Arch Linux

logokahn

Member

Registered: 2025-06-20

Posts: 4

pacman not available to install grub

Hello,
As a newcomer to Arch but a long-time Linux user, I wanted to build a lean, up-to-date system and chose Arch. I followed the excellent installation guide to the letter but am stuck when setting up the boot loader.
I've probably overlooked something, but I can't find it. Since I want to install the system in VirtualBox for testing purposes, I still have the following status: Booting from the ISO worked, as did all steps up to step 3.8, Installation of the bootloader, but now I'm stuck because after 3.2 chroot, pacman is not available to install grub and efibootmgr.
I didn't specify grub and efibootmgr in step 2.2 Install essential packages because it wasn't described there, and also because it says there that you can install additional packages with pacman in chroot mode.

What I have tried so far:
1) Checked the path to see if that is why pacman cannot be found. Everything is OK.
2) pacman is not in /bin, and sbin is a link to bin.
3) Exit the chroot environment, then pacman is there, but I cannot install grub in /mnt.
4) As a test, I copied pacman and other programs that probably belong there to /mnt/usr/bin and tried again after archchroot: pacman is there, but complains about a missing library xy.so. I stopped there because that can't be the solution.
5) A look at /mnt/boot shows that the system cannot boot.
Thanks to virtualbox, I can still provide the status of the installation inside and outside the arch-chroot. I hope that a few arch pros can give me beginners the right tip.
Many thanks for your tips or questions.

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 1,548

Re: pacman not available to install grub

have you given the BASE meta package to pacstrap?
I recently messed up a vm and forgot but wasn't worried as any kernel will pull in about the same about of packages
also: don't just copy random things from the install environment - you should know that this doesn't work

logokahn

Member

Registered: 2025-06-20

Posts: 4

Re: pacman not available to install grub

No, I didn't specify base. I now see that this is a minimal package for an Arch Linux installation and also contains pacman. I'll give it a try. Just specify ‘base’ in the list of modules?
I don't quite understand the logic, though, because I didn't specify the other programs such as bash and the core utilities either. It also doesn't fit with the good installation guide that this particular component isn't described.
Many thanks

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 12,875

Re: pacman not available to install grub

It is, though. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Instal … l_packages specifically tells you to install the base metapackage.

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 1,548

Re: pacman not available to install grub

*popcorn emoji
ah - I remember myself at exact THAT point in the guide ... seem to happen to most
I missed the line about bring along an editor - so without vim nor nano I was screwed, too
back then I didn't know one could just pacman -S <package> within the arch-chroot
in fact today I'm quite good with just echo and pipe that into a few files to a fresh install - but as I grew up with vim it's more convenient with it
my personal pacstrap usually looks like this

pacstrap -K /mnt base linux linux-firmware vim sudo grub efibootmgr

and bring along everything else after the first few steps like generating the locales

but I agree with you: the guide and most of the archwiki is written in a way it expects the reader to already have the knowledge but only uses it once in a while as reference for rarely used commands or options
don't get me wrong - I'm certainly not the one "look at me, I AM THE ONE" to improve it much - but even having installed arch enough times in VMs and on bare metal I still reference it every once in a while and stumble on the same issues over and over again

mostly sections 2 and 3 could take some love like improve the readability about the base package or to don't forget to bring an editor (although I'm still at "include vim AND nano into base" instead of none because noone wants to take the clash for "why is editor X not included") or how to setup networking properly either before or after the first reboot

I also forgot to set root password, configure sudo oder to add (and set a password for) a regular user

the point is: these are all those small stepstones most other distributions take care for the user with thier installers and a base of a couple of 100s of packages instead of just about 130 - but that's arch for you
the only two steps even more basic are gentoo and LinuxFromScratch - although gentoo at least still has a package manager

but nevertheless - welcome to Arch, btw

logokahn

Member

Registered: 2025-06-20

Posts: 4

Re: pacman not available to install grub

I must retract my statement. base is already in the pacstrip command; I overlooked that. My statement referred to the additional modules that I selected and specified myself under 2.2. So base was included!

logokahn

Member

Registered: 2025-06-20

Posts: 4

Re: pacman not available to install grub

Oh dear, how embarrassing!
The good thing is that I can check my input history with vbox and I actually forgot to enter base. This also means that I have found the cause of my problem.
I will continue to use virtualbox, delete /mnt, and set it up again from 2.2.

Thank you all very much and apologies for my hasty comments.