> additionally, you'll need to add a newer version of > sys-cluster/util-vserver (even newer than the ~amd64 ebuild from the > tree, which is - =sys-cluster/util-vserver-0.30.216_pre2910 ). Just bump > the ebuild to at least>=sys-cluster/util-vserver-0.30.216_pre2926 in > your local overlay - patch is trivial... That basically means copying the file from /usr/portage/sys-cluster/util-vserver to /usr/local/portage/sys-cluster/util-vserver, and then renaming it. Additionally you may need to copy over all the files in the files subdirectory and finally run "ebuild blah_123.ebuild digest" to get portage to accept that it's a real ebuild Once you have played with these basics then modifying from there will be a useful new skill One thing I use a lot is to create custom profiles (ie your /etc/make.profile destination). These are customised per server type (thinking mainly guests now) and it allows you to easily customise individual classes of guests (www-apache, www-nginx, mail, etc) for USE flags, masked packages, etc Building a kernel is probably scary if you haven't done it before but it's quite straight forward, especially if you don't really need an initramfs. Roughly you just unpack the kernel, run patch to patch the vserver patches, then copy over your last good .config, run "make oldconfig" to get the old .config suitable for your new kernel and perhaps review other options. Then it's "make", "make modules_install", copy kernel to /boot and modify your grub appropriately to boot the new kernel (keep the old one around in case it doesn't) For sure it may take a few hours the first time, but once you understand the process you can easily run it yourself. Also investigate the builtin ways to add additional patches to the gentoo kernel ebuilds. Never used them myself, but I think you can set some environment params which causes the ebuild to add extra patches to the build and that way you can keep your automated build process as normal...? Sounds cool... Good luck Ed W