[SOLVED] pacman: error: failed to initialize alpm library

essence-of-foo · 2014-12-20 09:02:07

I just upgraded my system about an hour ago and now whenever I run any pacman-related command I get this:

$ pacman
error: failed to initialize alpm library
(database is incorrect version: /var/lib/pacman/)
error:   try running pacman-db-upgrade

How can I get a correct database version?

Last edited by essence-of-foo (2014-12-20 09:13:18)

essence-of-foo · 2014-12-20 09:14:27

Silly me...

I thought

error:   try running pacman-db-upgrade

Was something that was tried by pacman automatically but it was actually a hint of what to do next. So running

pacman-db-upgrade

solved the problem.

Kobussie · 2014-12-31 12:04:45

Thanks!
Worked for me too... just another silly arch-user...

Rexilion · 2014-12-31 17:49:07

Had to use:

pacman-db-upgrade

karol · 2015-01-01 00:18:53

Rexilion wrote:

Had to use:
pacman-db-upgrade

So ... you did the same thing as OP and Kobussie? No need to post a 'me too' then.

Rexilion · 2015-01-01 10:07:11

karol wrote:

Rexilion wrote:
Had to use:
pacman-db-upgrade
So ... you did the same thing as OP and Kobussie? No need to post a 'me too' then.

Whoops misread the commands, I was in a hurry.

Pacman suggested pacman-db-update (which it could not find).

Allan · 2015-01-01 12:19:53

There is a typo in one of the translations... Dutch maybe?

runical · 2015-01-01 12:28:15

The Dutch translation did indeed have a typo. It was fixed 12 days ago though, so the fix should have made it into the current pacman release.

Allan · 2015-01-01 13:09:01

Nope... pacman-4.2.0 was created on 2014-12-19. It will be pulled for the 4.2.1 release.

runical · 2015-01-01 13:20:23

My mistake. Then the error is indeed in pacman-4.2.0. It will be fixed in the next release then.

stefanwilkens · 2015-01-02 16:38:34

shameless plug:

The Dutch translation is very lacking at the moment, some new people joined in recent weeks - here's to hoping things will improve shortly.

Anybody looking to put some time into this and review translations or add to the translations for pacman-scripts (22% at this moment), please do drop me a message through transifex. (https://www.transifex.com/accounts/profile/swilkens/)

Last edited by stefanwilkens (2015-01-02 16:40:19)

Xavion · 2015-01-02 20:23:09

The "pacman-db-upgrade" operation took about 10 minutes here. This was particularly surprising, given that I've got a SSD.

I was getting worried that it was stuck in an infinite loop somewhere. I think you should add an extra line to the output text:

==> Pre-4.2 database format detected - upgrading...
==> Please be aware - this will take a f**king eternity.

clfarron4 · 2015-01-02 21:29:59

Xavion wrote:

The "pacman-db-upgrade" operation took about 10 minutes here. This was particularly surprising, given that I've got a SSD.
I was getting worried that it was stuck in an infinite loop somewhere. I think you should add an extra line to the output text:
==> Pre-4.2 database format detected - upgrading...
==> Please be aware - this will take a f**king eternity.

Really? For me, it only took 30 seconds or so to upgrade the database format when I did an upgrade on a buddy's machine. And that's a slow dual-core with a rotating disk.

Xavion · 2015-01-02 21:40:58

Okay, it looks like my recommendation should be reworded slightly:

==> Pre-4.2 database format detected - upgrading...
==> Please be aware - this may take a f**king eternity.

mrunion · 2015-01-03 02:03:28

FWIW, mine finished almost immediately. Maybe 10 seconds. Maybe you just have a huge amount of packages installed?

Xavion · 2015-01-03 02:29:45

The output of "pacman -Qs | wc -l" is "3528", which means I've got 1764 packages installed. It's also worth noting that I make use of the pacman-cage package to (normally) speed things up.

karol · 2015-01-03 04:59:48

Xavion wrote:

The output of "pacman -Qs | wc -l" is "3528", which means I've got 1764 packages installed.

Q: How to quickly count how many sheep do you have?
A: Count their legs and divide by 4.

pacman -Q | wc -l

Xavion · 2015-01-03 07:04:13

Oh, well done; you truly are brilliant. Would you like a medal or a trophy?

Rexilion · 2015-01-03 08:36:42

stefanwilkens wrote:

shameless plug:
The Dutch translation is very lacking at the moment, some new people joined in recent weeks - here's to hoping things will improve shortly.
Anybody looking to put some time into this and review translations or add to the translations for pacman-scripts (22% at this moment), please do drop me a message through transifex. (https://www.transifex.com/accounts/profile/swilkens/)

Check your transifex inbox!

shoelesshunter · 2015-01-06 04:46:31

I use yaourt and get this upon upgrade:

package-query: error while loading shared libraries: libalpm.so.8: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Last edited by shoelesshunter (2015-01-06 04:47:20)

jasonwryan · 2015-01-06 04:50:11

Search the boards: there have been plenty of threads about package-query and yaourt.

This is done. Closing.

Arch Linux

#1 2014-12-20 09:02:07

[SOLVED] pacman: error: failed to initialize alpm library

#2 2014-12-20 09:14:27

Re: [SOLVED] pacman: error: failed to initialize alpm library

#3 2014-12-31 12:04:45

Re: [SOLVED] pacman: error: failed to initialize alpm library

#4 2014-12-31 17:49:07

Re: [SOLVED] pacman: error: failed to initialize alpm library

#5 2015-01-01 00:18:53

Re: [SOLVED] pacman: error: failed to initialize alpm library

#6 2015-01-01 10:07:11

Re: [SOLVED] pacman: error: failed to initialize alpm library

#7 2015-01-01 12:19:53

Re: [SOLVED] pacman: error: failed to initialize alpm library

#8 2015-01-01 12:28:15

Re: [SOLVED] pacman: error: failed to initialize alpm library

#9 2015-01-01 13:09:01

Re: [SOLVED] pacman: error: failed to initialize alpm library

#10 2015-01-01 13:20:23

Re: [SOLVED] pacman: error: failed to initialize alpm library

#11 2015-01-02 16:38:34

Re: [SOLVED] pacman: error: failed to initialize alpm library

#12 2015-01-02 20:23:09

Re: [SOLVED] pacman: error: failed to initialize alpm library

#13 2015-01-02 21:29:59

Re: [SOLVED] pacman: error: failed to initialize alpm library

#14 2015-01-02 21:40:58

Re: [SOLVED] pacman: error: failed to initialize alpm library

#15 2015-01-03 02:03:28

Re: [SOLVED] pacman: error: failed to initialize alpm library

#16 2015-01-03 02:29:45

Re: [SOLVED] pacman: error: failed to initialize alpm library

#17 2015-01-03 04:59:48

Re: [SOLVED] pacman: error: failed to initialize alpm library

#18 2015-01-03 07:04:13

Re: [SOLVED] pacman: error: failed to initialize alpm library

#19 2015-01-03 08:36:42

Re: [SOLVED] pacman: error: failed to initialize alpm library

#20 2015-01-06 04:46:31

Re: [SOLVED] pacman: error: failed to initialize alpm library

#21 2015-01-06 04:50:11

Re: [SOLVED] pacman: error: failed to initialize alpm library

Board footer