Well, with the mirrors problem sorted out (gentoo.oregonstate.edu has 
some serious issues to work out with corrupted packages,) I have a 
pretty complete system.  I have a few minor/moderate issues that demand 
immediate attention though before I switch over to using that as my 
primary desktop OS:

1) su does not work.  I try using su, and even with the root password 
correct, it says:

su: Permission Denied
Sorry.

Then it returns me to the regular user shell prompt.  It is getting very 
annoying logging in and out normally, especially when I'm in X (KDE's 
wrapper for su consequently fails as well when trying to do root only 
activities such as changing the system clock.)

2) When I use Links 2 in graphical mode on the console using svgalib, as 
a normal user, I get the following error message:

svgalib: No I/O Permissions

As root, this works fine.

But, even when in graphical mode, the mouse does not work properly.  it 
doesn't move at all, except for a few weird movements every now and then 
when I flail the mouse around.  gpm was running in the background, but I 
didn't know because it never started moving on the console, which makes 
me thing there is a problem with the device.  Do I need to make a 
symlink to /dev/psaux such as /dev/mouse?

3) I don't know how to specify a default window manager for X.  I don't 
want X starting up automatically at boot up as I use the command line 
for the majority of my tasks.  For now, I've been using:

startx /usr/kde/3.1/bin/startkde

That has sufficed for now, but I would like to simply have to type 
startx.  A quick fix could be to place the following in .bashrc:

alias startx='startx /usr/kde/3.1/bin/startkde'

But, I would like to fix this the "proper" way by specifying a default 
Window Manager.

I love Gentoo very much, and have had some good luck with it lately 
(Finally! =P)  But, I can't get to the source of these problems.  Since 
there are more than a few Gentoo veterans I've seen posting to the list 
lately, I thought I'd throw this stuff out here to see if anyone has 
some ideas :)  Any input would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance :)

James