[SOLVED]Installation problems

malak33 · 2013-01-17 17:42:19

Hi there,

Well that was the best question i ever have seen to keep bots away. I am a aspiring sysadmin studying for my RHCSA exam. I thought that arch would be a good tool to use to further my studying and experince with linux. So i am trying to install Arch. I am following the beginners' guide https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners%27_Guide

I get down to the step where pacstrap is used, i run the command
pacstrap -i /mnt base base-devel

i get back a ton of errors, i tried solving it myself, i cannot seem to understand what is wrong. I have tried using
sorting mirrors- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mi … ng_mirrors
and many other hits on google.

i have also edited /etc/pacman.conf to this
SigLevel = Never

FYI this is in a virtualbox machine, i'm at work, behind a proxy. My network adapter is set to bridged.
Yes i added the proxy following this - https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Proxy_settings
right now I'm at a fresh install of Arch only following the documentation.

I have no problems installing anything using yum on any of my centos machines.
i can ping www.google.com

errors:
warning: database file for 'core' does not exist
warning: database file for 'extra' does not exist
warning: database file for 'community' does not exist
::synchronizing package databases...
error: could not open file /mnt/var/lib/pacman/sync/core.db: Unrecongnized archive format
error: could not open file /mnt/var/lib/pacman/sync/extra.db: Unrecongnized archive format
error: could not open file /mnt/var/lib/pacman/sync/community.db: Unrecongnized archive format
error: could not open file /mnt/var/lib/pacman/sync/core.db: Unrecongnized archive format
error: could not open file /mnt/var/lib/pacman/sync/extra.db: Unrecongnized archive format
error: could not open file /mnt/var/lib/pacman/sync/community.db: Unrecongnized archive format
error: could not open file /mnt/var/lib/pacman/sync/core.db Unrecongnized archive format
error: could not open file /mnt/var/lib/pacman/sync/extra.db: Unrecongnized archive format
error: could not open file /mnt/var/lib/pacman/sync/community.db: Unrecongnized archive format
error: target not found: base
==> ERROR: Failed to install packages to new root

Last edited by malak33 (2013-01-18 20:09:24)

Inxsible · 2013-01-17 18:01:03

what installation media are you using? and are you sure you set up the proxy correctly with username and password (if any) for both http and https ?

chris_l · 2013-01-17 18:01:33

malak33 wrote:

I have no problems installing anything using yum on any of my centos machines.
i can ping www.google.com

meaning that you can ping google on arch, or that you can ping under centos?
that errors occur because the database does not exist and is not creating it. I have only see that happen when it has no network connection.

malak33 · 2013-01-17 18:23:38

Inxsible wrote:

what installation media are you using? and are you sure you set up the proxy correctly with username and password (if any) for both http and https ?

I'm using archlinux-2013.01.04-dual.iso

yes i double checked my terminal history i entered everything correctly for http and https, we dont use usernames or passwords here

malak33 · 2013-01-17 18:25:35

chris_l wrote:

malak33 wrote:
I have no problems installing anything using yum on any of my centos machines.
i can ping www.google.com
meaning that you can ping google on arch, or that you can ping under centos?
that errors occur because the database does not exist and is not creating it. I have only see that happen when it has no network connection.

i mean i can ping google, yahoo, and cnn under arch. i can see how that could have been confusing, sorry.

Blasphemist · 2013-01-17 18:28:16

Did you ping google then? That checks that you have a net connection and name resolution. All that is needed for a normal install before pacstrap is ready partitions and a network connection. Selecting the closest mirror makes it as fast as possible. The only other thing I can think of the VM. I haven't installed in one.

malak33 · 2013-01-17 18:49:01

i mean i can ping google, yahoo, and cnn while under arch.

jasonwryan · 2013-01-17 19:38:32

malak33 wrote:

error: could not open file /mnt/var/lib/pacman/sync/core.db: Unrecongnized archive format

I blame Allan...

malak33 · 2013-01-17 20:03:10

i do not know this Allan person but he sounds like a scumbag...

so i got pacman to connect to the repos using these
uncommenting the XferCommand in pacman.conf https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=67885
inputting proxy variables in /etc/wgetrc https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=117155

however i am still getting the unrecognized archive format errors like before, any ideas?

chris_l · 2013-01-17 20:06:13

malak33 wrote:

i do not know this Allan person but he sounds like a scumbag...

lmao

Meet Allan: https://www.archlinux.org/developers/#allan.

