pacman fails to install anything during to instillation

l0vot · 2012-03-26 19:27:10

When i attempted to install arch pacman threw a ton of errors, one was about a dependancy loop including udev, and the others were
the packages downloaded successfully, the errors came after

unknown key string-of-numbers
failed to retrieve key string-of-numbers

the name of the program the key belonged to was in the error, and there were errors for a lot of programs, this problem persisted across 3 different versions of arch

if any one knows why the errors were thrown and how i might fix them i would be most appreciative.
Also if i quit the install and then ran /arch/setup again, the menu would not work and produced errors about options needing to be specified for the entry to work.

mcmillan · 2012-03-26 19:47:22

Sounds like the error when it can't get the signature key from the key server. The default sometimes is a little flaky, you might try again and if it still causes problems can try changing the server as described here

Wittfella · 2012-03-27 00:44:20

I ginned around with this also yesterday for about 4 hours doing a fresh x64 install. This was with the latest netinstall snapshot image (25/3/12). After I gave up I downloaded the normal x64 core iso and it installs fine.

Doesn't seem to matter what you do, it always tries to get the package signing keys and fails. Tried changing the key server, setting SigLevel=never etc., just couldn't get it to ignore the keys.

l0vot · 2012-03-27 02:35:00

I tried the instructions, and pacman STILL had key problems even after i inserted "SigLevel = Never" to disable keys, i think the system has to be installed and running for this approach to work.

l0vot · 2012-03-27 02:36:36

I then tried an older image, and that installed, but it won't boot properly

magicalChicken · 2012-03-27 12:52:44

it won't boot properly

What exactly is the error upon booting, fixing that may be the best approach; once the system is booted it can be upgraded and packey can be set up later once pacman is upgraded.

l0vot · 2012-03-27 16:18:33

The error is it cannot locate/mount all of the filesystems, i know for sure /usr was not mounted, i booted up with my backup drive, and fstab has the correct uuids for all of the partions, and the partions are mountable, i should check to make sure /usr doesen,t have anything in it already, because that would prevent mounting, but the error was the partiions could not be found, so that probably isn't the problem. Also the arch install had to use the backup drive's bootloader to start because grub2 did not install on the bios boot partion i created for it yet, but if i could get /usr mounted that could be fixed with grub-install. Installing arch usually isn't this difficult...

Lennie · 2012-03-27 17:49:06

If you can connect to Internet during install, do a net install. The last install CD is quite old, and there is a lot of updates that require manual intervention, so it will be tricky to update from it.

.:B:. · 2012-03-27 18:46:52

The last ISO is actually quite recent, by Arch standards . 2011.08... I've seen far worse.

l0vot · 2012-03-27 20:20:33

The older iso is the one that is currently on the downloads page, the newer ones were nightly builds, which is why they had the version of pacman with keys. I will try modding one of the newer builds so pacman is configured correctly.

l0vot · 2012-03-29 03:20:29

I used dd to duplicate a Linux Mint install from an old laptop hdd onto the hdd i was trying to install arch on, until a solution to the arch problem is found i will stick with that. i did not install Linux Mint the normal way because the Linux Mint installer hates me (it just stops in the middle of installing, it does this without fail on most hard drives, the only known exception were the Linux mint installer behaved perfectly was when i installed it on an old 20 GB laptop hdd), using dd on the old laptop drive is a method that i used because Ubuntu 10.10, Arch, and Linux Mint 11 all refused to install properly, ubuntu installed but could not use any non-root users, and would only boot well enough to do anything in recovery mode.

dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/sda is the code i used, and i was pleasantly surprised to find that the boot loader and partition uuids were identical and worked perfectly without tweaking, i will probably use this method for installing more in the future, because it provides a perfect copy of an operational install that has already been tweaked.

birdspider · 2012-03-30 11:45:02

during install pacman uses /tmp/pacman.conf, setting SigLevel=Never there did help me

PS: If I remeber correctly

Last edited by birdspider (2012-03-30 11:45:52)

l0vot · 2012-03-30 23:33:30

I will try again with /tmp/pacman.conf to see what happens

Gcool · 2012-03-31 09:08:19

Or if you simply make the necessary pacman initialisation before launching /arch/setup, that has the same effect.

l0vot · 2012-04-01 00:51:04

Ok, i got pacman to behave for me by modding /tmp/pacman.conf, but the install is flawed, this error appeared while booting: error could not find /dev/disk/by-uuid (the uuid here), and am dropped into a recovery shell, what would cause this?

Last edited by l0vot (2012-04-01 00:52:05)

Gcool · 2012-04-01 08:14:22

That's usually one of two reasons:

1) You're pointing to the wrong uuid in your bootloader config.
2) You're missing some support in your initramfs.

Try doing a search on the forums/wiki for your "not find root device" error; it's covered extensively.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-03-26 19:27:10

pacman fails to install anything during to instillation

#2 2012-03-26 19:47:22

Re: pacman fails to install anything during to instillation

#3 2012-03-27 00:44:20

Re: pacman fails to install anything during to instillation

#4 2012-03-27 02:35:00

Re: pacman fails to install anything during to instillation

#5 2012-03-27 02:36:36

Re: pacman fails to install anything during to instillation

#6 2012-03-27 12:52:44

Re: pacman fails to install anything during to instillation

#7 2012-03-27 16:18:33

Re: pacman fails to install anything during to instillation

#8 2012-03-27 17:49:06

Re: pacman fails to install anything during to instillation

#9 2012-03-27 18:46:52

Re: pacman fails to install anything during to instillation

#10 2012-03-27 20:20:33

Re: pacman fails to install anything during to instillation

#11 2012-03-29 03:20:29

Re: pacman fails to install anything during to instillation

#12 2012-03-30 11:45:02

Re: pacman fails to install anything during to instillation

#13 2012-03-30 23:33:30

Re: pacman fails to install anything during to instillation

#14 2012-03-31 09:08:19

Re: pacman fails to install anything during to instillation

#15 2012-04-01 00:51:04

Re: pacman fails to install anything during to instillation

#16 2012-04-01 08:14:22

Re: pacman fails to install anything during to instillation

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