Arch Linux

malkortechie

Member

Registered: 2019-10-31

Posts: 11

2020-Apr .iso ... "pacstrap /mnt..." -> Unrecognized archive format

Installing to bare metal from the latest (2020-Apr) ISO. I get to where I enter "pacstrap /mnt base..." and it consistently returns an error for "core.db", "extra.db", and "community.db" of
  > Unrecognized archive format

I've confirmed clock is correct to current date/time and have manually run "packman-key --refresh", "pacman -S archlinux-keyring", and "Pacman -Syyu": each of these seemed to behave properly, but didn't solve the issue. I've been doing new Arch installs for the last six months, and first time I've seen this issue.

Has anyone else seen this? Also, any ideas how to solve it? Thanks.

Slithery

Administrator

From: Norfolk, UK

Registered: 2013-12-01

Posts: 5,776

Re: 2020-Apr .iso ... "pacstrap /mnt..." -> Unrecognized archive format

How are you connected to the internet? Captive portal maybe?

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No, it didn't "fix" anything. It just shifted the brokeness one space to the right. - jasonwryan
Closing -- for deletion; Banning -- for muppetry. - jasonwryan

aur - dotfiles

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 13,368

Re: 2020-Apr .iso ... "pacstrap /mnt..." -> Unrecognized archive format

pacman db-files are stored in /var/lib/pacman/sync .

what does

# file /var/lib/pacman/sync/core.db

show from the iso ?

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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

malkortechie

Member

Registered: 2019-10-31

Posts: 11

Re: 2020-Apr .iso ... "pacstrap /mnt..." -> Unrecognized archive format

@Slithery

I am connected via ethernet, but (specifically) on a connection through which I've built four machines before.

malkortechie

Member

Registered: 2019-10-31

Posts: 11

Re: 2020-Apr .iso ... "pacstrap /mnt..." -> Unrecognized archive format

@Lone_Wolf

Restarted and followed Installation Guide (from ArchWiki) down to section titled "Install essential packages": including making sure that system clock was correct, to UTC. At this point, command "file /var/lib/pacman/sync/core.db" returned
"var/lib/pacman/sync/core.db: gzip compressed data, last modified: THu Apr  2 08:11:41 2020, from Unix, original size modulo 2^32 531456"

malkortechie

Member

Registered: 2019-10-31

Posts: 11

Re: 2020-Apr .iso ... "pacstrap /mnt..." -> Unrecognized archive format

Just to check, I tried that "pacstrap..." command, just after posting the above...

AND NOW the (*&^($^@#*( thing works without issue, again... just like the last four: when I got to this point.

SO...any idea why pacstrap went bonkees...for two days?

malkortechie

Member

Registered: 2019-10-31

Posts: 11

Re: 2020-Apr .iso ... "pacstrap /mnt..." -> Unrecognized archive format

Issue solved itself, after two days, but waiting for any replies: to see what, exactly, went wrong.