Pacman Commands Not Working From Command Line

_matrix_ · 2009-01-13 21:01:54

Hi...

I ran sudo pacman -Syudf in the terminal and the system said there was a new version of pacman and if I wanted to cancel the current installation in order to upgrade pacman before proceeding.

I selected yes and pacman started upgrading. The system froze and I rebooted. Since then when I tried running pacman it said it could not be found. I did a man pacman and there was no manual entry.

I compiled pacman from source and I get a manual when I do man pacman but when I try $ sudo pacman -Syu, I get the following:
Password:
sudo: pacman: command not found.

How do I fix pacman so I can do installations and configurations of packages?

Any help is appreciated.

Last edited by _matrix_ (2009-01-13 21:02:28)

deej · 2009-01-13 21:34:25

Ouch, that's a good one
Can you check that pacman actually resides in /usr/bin/ ? [ and it is executable ]
Presuming that it does, try 'pacman' as root. Does it do anything ?
If it doesn't, try the full path: '/usr/bin/pacman' as root, anything ?

Deej

nowahn · 2009-01-13 23:09:31

if pacman is not in your system, you can try and install it from you installation CD :
- boot on the installation CD
- if you have a core CD
- start the installation process (/arch/setup)
- choose to install from CD (this will mount the packages to /scr)
- exit the installation program
- mount your '/' partition to /mnt
- run this :

pacman --root /mnt -U /scr/core/pacman*

- if you have a ftp CD
- same process, except you need to setup your internet connection and use -S instead of -U
note that if you have more partitions in your system, some might need to be mounted as well

Xyne · 2009-01-13 23:29:22

pacman -Syudf

Why would you run that instead of "pacman -Syu"? That seems like it's bound to mess up your system.

fukawi2 · 2009-01-13 23:42:24

It does sound like a suicide mission

Allan · 2009-01-14 02:31:01

Xyne wrote:

pacman -Syudf
Why would you run that instead of "pacman -Syu"? That seems like it's bound to mess up your system.

And my guess is that would be exactly what has happened... Never, ever use -f or -d with "pacman -Syu".

Fixing in not easy. Download pacman-static from the archfr repos (search the forums to find them) and then try reinstalling pacman using pacman-static.

_matrix_ · 2009-01-14 19:54:07

Okay...

I tried what Nowahn said but that did not work. When I ran the pacman command suggested, I got an error saying something about not finding pacman which I took to mean it was not in /scr.

I revisited my testing of the compile I did from source and it partially works but when I try installing a program it seems like pacman is not seeing the database where it is supposed to be.

For instance, when I try installing firefox which is already installed I am supposed to get a message saying it is there and if I want to continue. What I get is a list of all other updates for the system including an installation of firefox.

Seems to me I need to point pacman to the right directories and I am not sure what those are supposed to be and which config file to use to accomplish that. I have been trying the /usr/local/etc/pacman.conf file and I know it is supposed to be in /etc/pacman.conf. but pacman says it cannot read the /usr/local/etc/pacman.conf file so I created one in that location. That is how I got it working like I said above.

I think the key is pointing pacman to the correct directories and configuration files.

Thanks for your help thus far.

nowahn · 2009-01-14 20:36:02

_matrix_ wrote:

I tried what Nowahn said but that did not work. When I ran the pacman command suggested, I got an error saying something about not finding pacman which I took to mean it was not in /scr.

well, I think I did a mistake, packages are in /src/core/pkg or /src/pkg/core or something like this (just go there and check where they are)

_matrix_ wrote:

I know it is supposed to be in /etc/pacman.conf. but pacman says it cannot read the /usr/local/etc/pacman.conf file

quite strange. where did the compilation installed pacman ? (the pacman package installs the pacman binary in /usr/bin)
you can also add this option to the pacman command t ouse a spécific config file:

pacman -- config /etc/pacman.conf ...

(but /etc/pacman.conf should be the default)

fukawi2 · 2009-01-14 21:57:42

List of pacman files and their locations:
http://pastebin.ca/1308432

_matrix_ · 2009-01-16 21:51:31

Right...

Again tried what Nowahn said. The correct location is /src/core/pkg. I ran the comman pacman --root /mnt -U /src/core/pkg/pacman in the /src/core/pkg directory and I get an error listing all dependancies that must be satisfied. When I install one of them, then that one also has dependancies and the list goes on.

Is there a command or switch that will do the installation and find and install all dependancies?

tomk · 2009-01-16 22:04:15

Allan recommended pacman.static so that you wouldn't have to worry about deps.

