Solution: Unable to decipher error "ELF binary type 3 not known"

[Julien Gabel]

>> I ran portupgrade -f linux_base-8 successfully and then ran portupgrade
>> -arR.  The system reports stale dependencies and suggest I manually run
>> pkgdb -F to fix which I do.  The first line of output reads:
>> 	Stale dependency: acroread-5.10_1,1 -> linux-expat-1.95.5_2
>> 	(textproc/linux-expat):
>> 	linux-fontconfig-2.1_2 (score:31%) ? ([y]es/[n]o/[a]ll)
>>
>> If I understand Michael Lucas' "Cleaning Up Ports", acroread has
>> recorded linux-expat-1.95.5_2 as a dependency but linux-fontconfig-2.1_2
>> is installed and it's asking if I want to have the entry in /var/db/pkg
>> point to linux-fontconfig-2.1_2 as the correct dependency.  And the
>> answer is, "Damned if I know."

> As previously mentioned, I resolved the original error:
> 	ELF binary type "3" not known
> by reinstalling linux_base-8 as recommended.  Not sure about this issue
> but I will research further.  Thanks again.
>
> The stale dependency issue was another story.  I discovered, through
> comparing the dependency output from pkg_info -rR against the actual
> list of dependency data that some of the dependent files were missing.
> (I'm sure I must have deleted them inadvertently).  Once they were
> identified and reinstalled everything was as it should have been.
> I don't know if this is a bug in the program or just me.  At least now I
> know my next steps when I see a stale dependency prompt requesting me to
> choose between two apparently non-related packages.

I think in this particular case, a forced upgrade/reinstall of the targeted
port and its dependancies must be all what you wanted:
 # portupgrade -rRf acroread5   /* Or what the _name_ of the package is */

-- 
-jpeg.