[GLLUG] Question about tar/Gentoo Linux/emerge

[Jason Green]

I recently installed Gentoo Linux (www.gentoo.org), and I neglected to give
myself enough space on the XFS partition to install everything that I need.
I have a 5 GB FAT32 drive that I planned on using for most of my data and
downloads.

Well, I ran out of space while compiling OpenOffice.org using emerge
(Gentoo's port-based system, very similar to BSD's ports and Debian's
apt-get).  It downloads the packages, then untar's them, then compiles them.
So, I changed the temporary directory and the download directory to map to
my mounted FAT32 drive.  When untarring, I get the following errors:

tar: <filename>: Cannot change ownership to uid 520, gid 526:  Operation not
permitted

for all files.  I realize that it's trying to set permissions when it untars
the file, but can't do it because of the limitations of FAT32 partitions.
This, in turn, won't allow me to install OpenOffice or other large programs.
Is there any way to circumvent the permissions that wouldn't cause big
problems later?  I don't plan on sharing this computer with anyone else, but
the system will be online almost always.  Any ideas?

Jason Green
IT Coordinator, Lansing Management
greenja6@msu.edu