Arch Linux

manouchk

Member

Registered: 2008-07-29

Posts: 313

[SOLVED] Updating an old archlinux

Hi,

I'm trying to "recover" a laptop with an old archlinux installation. It is from august 2018. I tried to upgrade progressively using:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_L … cific_date
But I get many errors of this kind:

error: krb5: signature from "Levente Polyak (anthraxx) <levente@leventepolyak.net>" is unknown trust

I tried to reinstall keyring. It did not change anything.
I tried to use TrustAll SigLevel. It did not change anything.
I also desinstall many software to speed up upgrades but it seems that for all packages, pacman have problem with signatures.

I then tried to install a fresh archlinux, but I got stucked with the configuration of boot with which I almost always had huge problem.

The hardrive have four partitions:

/dev/sda1       2048      4061      2014   1007K BIOS inicialização
/dev/sda2       4096  33558527  33554432     16G Linux sistema de arquivos
/dev/sda3   33558528  37752831   4194304      2G Linux sistema de arquivos
/dev/sda4   37752832 234441614 196688783   93,8G Linux sistema de arquivos

I'm still struggling with what's the best strategy. THe help in fdisk does not fit in a single screen so that things gets cumbersome for a person that uses fdisk once in about 4 to 5 years.

There is not a detailed installation guide that explains how to partition with fdisk? The installation guide just point at Bios with MBR and not Bios with GPT.

I looked at https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Partitioning and it does not seems very understanble to me.

I always struggle a bit with partitioning and a lot with installing a functionning boot.

I don't even know what to ask. Maybe, a good advice may help me?

Last edited by manouchk (2024-09-26 17:40:08)

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 2,167

Re: [SOLVED] Updating an old archlinux

signatures are only valid for some time - so the problem could just be the signatures are invalid due to them being just too old
there's currently this topic: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=299721
if the system wasn't update for several months or even years chances are the overall install is so old it takes more than just update monthly using the archive mirrors - try playing around with the system time, could maybe help

manouchk

Member

Registered: 2008-07-29

Posts: 313

Re: [SOLVED] Updating an old archlinux

In this topic, the main suggestion is to reinstall arch linux. I opted for this solution. It seems that a month by month,update for 5 years will need quite a huge amount of time.

I think, I just miss now things related to clean the bios partition and the installation of grub. I should set the bios partition to be the boot partition in fdisk?
I should install a specific grub package?

Last edited by manouchk (2024-09-26 15:29:36)

manouchk

Member

Registered: 2008-07-29

Posts: 313

Re: [SOLVED] Updating an old archlinux

From the archlinux wili page for grub, it seema I should just run:
grub-install --target=i386-pc /dev/sdX
I got an error.
Failed to get canonical path of 'airootfs'.

manouchk

Member

Registered: 2008-07-29

Posts: 313

Re: [SOLVED] Updating an old archlinux

I was running a command to install grub outside chroot. It seems ok now. I'm on my way...

Last edited by manouchk (2024-09-26 17:20:54)

manouchk

Member

Registered: 2008-07-29

Posts: 313

Re: [SOLVED] Updating an old archlinux

I finally solved my problems. Wiki for installation is not so simple to use because many solutions appears in other wiki pages and they address things that are general description, not technical solutions. Anyway, I figured it out. I think it's a miracle! I guess newbie won't be able to install anymore archlinux considering the way wiki is structured.

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 2,167

Re: [SOLVED] Updating an old archlinux

the first time I tried arch I missed the lines below the pacstrap command telling you to bring network, filesystem and an editor along and add them to the pacstrap
also for the bootloaders: there're many options and a lot of explanations - and then there's a lot of stuff missing or not explained in an esay to follow manner
take systemd-boot as an example: it's only said: "yea, you need a config" - and the example shows a need for an uuid - but it's not explained how to get one - or the correct one - it's expected the user knows that the filesystem-UUID of the root partition is required and how to get it
refind also has such a flaw: first it states "refind-install should work most of time" only to get you half a page later with an info about "doesn't work in arch-chroot, tho" without pointing to section 4 how to create a working config yourself - in fact: when anyone would install refind other than installing a new system - what's even the point of the script creating a useless config?
to me this is way both systemd-boot as well as refind have the same flaw of the entire install guide: they written with an experienced arch user in mind knowing all that stuff - yes, arch is target towards an "experienced in linux" audience - but lot of wiki is about just a reference for someone who knows all that stuff already but needs some reference every once in a while

don'T get me wrong - I'm not the one who knows how to do it better - but from the time using arch and this forum I dare to yell it out loud: it adds a lot to this "arch, btw" meme - even within the linux community

although not flawless to me grub is the better option: its config generator actually gets it done - no matter if in a vm or on bare metal - and with os-prober is even able to correctly add an option for chaining windows - it's what I expect from a script which the wiki states as "should work in most cases"