Thanks for your extensive answer. It seems to work for me too.

I also noticed this message during boot:

* Checking your configfile (/etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf) ...
python: the current set of requirements installed in our virtualenv seems to be out of date, use the `syslog-ng-update-virtualenv' script to upgrade Python dependencies; path='/var/lib/syslog-ng ...

I ran into the same problem. I filed a bug with the workaround that worked for me:
https://bugs.gentoo.org/700050


When I change in both (I don't know which one is used):
/etc/portage/env/cross-avr/gcc
/etc/portage/env/cross-avr/gcc.conf

LIBDIR_default='lib'
to
LIBDIR_default='lib32'

everything ...

Thanks for the reply, i filed a bug report https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=508628

With the old gcc version i ment version 4.1.2, wich is not installed at all. Why should directory /usr/i486-pc-linux-gnu/gcc-bin/4.1.2 be created?

When compiling media-libs/libgphoto2-2.5.3.1 i get the following message:


...
checking for struct statfs.f_bfree... yes
checking for struct statfs.f_bavail... yes
checking for struct statfs.f_favail... no
checking for struct statvfs.f_blocks... no
* ACCESS DENIED: mkdir: /usr/i486-pc-linux-gnu ...

Every time I try to update from *74 to *76 compiz fails do to glib problems
--Wmissing-declarations -Wnested-externs -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -MT glib.lo -MD -MP -MF .deps/glib.Tpo -c glib.c -fPIC -DPIC -o .libs/glib.o
glib.c:26:18: error: glib.h: No such file or directory
glib.c:43: error: expected ...

I get the same error.
And exactly the same error when re-emerging kwin and kicker and k3b

Output from emerge --info

Portage 2.1.2.12 (default-linux/x86/2007.0/desktop, gcc-3.4.6, glibc-2.5-r4, 2.6.18-gentoo-r6 i686)
=================================================================
System uname: 2 ...

I use the radeon driver, and my glxgears give also very low fps, but neverball (an opengl game) and opengl screensavers run nice and smooth. So I don't care about glxgears.
To see if you have dri on, type "glxinfo | grep rendering". Mine says "No", but thats fine with me. As long as neverball runs ...

amixer is not the same as alsamixer. I think amixer shows the contens of /etc/asound.state . You could try to edit this file. For example I have a control:
control.12 {
comment.access 'read write'
comment.type BOOLEAN
comment.count 1
iface MIXER
name 'AC97 Line Capture Switch'
value true ...