Arch Linux

chewmanfoo

Member

Registered: 2025-03-20

Posts: 4

pacman -Syu 'error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)'

I am attempting to install ansible, I try updating my system first, then I see this error.  It indicates that these files are conflicting:

    linux-firmware-nvidia: /usr/lib/firmware/nvidia/ad103 exists in filesystem
    linux-firmware-nvidia: /usr/lib/firmware/nvidia/ad104 exists in filesystem 
    linux-firmware-nvidia: /usr/lib/firmware/nvidia/ad106 exists in filesystem
    linux-firmware-nvidia: /usr/lib/firmware/nvidia/ad107 exists in filesystem

I check the files for ownership:

    $ sudo pacman -Qo /usr/lib/firmware/nvidia/ad103
    /usr/lib/firmware/nvidia/ad103/ is owned by linux-firmware 20250508.788aadc8-2

    $ sudo pacman -Qo /usr/lib/firmware/nvidia/ad104
    /usr/lib/firmware/nvidia/ad104/ is owned by linux-firmware 20250508.788aadc8-2

    $ sudo pacman -Qo /usr/lib/firmware/nvidia/ad106
    /usr/lib/firmware/nvidia/ad106/ is owned by linux-firmware 20250508.788aadc8-2

    $ sudo pacman -Qo /usr/lib/firmware/nvidia/ad107
    /usr/lib/firmware/nvidia/ad107/ is owned by linux-firmware 20250508.788aadc8-2

I notice that linux-firmware-20250613.12fe085f-5-any is a package listed above that will be updated if I get past this error.

According to this: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman … )%22_error I am now in the unhappy position of needing to 'file a bug report'.

But is there really nothing I can do to get past this?  How do I know I _need_ linux-firmware 20250508.788aadc8-2?  Can I just uninstall it and update?

This box is my daily driver.  How can I get out of pacman jail?

Last edited by chewmanfoo (2025-06-22 02:35:16)

johnsmith0x3f

Member

Registered: 2024-03-08

Posts: 8

Re: pacman -Syu 'error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)'

Check this out.

chewmanfoo

Member

Registered: 2025-03-20

Posts: 4

Re: pacman -Syu 'error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)'

OMG,  you saved me.  I owe you at least a coffee.

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,130

Re: pacman -Syu 'error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)'

Please see https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Genera … management

fettouhi

Member

Registered: 2007-05-07

Posts: 771

Re: pacman -Syu 'error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)'

I have the same problem, I did the manual intervention but running

pacman -Syu linux-firmware

after

pacman -Rdd linux-firmware

still shows a bunch files conflicting

If I do

pacman -Qo /usr/lib/firmware/lbtf_usb.bin.zst

it says this file is not owned by any package.

arsCynic

Member

Registered: 2025-06-22

Posts: 1

Website

Re: pacman -Syu 'error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)'

Check this out.

This resolved the problem on my end. Thanks a dozen!

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✍︎ arscyni.cc: modernity ∝ nature.

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 14,343

Re: pacman -Syu 'error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)'

pacman -Syu linux-firmware

after

pacman -Rdd linux-firmware

still shows a bunch files conflicting

delete (or move away) the conflicting files, then retry .
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman … )%22_error for more info

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Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

wheelsbot7

Member

Registered: 2025-03-06

Posts: 2

Website

Re: pacman -Syu 'error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)'

Check this out.

Thanks a bunch! Kinda sucks that pacman can't handle something like this, but the old "uninstall/reinstall" fix is about as clean as it gets.

aliasik

Member

Registered: 2025-06-23

Posts: 1

Re: pacman -Syu 'error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)'

Check this out.

thanks man

simran.mili

Member

Registered: 2025-06-27

Posts: 1

Re: pacman -Syu 'error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)'

Check this out.

Thank you so much

Berni341

Member

Registered: 2024-12-09

Posts: 12

Re: pacman -Syu 'error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)'

When done this above and then doing a

 (sudo) pacman -Qdt

i'm getting:

linux-firmware-amdgpu 20250613.12fe085f-9
linux-firmware-atheros 20250613.12fe085f-9
linux-firmware-broadcom 20250613.12fe085f-9
linux-firmware-cirrus 20250613.12fe085f-9
linux-firmware-intel 20250613.12fe085f-9
linux-firmware-mediatek 20250613.12fe085f-9
linux-firmware-nvidia 20250613.12fe085f-9
linux-firmware-other 20250613.12fe085f-9
linux-firmware-radeon 20250613.12fe085f-9
linux-firmware-realtek 20250613.12fe085f-9

Is this normal?

