Can portage sort out this mess?

[Gentree]

Hi,

I have rather a messy Gentoo and I want to know if portage is strong enough to sort out my mess or if I need to scrap a full weeks works and monumental downloads and start from scratch.

I had 1.4 rc4 installed, I later got a 1.4-r5 full release , copied the portage tree off the CD installed loads of packets and set up my make.conf etc for my system then recompiled gcc (3.2.2) emerged X, kde and gnome.

this left me with a basically working and reliable kernel and xfree if I run from startx without gnome or kde directly.

I have konqueror kportage etc which display kde 3.1.2 if asked.

This all looks solid.

However, if I start KDE proper (ie desktop via kdm, or gdm) it is completely unstable and before I get very far at all it completely locks the system: no mouse , no keybd , only remedy to power switch.

I would like to know if this situation is recoverable without reformatting and starting from zero. I have already downloaded lots of source (via a modem line!) and am loathed to lose it all if not necc.

Thanks to any wise ones who can advise.

[joem]

you could upgrade to a new version of kdm/kde since they are available

Im not quite sure what the problem is exactly

you could add exec /usr/bin/startkde in your /home/user/.xinitrc file
that will start kde without kdm