Now that you explained more fully the situation  and why and what led to your problems I understand some of your frustrations. Sometimes wanting to fix one thing leads to other complex issues. Maybe (being Gentoo-specific) would be first to build your toolchain (linux-headers, glibc, binutils,and gcc) to today's versions then a "emerge -e world" so all of your stuff will be new and compatable-(your original problem). All of this can be done in the background while you keep working.                                                This is only one option. Feel free to use it or not. Sometimes I cuss the Gentoo devs for things they do that screws up my installs too.         As to your kernel question as to "default" switches in Gentoo kernel I really don't think there are. Gen-kernel is one answer, but it never worked for me, I always had to get dirty with "make menuconfig".         Hope you figure it out.  Cheers
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: Lindsay Haisley <fmouse-gentoo@...>
Date: Mon, 21 Mar 2011 21:31:26 
To: <gentoo-desktop@g.o>
Reply-to: gentoo-desktop@g.o
Cc: Jorge Manuel B. S. Vicetto<jmbsvicetto@g.o>
Subject: Re: [gentoo-desktop] System problems

On Tue, 2011-03-22 at 00:37 -0100, Jorge Manuel B. S. Vicetto wrote:
> As such, I would kindly like to ask everyone on this thread to "calm
> down" and to please try to reply in a respectful manner to any poster on
> this ml.

Thank you, Jorge.  I will do so, going forward.

> I have to agree with other posters in this ml that your tone when you
> started this thread asking for help wasn't the best one.

I was kinda freaked out.  I depend on my desktop system for so many
things in a day, and it's _way_ behind in updates, I know.  I got pushed
into a kernel update by a simple software mod, which required a perl
update, which required that I run perl-cleaner, which has issues of its
own, and somewhere along the way I ran into a dependency on a newer
version of udev, which depended on a newer kernel, which I'd tried to
install before with the same or similar problems.  I couldn't make
things work and had to resort to a rescue disk to back out.  I felt
cornered, and I guess my plea for help showed it.

I actually have enough knowledge and experience with Linux that I can
probably solve this problem myself if I approach it methodically with a
clear head.

> Thank you for the apology you've sent to the list about your tone. Let's
> try to move forward and see if / how we can help you.

I can eat crow with the best of 'em, Jorge.

> PS - Lindsay, two last notes about your issue and your time constraints.
> This type of issue might be easier to diagnose on IRC (one good place is
> #gentoo in the freenode network) where a short intense session may prove
> to be quicker in the end. Also, I haven't seen anyone mention that the
> latest udev versions react *very* badly to CONFIG_SYSFS_DEPRECATED_V2.

Ah!  Thanks for the heads-up on this.  This switch is _not_ on in my
newer kernel, and doesn't exist in my older kernel.  CONFIG_SYSFS,
however, _is_ on as I assume it should be for /sys on which udev
depends.

I don't know why udev hasn't been completely integrated into kernel
development.  It's become so much a part of modern Linux and is so
interdependent with the kernel.  Yes, it's in user space, but so are
other kernel hooks.

> So be sure to check if you disable that as iirc udev will refuse to
> create the proper device nodes if that kernel option is active.

Question:  There are switch and value dependencies in the kernel that
are Gentoo specific, or specific to system configurations favored by
Gentoo (similar to what you mentioned above).  If I emerge a Gentoo
kernel, are the default configuration options for that kernel set by
Gentoo devs so as to build a kernel which will avoid these kinds of
"gotchas"?   In other words, if I build a gentoo kernel out of the box,
as opposed to a vanilla kernel from kernel.org, do I gain an advantage
with regard to possibly problematic configuration options on a fairly
standard Gentoo system?  I hope this makes sense.

> PPS - If you decide to test our IRC support, feel free to poke me in any
> channel or to /msg me in private.

Jorge, thank you SO MUCH, for this, (and for being an adult in the
sandbox.  I wasn't at the top of my game today :-) 

-- 
Lindsay Haisley       |  "Humor will get you through times of no humor
FMP Computer Services |      better than no humor will get you through
512-259-1190          |         times of humor."
http://www.fmp.com    |            - Butch Hancock