emerge failure revisited

A couple weeks ago, I reported that emerge gentoo-sources was failing. 
It magically worked once, so I quit yapping.

This was in the context of a fresh install, from the Gentoo CD boot.
The fix seems to be enabling a swap device, which I don't think is in 
the instructions.

It was a fluke that I came to this conclusion, but it works.
I switched to a second PWS500 (almost identical) to eliminate crazy 
hardware as a possibility.
I didn't think portage/emerge was such a hog that 256MB RAM was too 
little.  BTW, my first machine had 384MB.

I'm not going to formally report this as a bug, but I think something is 
wrong.  Maybe it only affects weakling Alphas like mine?
I don't follow the alternative architectures forum.  Maybe if someone 
shows up there with this problem, you can suggest swapon.

Adios,  DW