emerge <somepackage> will only download and do a MD5 sum check of the package. Thereafter it stops without any error messages. This is true for any package. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. emerge sync 2. emerge -puvD 3. (for instance) emerge sys-apps/texinfo Actual Results: # emerge sys-apps/texinfo Calculating dependencies ...done! >>> emerge (1 of 1) sys-apps/texinfo-4.6 to / >>> Downloading http://gentoo.oregonstate.edu/distfiles/texinfo-4.6.tar.bz2 --15:22:42-- http://gentoo.oregonstate.edu/distfiles/texinfo-4.6.tar.bz2 => `/usr/portage/distfiles/texinfo-4.6.tar.bz2' Resolving gentoo.oregonstate.edu... 128.193.0.3 Connecting to gentoo.oregonstate.edu[128.193.0.3]:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 1,348,113 [application/x-tar] 100%[=========================================================================================================>] 1,348,113 61.32K/s ETA 00:00 15:23:05 (57.77 KB/s) - `/usr/portage/distfiles/texinfo-4.6.tar.bz2' saved [1348113/1348113] >>> md5 src_uri ;-) texinfo-4.6.tar.bz2 # Expected Results: The above *plus* compiled and installed the package in question. During the initial research phase it was discovered that 'sandbox' seems to be broken, which may very well be the root cause of the problem. On a healthy system: # /usr/lib/portage/bin/sandbox ========================== Gentoo linux path sandbox ===========================Detection of the support files. Verification of the required files. Setting up the required environment variables. The protected environment has been started. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Shell being started in forked process. # exit Cleaning up sandbox process Cleaning up pids file. ========================== Gentoo linux path sandbox ===========================The protected environment has been shut down. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------sleipner # Whereas on the broken system I immediately get the error >>> shell process failed to spawn: # /usr/lib/portage/bin/sandbox ========================== Gentoo linux path sandbox =========================== Detection of the support files. Verification of the required files. Setting up the required environment variables. The protected environment has been started. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shell being started in forked process. >>> shell process failed to spawn Cleaning up sandbox process Cleaning up pids file. ========================== Gentoo linux path sandbox =========================== The protected environment has been shut down. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- # I feel this situation is "Critical" since I cannot upgrade or downgrade anything until I have been able to (manually?) repair the system. But how?
you forgot to provide #emerge info
So I did. # emerge info Portage 2.0.50-r7 (default-x86-1.4, gcc-3.2.3, glibc-2.3.2-r9, 2.4.22-gentoo-r5) ================================================================= System uname: 2.4.22-gentoo-r5 i586 Pentium 75 - 200 Gentoo Base System version 1.4.10 distcc 2.13 i586-pc-linux-gnu (protocols 1 and 2) (default port 3632) [disabled] Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.59-r3 Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.8.3 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CFLAGS="-O3 -march=i586 -funroll-loops -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer" CHOST="i586-pc-linux-gnu" COMPILER="gcc3" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/share/config /var/qmail/control" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-O3 -march=i586 -funroll-loops -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoaddcvs ccache sandbox" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://gentoo.oregonstate.edu" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="" SYNC="rsync://tsp.yggdrasil.home/gentoo-portage" USE="apm arts avi berkdb crypt cups encode foomaticdb gdbm gif gtk2 imlib java jpeg libg++ libwww mad mikmod motif mpeg ncurses nls oggvorbis opengl oss pam pdflib perl png python qt quicktime readline sdl slang spell ssl svga tcpd truetype x86 xml2 xmms xv zlib" # Biker
please try emerge -d <anything> and paste the output here
# emerge -d sys-apps/texinfo Calculating dependencies Parent: None Depstring: sys-apps/texinfo Candidates: ['sys-apps/texinfo'] ebuild: sys-apps/texinfo-4.6 binpkg: None \ Parent: ebuild / sys-apps/texinfo-4.6 merge Depstring: virtual/glibc !build? ( >=sys-libs/ncurses-5.2-r2 >=sys-apps/sed-4.0.5 nls? ( sys -devel/gettext ) ) virtual/glibc !build? ( >=sys-libs/ncurses-5.2-r2 ) Candidates: [] Exiting... ebuild / sys-apps/texinfo-4.6 merge Exiting... None ...done! >>> emerge (1 of 1) sys-apps/texinfo-4.6 to / + /usr/sbin/ebuild.sh clean + dyn_clean + rm -rf /var/tmp/portage/texinfo-4.6/image + rm -rf /var/tmp/portage/texinfo-4.6/build-info + has keeptemp autoaddcvs ccache sandbox + hasq keeptemp autoaddcvs ccache sandbox + local x + local me=keeptemp + shift + '[' autoaddcvs == keeptemp ']' + '[' ccache == keeptemp ']' + '[' sandbox == keeptemp ']' + return 1 + return 1 + rm -rf '/var/tmp/portage/texinfo-4.6/temp/*' + has keepwork autoaddcvs ccache sandbox + hasq keepwork autoaddcvs ccache sandbox + local x + local me=keepwork + shift + '[' autoaddcvs == keepwork ']' + '[' ccache == keepwork ']' + '[' sandbox == keepwork ']' + return 1 + return 1 + rm -rf /var/tmp/portage/texinfo-4.6/.compiled + rm -rf /var/tmp/portage/texinfo-4.6/.unpacked + rm -rf /var/tmp/portage/texinfo-4.6/work + '[' -f /var/tmp/portage/texinfo-4.6/.unpacked ']' + true + set +x >>> md5 src_uri ;-) texinfo-4.6.tar.bz2 + /usr/sbin/ebuild.sh setup + dyn_setup + '[' GNU == Linux ']' + pkg_setup + return + set +x #
FEATURES=-sandbox emerge something does that work?
Well, that way I can start a 'full' compilation, but... Nothing compiles. Whatever I try to compile, it bails out with a high number of error messages like: {standard input}: Assembler messages: {standard input}:3: Warning: size (4) out of range, ignored {standard input}:3: Warning: rest of line ignored; first ignored character is `,' {standard input}:5: Warning: size (4) out of range, ignored {standard input}:5: Warning: rest of line ignored; first ignored character is `,' and then it fails with exit code 2.
It sounds like something is quite wrong with that box. FEATURES=-sandbox removes sandbox from the picture. You're getting failures beyond the scope of portage's internals. I'd suggest using a liveCD and replacing 'system' with known-to-be-good binaries.
i was able to reproduce this ... basically it's either a problem with your bash and/or sandbox ... if something is causing bash+sandbox to segfault, you'll see this odd output ... check dmesg and try running `/usr/lib/portage/bin/sandbox` ... if sandbox exits without starting up a shell, then it's because the combination is segfaulting