I assume I'll have to download some gentoo system binaries. Can
someone point me to what I need?

Here's what happened. I did a regular "emerge --sync" and then tried
an update. There seemed to be a circular blockage involving both
coreutils and mktemp. As I've done in similar situations in the past, I
removed the blocking packages and re-tried emerge. Apparently, I
unmerged something vital. Emerge dies like so...
======================================================================

* checking ebuild checksums ;-) ...
* [ ok ] * checking auxfile checksums ;-) ...
* [ ok ] * checking miscfile checksums ;-) ...
* [ ok ] * checking alsa-driver-1.0.16.tar.bz2 ;-) ...
* [ ok ]Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/emerge", line 6971, in ?
  retval = emerge_main()
File "/usr/bin/emerge", line 6965, in emerge_main
  myopts, myaction, myfiles, spinner)
File "/usr/bin/emerge", line 6339, in action_build
  retval = mergetask.merge(
File "/usr/bin/emerge", line 3981, in merge
  return self._merge(mylist, favorites, mtimedb)
File "/usr/bin/emerge", line 4259, in _merge
  prev_mtimes=ldpath_mtimes)
File "/usr/lib/portage/pym/portage.py", line 4806, in doebuild
  alwaysdep=1, logfile=logfile)
File "/usr/lib/portage/pym/portage.py", line 3705, in spawnebuild
  retval=spawnebuild(actionmap[mydo]["dep"],actionmap,mysettings,debug,alwaysdep=alwaysdep,logfile=logfile)
File "/usr/lib/portage/pym/portage.py", line 3705, in spawnebuild
  retval=spawnebuild(actionmap[mydo]["dep"],actionmap,mysettings,debug,alwaysdep=alwaysdep,logfile=logfile)
File "/usr/lib/portage/pym/portage.py", line 3705, in spawnebuild
  retval=spawnebuild(actionmap[mydo]["dep"],actionmap,mysettings,debug,alwaysdep=alwaysdep,logfile=logfile)
File "/usr/lib/portage/pym/portage.py", line 3705, in spawnebuild
  retval=spawnebuild(actionmap[mydo]["dep"],actionmap,mysettings,debug,alwaysdep=alwaysdep,logfile=logfile)
File "/usr/lib/portage/pym/portage.py", line 3717, in spawnebuild
  mysettings, debug=debug, logfile=logfile, **kwargs)
File "/usr/lib/portage/pym/portage.py", line 2824, in spawn
  set_term_size(rows, columns, slave_fd)
File "/usr/lib/portage/pym/output.py", line 347, in set_term_size
  spawn(cmd, env=os.environ, fd_pipes={0:fd})
File "/usr/lib/portage/pym/portage_exec.py", line 179, in spawn
  raise CommandNotFound(mycommand[0])
portage_exception.CommandNotFound: stty
[m3000][root][~]

======================================================================

--
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@(protected)>
Stop the Squeegee Kids in Pinstripe Suits
Fight SAC's Canadian internet tax http://walterdnes.wordpress.com
--
gentoo-user@(protected)