After syncing I find that gnome 2.6.10 has come out of package.mask. This is the output of emerge -uDpv world: pena dummy # emerge -uDpv world These are the packages that I would merge, in order: Calculating world dependencies ...done! [blocks B ] <=x11-themes/gnome-themes-2.8.2 (is blocking x11-themes/gtk-engines-2.6.2) [ebuild U ] dev-libs/atk-1.9.1 [1.8.0-r1] -debug -doc -static 472 kB [ebuild U ] gnome-base/libglade-2.5.1 [2.4.2] -debug -doc 310 kB [ebuild U ] gnome-base/gconf-2.10.0 [2.8.1-r1] -debug -doc 1,693 kB [ebuild U ] gnome-base/gnome-vfs-2.10.0-r1 [2.8.4-r1] -debug -doc -gnutls +hal -howl -ipv6 -samba +ssl 1,856 kB [ebuild U ] media-libs/xvid-1.1.0_beta2 [1.0.3] -doc 580 kB [ebuild U ] x11-libs/libwnck-2.10.0 [2.8.1-r1] -debug -doc 409 kB [ebuild U ] gnome-base/libgtop-2.10.0 [2.8.3] -debug 728 kB [ebuild U ] gnome-base/libgnomecanvas-2.10.0 [2.8.0] -debug -doc 562 kB [ebuild U ] gnome-base/libgnome-2.10.0 [2.8.1] -debug -doc 850 kB [ebuild U ] gnome-base/libgnomeui-2.10.0 [2.8.1-r1] -debug -doc +jpeg 1,613 kB [ebuild U ] gnome-extra/gnome-system-monitor-2.10.0 [2.8.3] -debug 734 kB [ebuild U ] x11-themes/gnome-icon-theme-2.10.1 [2.8.0] -debug 2,918 kB [ebuild U ] x11-themes/gtk-engines-2.6.2 [2.2.0] 433 kB [ebuild U ] x11-themes/gnome-themes-2.10.0 [2.8.2] -accessibility -debug 2,509 kB [ebuild U ] gnome-extra/gucharmap-1.4.3 [1.4.2] -cjk -debug +gnome 1,472 kB [ebuild U ] gnome-base/libgnomeprint-2.10.0 [2.8.2] +cups -debug -doc 706 kB [ebuild U ] gnome-base/libgnomeprintui-2.10.0.1 [2.8.2] -debug -doc 610 kB [ebuild U ] x11-libs/vte-0.11.12 [0.11.11-r3] -debug -doc -python* 925 kB [ebuild U ] gnome-base/librsvg-2.9.5 [2.8.1-r1] -debug -doc +gnome +zlib 383 kB It seems that I first need to emerge -C gnome-themes. I know I am using ~x86 and these things are expected. Still, it would be nice to drop a line for example at the mailing lists. I tried searching for gnome but came up empty. This bug could also act as a reminder that documentation must be written before this goes into stable. I am running xfce4 at the moment so I am not sure if emerge -C gnome-themes will cause problems for users running gnome at the same moment. It would also be nice to document that. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: pena dummy # emerge info Portage 2.0.51.21 (default-linux/x86/2005.0, gcc-3.4.3-20050110, glibc-2.3.5-r0, 2.6.12-rc1-love1 i686) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.12-rc1-love1 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz Gentoo Base System version 1.6.11 distcc 2.18.3 i686-pc-linux-gnu (protocols 1 and 2) (default port 3632) [disabled] ccache version 2.4 [enabled] dev-lang/python: 2.3.5 sys-apps/sandbox: 1.2.3 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.59-r6 sys-devel/automake: 1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.5 sys-devel/binutils: 2.15.92.0.2-r8 sys-devel/libtool: 1.5.16 virtual/os-headers: 2.6.11 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86 ~x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-O3 -march=pentium4 -pipe -mfpmath=sse -ffast-math -fomit-frame-pointer" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3.4/env /usr/kde/3.4/share/config /usr/kde/3.4/shutdown /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/lib/X11/xkb /usr/share/config /var /var/qmail/control" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/init.d /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-O3 -march=pentium4 -pipe -mfpmath=sse -ffast-math -fomit-frame-pointer" DISTDIR="/usr/src/distfiles" FEATURES="autoconfig ccache cvs distlocks fixpackages noauto sandbox sfperms" GENTOO_MIRRORS=" http://trumpetti.atm.tut.fi/gentoo http://lame.lut.fi/linux/gentoo " LANG="en_US.utf8" LC_ALL="en_US.utf8" MAKEOPTS="-j4" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage /usr/local/overlays/gentoo-java-experimental" SYNC="rsync://aria/portage" USE="x86 X aac acpi alsa apm audiofile avi bash-completion berkdb bitmap-fonts bzip2 bzlib cdb cddb cdparanoia cdr crypt cups curl divx4linux dts dvd dvdr dvdread emboss encode esd fam fbcon flac foomaticdb freetype gd gif gnome gstreamer gtk gtk2 hal imagemagick jack java jpeg kde kdeenablefinal kdexdeltas libg++ libwww logitech-mouse lzo mad makecheck mikmod mjpeg mmx mmx2 mozilla mp3 mpeg ncurses network nptl nptlonly nvidia ogg oggvorbis opengl pam pdflib png python qt quicktime readline real rtc ruby slang slp spell sse sse2 ssl tcpd theora tiff truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts unicode usb userlocales vorbis xml xml2 xv xvid zlib video_cards_nvidia userland_GNU kernel_linux libc_glibc" Unset: ASFLAGS, CTARGET, LDFLAGS, LINGUAS
blocks are a part of Gentoo, learn what they are and how to deal with them from the docs.
While foser is absolutely right, I sent a mail to the gentoo-desktop list explaining the changes in 2.10 and the reasons behind them.
I agree that dealing with blocks are part of Gentoo, but I don't see how a normal user would be aware if it's safe to unmerge gnome-themes while gnome is running. Unlike KDE the GNOME upgrade isn't slotted so it's probably not a wise idea to do it while GNOME is running. IMO many users will probably do their upgrade in gnome-terminal. I am not a GNOME user so I am not the foremost expert on this subject. As I said in the original bug report, documentation at this moment this not mandatory but before going stable it is probably a good idea.
I find Comment #1 a bit harsh: blocks may be part of portage, but they are not generally what you expect to happen when you are upgrading from (say) gnome 2.8 to 2.10. There might well be good reasons for it, but user/admin friendly it isn't. Blocks are not particularly common - a casual Gentoo user might not even have come across them before - as far as I can tell, this block will hit *everybody* who has gnome installed. It's fine to say "they should learn", but in this particular case the block only exists because of a portage limitation. Anyway, with regards to Comment #3: I unmerged gnome-themes whilst running gnome. Apart from changes to icons etc when I changed desktops, it was pretty much ok. I did make sure I could keep the system running until the emerge of gnome had finished.
