha, makes sense. /me goes after a cup of coffee. @Zac: I'll put this in the upgrade guide for now, but when you guys would like to maintain a similar document, just give me a shout and I'll point towards the new doc.
Committed to the tree; Michał, thanks for the instructions!
