In Gentoo it would be: emacs /var/lib/portage/world This file contains a list of all packages you emerged manually. Just remove anything that you don't wa

In Gentoo it would be: emacs /var/lib/portage/world This file contains a list of all packages you emerged manually. Just remove anything that you don't want. Then simply: emerge -uNDa world && emerge -a --depclean This will first update the system and then remove any package that isn't listed or is a dependency of [a package listed] in the world file. Though if you are serious about system maintenance, whenever you emerge a package you don't want in your world file (e.g you may want to re-compile a dependency) you should use the '-1' flag of emerge: emerge -1a dependency I also have my Gentoo 64bit installation since 2007 and have changed 4 or 5 machines since then. There are the occasional problems (as is the case with any distro) but if you are a bit interested in how things work instead of how things get fixed, you can solve them.