WorMzy

Administrator

From: Scotland

Registered: 2010-06-16

Posts: 13,042

Website

Re: pacman -Syu 'error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)'

Not if you followed the news correctly. It seems you have removed the linux-firmware meta package after successfully updating it.

That's not an issue in itself, but as you have noted, it means the split packages are now considered orphans on your system. If you want to remove the firmware packages that you don't need by removing the meta package and unneeded split packages, make sure you mark the ones you do need as 'installed explicitly'. (See pacman's -D flag)

---

Sakura:-
Mobo: MSI MAG X570S TORPEDO MAX // Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X @4.9GHz // GFX: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT // RAM: 32GB (4x 8GB) Corsair DDR4 (@ 3000MHz) // Storage: 1x 3TB HDD, 6x 1TB SSD, 2x 120GB SSD, 1x 275GB M2 SSD

Making lemonade from lemons since 2015.

Berni341

Member

Registered: 2024-12-09

Posts: 12

Re: pacman -Syu 'error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)'

It seems you have removed the linux-firmware meta package after successfully updating it.

That was it.

Greasily3062

Member

From: Philippines

Registered: 2022-08-18

Posts: 62

Re: pacman -Syu 'error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)'

Check this out.

Thank you. This fix the problem.

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 69,640

Re: pacman -Syu 'error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)'

Since there're many people in this thread who seem to kinda ignore the news: you can subscribe to them via mail or - if you feel uncomfortable w/ that and are don't want to open archlinux.org in a browser on a frequent base: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 2#p2230142

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How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

Berni341

Member

Registered: 2024-12-09

Posts: 12

Re: pacman -Syu 'error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)'

Btw. how long will this problem remain?

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 69,640

Re: pacman -Syu 'error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)'

What problem?
There's conditionally some manual intervention required because of the firmware split - that's a singular event, but it will be in front of your forever until your jumped over it.

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How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

Lemanr

Member

Registered: 2020-03-22

Posts: 36

Re: pacman -Syu 'error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)'

Hey all, back to using arch btw

So I'm totally lazy with reading the news when Arch wants me to and I suspect that is something that creates threads like these (not all the time but tis not the point). So for me this is how I've adapted. I just realized that I can RSS feed this, the image shows Akregator (developed by kde I believe? correct me if I'm wrong but tis also not the point). But now whenever I'm ready or perhaps before an update I can read one by one. I'd imagine many RSS feeds support this.

Image below but did url cause it's very large and don't have time to fiddle with it and remember how to quickly resize.

Image is just my use of akregator. It also show the link so if you don't want to find it just copy what I have in the image under "url". But to see that you click "add feed". It's very simple actually.
Arch News can RSS feed!  <== click link.

Last edited by Lemanr (2025-06-29 00:00:54)

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Warning recovering help-vampire: Do not feed me help (July, 8th 2020)
Fully Recovered help-vampire (at some point late 2021)
Linux journey (approximately) Ubuntu -> Arch -> Debian -> Manjaro -> NixOs -> (attempted: unresolved hardware issues) gnu guix -> Gentoo -> Fedora -> Arch (current) (very outdated but back to arch as I put together my own distro).

gianni8106

Member

Registered: 2025-06-29

Posts: 2

Re: pacman -Syu 'error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)'

Thank you very much. thus completely soved my issue

gianni8106

Member

Registered: 2025-06-29

Posts: 2

Re: pacman -Syu 'error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)'

thank you a lot. it completely solved my issue

rafaelbn

Member

Registered: 2025-07-04

Posts: 1

Re: pacman -Syu 'error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)'

Check this out.

Just registered to say thanks! Worked like a charm!

WorMzy

Administrator

From: Scotland

Registered: 2010-06-16

Posts: 13,042

Website

Re: pacman -Syu 'error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)'

Closing this 'me too' fest.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Genera … mpty_posts

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Sakura:-
Mobo: MSI MAG X570S TORPEDO MAX // Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X @4.9GHz // GFX: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT // RAM: 32GB (4x 8GB) Corsair DDR4 (@ 3000MHz) // Storage: 1x 3TB HDD, 6x 1TB SSD, 2x 120GB SSD, 1x 275GB M2 SSD

Making lemonade from lemons since 2015.