And welcome to Arch linux, a distro based on the goverment system called "allanocracy"

Last edited by chris_l (2013-01-17 20:07:19)

jasonwryan · 2013-01-17 20:07:13

Paste your pacman.conf and mirrorlist to a bin site and link to them from here...

Allan is one of the pacman dev's and his spelling is notoriously suspect.

malak33 · 2013-01-17 21:47:59

FYI i typed these by hand so I'm sure i missed something

Here is the url for pacman.conf
http://pastebin.com/wvjjVByT

here is the url for mirrorlist
http://pastebin.com/zagg31Vv

jasonwryan · 2013-01-17 22:42:28

Does that mean the errors you posted above are also hand-typed?

Well, they both look OK. Rather than typing by hand, use sprunge...

You could try clearing the cache with pacman -Scc and then rerunning pacstrap.

malak33 · 2013-01-18 00:19:01

yes, the errors i posted were also hand typed.
looked up sprunge, it looks freaking awesome. along with the bible of applications that i want to install and play with. hehehe

i ran pacman -Scc
then reran pacstrap command......no dice more errors.

I have a head cold right now, my brain hurts this is enough for me today. I'll come back to this tomorrow.

errors errors everywhere

cfr · 2013-01-18 02:10:43

How did you create the installation media? Did you check the checksum of the downloaded iso?

malak33 · 2013-01-18 03:59:19

I got home and this whole thing doesn't make any sense to me at all, it was driving me insane.
So i started up my centos server at my house downloaded the *arch*.iso and started it up in a VM; KVM actually.

Anyway i got all the way to the same point typed in the
pacstrap -i /mnt base base-devel
and it worked like a charm!
WOOT!

So to me it sounds like it is my network at work? Could the firewall be blocking something? That is really all i can think of at this point. It is not the proxy.
Also i would like to play with Arch at work too.

Should i install arch on a usb stick? would that work? could i install usb stick in work laptop bring up a vm and play in arch?

I never tried to do this thats why i ask; thoughts, comments, opinions?
Thanks,

malak33 · 2013-01-18 19:31:17

So it was the ISA server that was blocking the repos. Maybe this can help someone in the future. You can go ahead and mark this as solved. Thanks

chris_l · 2013-01-18 19:42:40

You are the one who should mark it as solved - edit the title of the first post.

What's ISA?

malak33 · 2013-01-18 20:10:31

Thanks, i was looking for a solved button to check.
this is what the isa server is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_ … nt_Gateway

Arch Linux

#1 2013-01-17 17:42:19

[SOLVED]Installation problems

#2 2013-01-17 18:01:03

Re: [SOLVED]Installation problems

#3 2013-01-17 18:01:33

Re: [SOLVED]Installation problems

#4 2013-01-17 18:23:38

Re: [SOLVED]Installation problems

#5 2013-01-17 18:25:35

Re: [SOLVED]Installation problems

#6 2013-01-17 18:28:16

Re: [SOLVED]Installation problems

#7 2013-01-17 18:49:01

Re: [SOLVED]Installation problems

#8 2013-01-17 19:38:32

Re: [SOLVED]Installation problems

#9 2013-01-17 20:03:10

Re: [SOLVED]Installation problems

#10 2013-01-17 20:06:13

Re: [SOLVED]Installation problems

#11 2013-01-17 20:07:13

Re: [SOLVED]Installation problems

#12 2013-01-17 21:47:59

Re: [SOLVED]Installation problems

#13 2013-01-17 22:42:28

Re: [SOLVED]Installation problems

#14 2013-01-18 00:19:01

Re: [SOLVED]Installation problems

#15 2013-01-18 02:10:43

Re: [SOLVED]Installation problems

#16 2013-01-18 03:59:19

Re: [SOLVED]Installation problems

#17 2013-01-18 19:31:17

Re: [SOLVED]Installation problems

#18 2013-01-18 19:42:40

Re: [SOLVED]Installation problems

#19 2013-01-18 20:10:31

Re: [SOLVED]Installation problems

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