hard masked packages

[chaotycenygma]

how wise is it to install packages that are hard masked? how big of a risk is it to my system, because i have noticed a lot of packages that i wish to install are masked?

[Weeve]

If the package is masked because of the packages.mask file, there's probably a reason for it, which should be mentioned in the /usr/portage/profiles/package.mask file.

If it's because of a lack of sparc or ~sparc keywords, it's probably due to a lack of testing. If a given package works for you, the best way to file abug with Gentoo's Bug Server and assign it to the sparc team.