Haven't updated for several months...how to upgrade pacman?

orrin5250 · 2016-10-12 10:59:43

Rookie mistake...I have completely dropped the ball on regular updates.

Looks like I am running pacman version 4.2.1-4.

When I tried to execute "pacman -Syu" this morning I get the following error:

error: failed to prepare transaction (could not satisfy dependencies)
:: package-query: requires pacman<4.3

I can't seem to figure out how to upgrade pacman itself.

Or will I need to rebuild the installation?

bstaletic · 2016-10-12 11:11:47

You obviously have some stuff installed from AUR, which is fine, but is now getting in your way of upgrading the system.

pacman -Rc package-query

That is a brute force method of resolving conflicts like this. Be careful to read pacman's output and later reinstall anything you still need but have uninstalled.

loqs · 2016-10-12 11:33:05

See also required-update-to-pacman-501-before-2016-04-23

Trilby · 2016-10-12 11:37:12

That's closer to a year than several months. You'll likely be best of just reinstalling. You can keep your home partition untouched - you should even be able to generate a list of installed packages and install that list on your new system which would make getting back up and running very quick.

orrin5250 · 2016-10-12 12:01:03

pacman -Rc package-query

This got me farther. It went through a long list of downloads. But then...

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] y
(536/536) checking keys in keyring [######################] 100%
(536/536) checking package integrity [######################] 100%
error: libbsd: signature from "Lukas Fleischer <lfleischer@lfos.de>" is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/libbsd-0.8.3-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n] n
error: libyaml: signature from "Lukas Fleischer <lfleischer@lfos.de>" is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/libyaml-0.1.7-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n] n
error: python-sphinx-alabaster-theme: signature from "Johannes Löthberg <johannes@kyriasis.com>" is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/python-sphinx-alabaster-theme-0.7.9-1-any.pkg.tar.xz is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n] n
error: python-imagesize: signature from "Johannes Löthberg <johannes@kyriasis.com>" is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/python-imagesize-0.7.1-1-any.pkg.tar.xz is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n] n
error: python-sphinx: signature from "Johannes Löthberg <johannes@kyriasis.com>" is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/python-sphinx-1.4.8-1-any.pkg.tar.xz is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n] n
error: unzip: signature from "Lukas Fleischer <lfleischer@lfos.de>" is unknown trust
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/unzip-6.0-12-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n] n
error: failed to commit transaction (invalid or corrupted package)
Errors occurred, no packages were upgraded.

I tried 'pacman-key --init' and added

SigLevel     = Optional TrustAll

to /etc/pacman.conf.

Also tried

pacman-key --populate archlinux

Neither had any effect. Any suggestions? I'm not really sure if this should be a separate post or not.

bstaletic · 2016-10-12 12:01:56

Trilby,

Sure reinstallation would be quicker, but I'd opt for an upgrade because it would teach some troubleshooting skills, of course if time is not an issue.

orrin5250 · 2016-10-12 12:03:48

Trilby wrote:

That's closer to a year than several months. You'll likely be best of just reinstalling. You can keep your home partition untouched - you should even be able to generate a list of installed packages and install that list on your new system which would make getting back up and running very quick.

Oh I just saw your reply. I was worried it might be the case. It was my first time with Arch and the learning curve was pretty steep. However I did take extensive notes so I guess it would be a lot easier if I have to do it again.

Alad · 2016-10-12 12:21:25

1. Remove archlinuxfr and other related garbage
2. Boot to a (recent) live cd, mount the partition to /mnt and do pacman --root=/mnt -Syu
3. Merge any pacnew files
4. Reboot and clean up old configurations in your user account

Trilby · 2016-10-12 15:35:59

bstaletic wrote:

Sure reinstallation would be quicker, but I'd opt for an upgrade because it would teach some troubleshooting skills, of course if time is not an issue.

Generally I'd agree, but the pacman 5.0 update news item doesn't really give the "or else". It's not clear if not having updated to 5.0 by the specified date will just cause a little inconvenience, or if it could cause significant breakage. Optimistically, it may just mean that font-caches and similar post-install hooks may not run properly on the first upgrade, but would at the next time those packages are upgraded - this would likely be fine. But there are far worse scenarios that might be possible.

kokoko3k · 2016-10-12 16:02:45

I've not upgraded one of my computers since 4 months, but i'm not worried since i can always use arch rollback machine to do progressive updates.
Even if it speaks about restoring, it may be used for upgrading too, check:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ar … cific_date

The way i plan to use it, is to check relevant news from https://www.archlinux.org/, upgrading till a day before the critical news, and so on.
You may even simulate monthly or even weekly updates, if you have time.

Last edited by kokoko3k (2016-10-12 16:07:49)

Alad · 2016-10-12 19:34:42

Trilby wrote:

Generally I'd agree, but the pacman 5.0 update news item doesn't really give the "or else". It's not clear if not having updated to 5.0 by the specified date will just cause a little inconvenience, or if it could cause significant breakage. Optimistically, it may just mean that font-caches and similar post-install hooks may not run properly on the first upgrade, but would at the next time those packages are upgraded - this would likely be fine. But there are far worse scenarios that might be possible.

Well, that's where using pacman 5 from the live ISO should help ...

bstaletic · 2016-10-12 19:38:42

Besides what Alad said, I've seen people get their system not only updated, but also up and running after a major screw up, so this should be doable with more or less fiddling and careful updating in steps.

Scimmia · 2016-10-12 23:36:12

Using the ALA should work just fine.

Arch Linux

#1 2016-10-12 10:59:43

Haven't updated for several months...how to upgrade pacman?

#2 2016-10-12 11:11:47

Re: Haven't updated for several months...how to upgrade pacman?

#3 2016-10-12 11:33:05

Re: Haven't updated for several months...how to upgrade pacman?

#4 2016-10-12 11:37:12

Re: Haven't updated for several months...how to upgrade pacman?

#5 2016-10-12 12:01:03

Re: Haven't updated for several months...how to upgrade pacman?

#6 2016-10-12 12:01:56

Re: Haven't updated for several months...how to upgrade pacman?

#7 2016-10-12 12:03:48

Re: Haven't updated for several months...how to upgrade pacman?

#8 2016-10-12 12:21:25

Re: Haven't updated for several months...how to upgrade pacman?

#9 2016-10-12 15:35:59

Re: Haven't updated for several months...how to upgrade pacman?

#10 2016-10-12 16:02:45

Re: Haven't updated for several months...how to upgrade pacman?

#11 2016-10-12 19:34:42

Re: Haven't updated for several months...how to upgrade pacman?

#12 2016-10-12 19:38:42

Re: Haven't updated for several months...how to upgrade pacman?

#13 2016-10-12 23:36:12

Re: Haven't updated for several months...how to upgrade pacman?

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