I've managed to solve this.
I had to put this
in the /etc/portage/packages.keywords file and then I had to put this
into the /etc/portage/packages.unmask file.
Then I was free to do the
Code:
# emerge --update opera
which sucked in the masked opera 8.00_beta2 package.
I don't know if that would just work for the opera 8 beta 2 or whether if I leave the files above, as is, it will work whenever Opera release newer versions!
Still, I'm not too fussed, it's working well at the moment.
regards
John