If eix-update doesn't quits with the following error message:

Unknown cache 'none' for directory '/usr/portage/local/layman/sunrise

Then you're running a newer version of eix with an older configuration file. Maybe you haven't run etc-update or dispatch-conf yet?

Intro

Today I did again a backup of a machine that has served me well for years. As it happens with old hardware, apparently some hard drive sectors have gone bad over time. These messages I got in syslog:

hda: dma_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: dma_intr: error=0x40 { UncorrectableError }, LBAsect=23181294, sector=23181191
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
junge end_request: I/O error, dev hda, sector 23181191
hda: dma_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: dma_intr: error=0x40 { UncorrectableError }, LBAsect=23181294, sector=23181199
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
end_request: I/O error, dev hda, sector 23181199

These sectors are "bad sectors" and they should be connected to the bad-inode of the ext3 filesystem the machine is using. A quick Google revealed tons of tutorials how to run badblocks to determine bad sectors, but I didn't find one that tells you how to add these reported ones. So here it comes.