How to install Gentoo masked packages?

You can ask emerge to use the masked version available in portage by setting the variable ACCEPT_KEYWORDS to ACCEPT_KEYWORDS=”~x86″ before running the emerge command. It makes sense to set a command alias in roots .bashrc that goes alias aemerge=’ACCEPT_KEYWORDS=”~x86″ emerge’.

The alias should be used for checking what version is the latest with –pretend (-p). Actually installing packages like this is a bad idea because the setting is not stored anywhere, meaning package will be downgraded the next time you do emerge -u world.

Gentoo uses the file /etc/portage/package.keywords to configure when to use the masked version. Simply list the package and add your arch to unmask packages.

/etc/portage/package.keywords can look like this:

app-emulation/wine ~x86
net-www/mplayerplug-in   ~x86
media-libs/libquicktime ~x86
net-www/mozilla-firefox ~x86
media-video/transcode  ~x86

You can add entries to this file using the echo command:

echo app-cdr/k3b ~x86 >> /etc/portage/package.keywords

Explanation: (I/O Redirection, Bourne Shell Reference)

pgm > file     Output of pgm is redirected to file.
pgm < file     Program pgm reads its input from file.
pgm >> file    Output of pgm is appended to file.

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