How to recover from a broken gcc installation

[slougi]

Ok, gcc-3.2.1-r6 completely wrecked my gcc install. g++ was working to some extend but I did not seem to have gcc on my computer _at all_. Here is what I did to fix it:

1. Reboot from livecd.
2. Bring up networking according to installation instructions.
3. Mount partitions according to installation instructions. Don't forget swap space.
4. Back up /mt/gentoo/etc/.
5. Untar the stage1 tarball in mnt/gentoo/.
6. Not sure if this is needed: Mask gcc-3.2.1-r6 in package.mask, just add a line like this in
the end: "=sys-devel/gcc-3.2.1-r6"
7. # cd /usr/portage
# scripts/bootstrap.sh
8. Restore mnt/gentoo/etc/
9. Reboot
10. Cross fingers

Basically what we do is rebootstrap, to build gcc again using the gcc version on the livecd. Some programs seem to complain about missing glibc libraries, I had to reinstall glibc after the reboot. Luckily gnome et all did work, only app that seemed to have problems was gaim-cvs.

Of course, instead of the gentoo livecd you could use knoppix, so you can have a functional system while bootstrapping. I haven't tried this, but it should work. Should also work for a normal installation, fyi.

Btw, if anything is completely wrong with these instructions please point it out for me, I am a Linux newbie in general. Haven't used it for more than a month or two

Edit: Oops, forgot a few things

[slougi]

Hmm apparently reinstalling glibc after reboot was not needed after all
It would have been enough to remerge the offending application.