hello all a few hours ago i thought that it would be a good idea to start over with a fresh installation of gentoo noting down everything( including the versions ) of the programs that i would need, so far everything has been going fine, apart from...as you have guessed the bloody ati-drivers( eternal waist of my time ). i noted down that the only drivers that work with my card( 9800pro ) and the only kernel that works with the 2.15.6-r1 kernel are the 8.20.8 drivers, now i have placed:

>sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-2.6.15-r1
>x11-drivers/ati-drivers-8.20.8

in /etc/portage/package.mask however this is the thing every time i try to emerge ati-drivers it tries to either install the latest ones 8.27 or something or the really old ones 8.14 neither that work. this is driving me absolutely mad! please help the only ones that work are:

ati-drivers-8.20.8

thanks trscookie.

the 8.20.8 driver might not be in portage anymore (because it is so old). To install it you are gonna have to probally find the driver somewhere else and then "digest" it.