The short version: some auxiliary build commands are trying to touch directories the package manager doesn't want them to touch, resulting in sandbox violation failures of the following format: === VERSION 1.0 FORMAT: F - Function called FORMAT: S - Access Status FORMAT: P - Path as passed to function FORMAT: A - Absolute Path (not canonical) FORMAT: R - Canonical Path FORMAT: C - Command Line F: mkdir S: deny P: /root/.trinity A: /root/.trinity R: /root/.trinity C: /usr/trinity/14/bin/tdeconfig_compiler /var/tmp/portage/trinity-base/libkcal-14.0.0/work/tdepim/libkcal/htmlexportsettings.kcfg /var/tmp/portage/trinity-base/libkcal-14.0.0/work/tdepim/libkcal/htmlexportsettings.kcfgc === I've attacked a full build log for libtdepim which ends in a couple of failures of the same type. The long(er) version: Gentoo is a source distribution, so Gentoo packages are more or less glorified build scripts. The package manager creates a per-package sandbox in /var/tmp/portage/ which is used during build and install to keep failures from spewing files all over the system. For some reason, both tdeconfig_compiler and maketdewidgets are trying to do a mkdir in (probably) ~/.trinity . They don't, as far as I can tell, put anything in the resulting directories. Regardless, this breaks the sandbox and the build can't complete. This is in 14.0.0, but if there's been a commit that has changed any of this since then, I can't find it. It's possible that there's an additional CMake variable I need to set, in which case feel free to hit me over the head with it. Otherwise, I need some way of either redirecting those mkdir commands so that they land inside the sandbox, or keeping them from being issued in the first place. E. Liddell