As a newbie, I've tried to get more familiar with Linux by trying to install gentoo. I've tried to emerge the kernel sources, typing: "emerge -k sys-kernel/gentoo-sources" and groff-1.19-r2 downloads correctly, but the emerge always fails. The output is:


Failed to write to mtimedb: 'module' has no attribute 'HIGHEST_PROTOCOL'
Calculating dependencies QA Notice: sed in global scope: sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-2.4.20-r31....done!
>>>emerge (1 of 6) sys-apps/gruff-1.19.1-r2 to/
>>>md5 src_uri ;-) gruff-1.19.1.tar.tz
>>>Unpacking source...
>>> Unpacking gruff-1.19.1.tar.gz
Applying gruff-1.18-infotext.patch...
Applying gruff-1.18-no-netpbm-depent.patch...
Applying gruff-man-UTF-8.diff...
Applying gruff-1.19.1-stack.patch...
Applying gruff-1.19.1-tmpfile.patch...
Applying gruff-1.19.1-parallel-make.tach...
>>> Source unpacked.
gcc
g++
configure: WARNING: If you wanted to set the --build type, don't use --host.
If a cross compiler is detected, cross compile mode will be used.
checking for i686-pc-linux-gnu-gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checkng whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables...
checking suffix of object files... o
checking for whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ANSI C... none needed
checking for i686-pc-linux-gnu-g++... g++
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... no
checking whether g++ accepts -g... no
checking that C++ compiler can compile simple progam... no
configure: error: a working C++ compiler is required

!!! ERROR: sys-apps/groff-1.19.1-r2 failed
!!! Function src_compile, Line 85, Exitcode 1
!!! (no error message)
!!! If you need support, post the topmost build error, NOT this status message.

Failed to write to mtimedb: 'module' object has no attribute 'HIGHEST_PROTOCOL'

So, my kernel install has failed until I can get past this groff error and mtimedb error. (ALL the groff patches in the above code were [OK]) As a side note, this mtimedb error has occurred numerous times throughout the system compilation. Any ideas on what to do?

Are you following the installation handbook? What stage did you start with and where did you see those errors? I think you have missed something critical in a pervious step. By the time you get to the kernel installation step the kernel sources should have no dependencies.

Another thing, what LiveCD are you using to do this with? What version of python is on it?

I have made some progress with my kernel compiling after typing "emerge -u db" but I still get mtimedb write failures. Python does not exist on this system, and this is liveCD v1.4, beginning from stage 1, successfully passing stage 1 and 2. Do you know if mtimedb errors matter then?

You have to have python installed. Emerge is a python script Type /usr/bin/python --version to check the version. When did you get that live cd? The newest one is labeled 2004.3 if I recall.

The thing that bothers me most is all the things you are talking about should have been installed if you did a succesful emerge system after the bootstraping step.