Gentoo 2005.0 - still downloadable or reliable solution...?

[motiva]

... for installing backup exec for windows servers 12.5 linux agent.

Hello,

we have inherited a web server still running Gentoo 2005.0. (gcc 3.3.5-r1) Now we would like to backup that said server with Backup Exec to our Windows Backup Server. However when trying to install the linux agent on the gentoo machine, we get the error that gcc compatibility package could not be identified. As I've never managed a Gentoo system yet, I'm unsure about the procedures.

The question is, will an update of gcc to version 3.4.x or later reliably fix the issue without compromising the webserver (Apache 2.0, PHP 4, MySQL) as the system is running 20 different customer websites.

If there isn't a known solution, maybe someone can tell me where I can download Gentoo 2005.0 so that I can setup a testing environment before trying to tamper around with a live system. The earliest issue I found on the web was sadly 2007.0.

Thanks,
David

[alexandervdm]

The rolling-release nature of Gentoo makes it difficult to set up an environment that matches the 2005.0 server that you have running now from scratch. Even if you managed to get a hold of a 2005.0 installation cd, the ebuilds of that time will have been pruned from the portage tree for the most part by now. You can however maybe create a stage4 backup of your server and deploy it onto another piece of similar hardware, making it an effective clone machine?

Installing another version of gcc next to your current one should not be a problem as gcc is a slotted package. This means you can have several versions of this particular package installed on one system. You can use the gcc-config command to switch between both your current version and the new one you install.

However, from experience I know that trying to install new features/packages on a gentoo system that hasn't been kept updated for years can be a painful procedure and I strongly advice you to be careful and create the stage4 backup before you proceed.