Re your actual question, only pacman -S resolves dependencies, and it needs a valid repo to do that.

nowahn · 2009-01-17 10:57:49

_matrix_ wrote:

I ran the comman pacman --root /mnt -U /src/core/pkg/pacman in the /src/core/pkg directory and I get an error listing all dependancies that must be satisfied

well, I think this means:
- your database is corrupted, I don't know how to fix it
or
- some packages in your system depends on newer kernel version than the one on the installation CD (do listed dependancies show some <= ?). you need to install the last version of the kernel. I suggest you setup your internet connection and run -Syu for a full upgrade (still with the --root option)

note: if this still doesn't works, please try pacman.static as suggested by Allan

_matrix_ · 2009-01-17 13:19:05

Thanks for the reply guys.

I am trying the pacman-static link http://repo.archlinux.fr/i686/pacman-st … pkg.tar.gz using wget but have had no success after running the command for over 8 hours. Got an error 404 eventually.

If anyone has a link to the file I will appreciate it.I am using http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ins … ting_Linux right now.

u_no_hu · 2009-01-17 14:50:23

You have compiled pacman from source. Have you installed it with "make install" ?. After doing that you can use the following options to point pacman to the default locations.

--config <path> set an alternate configuration file
--logfile <path> set an alternate log file
-r, --root <path> set an alternate installation root
-b, --dbpath <path> set an alternate database location
--cachedir <dir> set an alternate package cache location

The default locations are
Root : /
Conf File : /etc/pacman.conf
DB Path : /var/lib/pacman/
Cache Dirs: /var/cache/pacman/pkg/
Lock File : /var/lib/pacman/db.lck
Log File : /var/log/pacman.log

And i think pacman will install to /usr/local/bin

Get well soon ;-)

_matrix_ · 2009-01-17 15:59:01

Pacman installation SOLVED:

$ sudo pacman -S firefox
error: invalid name for database entry 'local'
error: invalid name for database entry 'sync'
warning: firefox-3.0.5-1 is up to date -- reinstalling
resolving dependencies...
looking for inter-conflicts...
Targets (1): firefox-3.0.5-1
Total Download Size: 0.00 MB
Total Installed Size: 3.35 MB
Proceed with installation? [Y/n] n
Got it working except for two errors:
error: invalid name for database entry 'local'
error: invalid name for database entry 'sync'

To get pacman working I compiled from source and edited the pacman.conf file to point to where the local database is in /var/lib/pacman/. Then I did pacman -Syy and Syu so now when I try installing firefox which is already there I get the message telling me it is there as seen above.

That is what I was after all along.

Thanks to all those who contributed.

We can mark the pacman installation command as solved. Still need to work out the other two errors:
error: invalid name for database entry 'local'
error: invalid name for database entry 'sync'

jamtat · 2010-02-19 17:27:39

I just ran into a similar problem after using the -f switch as well. I resolved it by downloading pacman.static, linked to from http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ins … ting_Linux ; I copied that (as sudo) to /usr/bin, then ran the command sudo pacman.static -S pacman, which downloaded and installed the latest pacman. I then deleted /usr/bin/pacman.static. All now seems back to normal on this system. I should mention that the files /etc/pacman.conf and the directory (with contents) /etc/pacman.d were still present on my system.

James

tomk · 2010-02-19 20:57:34

jamtat - 13 month old thread. Read this please.

Closing.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-01-13 21:01:54

Pacman Commands Not Working From Command Line

#2 2009-01-13 21:34:25

Re: Pacman Commands Not Working From Command Line

#3 2009-01-13 23:09:31

Re: Pacman Commands Not Working From Command Line

#4 2009-01-13 23:29:22

Re: Pacman Commands Not Working From Command Line

#5 2009-01-13 23:42:24

Re: Pacman Commands Not Working From Command Line

#6 2009-01-14 02:31:01

Re: Pacman Commands Not Working From Command Line

#7 2009-01-14 19:54:07

Re: Pacman Commands Not Working From Command Line

#8 2009-01-14 20:36:02

Re: Pacman Commands Not Working From Command Line

#9 2009-01-14 21:57:42

Re: Pacman Commands Not Working From Command Line

#10 2009-01-16 21:51:31

Re: Pacman Commands Not Working From Command Line

#11 2009-01-16 22:04:15

Re: Pacman Commands Not Working From Command Line

#12 2009-01-17 10:57:49

Re: Pacman Commands Not Working From Command Line

#13 2009-01-17 13:19:05

Re: Pacman Commands Not Working From Command Line

#14 2009-01-17 14:50:23

Re: Pacman Commands Not Working From Command Line

#15 2009-01-17 15:59:01

Re: Pacman Commands Not Working From Command Line

#16 2010-02-19 17:27:39

Re: Pacman Commands Not Working From Command Line

#17 2010-02-19 20:57:34

Re: Pacman Commands Not Working From Command Line

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