[SOLVED]Packages Missing or Renamed in Official Repos-Seeking Guidance

Jwalk9000 · 2025-05-17 14:26:31

Hello Arch Community,

I'm the maintainer of the open-source project Archbase.btrfs, a set of scripts and roles for automating Arch Linux installations with Btrfs and various desktop/server roles. My project relies on a curated list of packages for different system roles (server, desktop environments, virtualization, etc.).

Issue:
At some point this week, my installation scripts began failing at the pacstrap step. Upon investigation, I found that many packages previously available in the official repos are now missing or renamed. My verification script (using pacman -Si) reports these as "NOT FOUND", and manually checking all results with pacman -Ss also shows that they are missing.

What I’ve Tried:

Refreshed and updated my mirrorlist using reflector
Fully updated my system and CA certificates
Used pacman -Ss to search for new package names
Automated package verification and suggestion scripts to identify and search for missing packages

Missing Packages:

plasma
kde-applications
gnome
gnome-extra
xfce4
xfce4-goodies
xorg
virtio-drivers
virtualbox-guest-modules-arch
virtualbox-guest-dkms
open-vm-tools-modules
hyperv-guest-tools
hyperv-daemons
xen-tools
dnsutils

Project Context:
Archbase.btrfs is designed to help users quickly deploy Arch Linux with Btrfs, system roles, and desktop environments, using YAML-based role definitions. The project is on GitHub and aims to stay close to official Arch best practices.

Questions:

Are these packages officially removed, renamed, or replaced by new meta-packages?
Is there a recommended way to track such changes for automation projects?
Any advice for mapping old package names to new ones, or for handling such transitions gracefully?

Thank you for your time and any guidance!
— Jesse (Archbase.btrfs maintainer)

Last edited by Jwalk9000 (2025-05-18 15:04:18)

Scimmia · 2025-05-17 14:35:53

Some of those are groups. Some of them haven't existed in a long time. The VB guest modules, for example, were upstreamed years ago. Arch changes all the time, you would need to keep up and not only realize that something changed years later.

Edit: just to make it clear:

Archbase.btrfs is designed to help users quickly deploy Arch Linux with Btrfs, system roles, and desktop environments, using YAML-based role definitions.

No, you are helping users deploy archbase.btrfs, NOT Arch Linux. You are maintaining a separate distro.

Last edited by Scimmia (2025-05-17 15:25:16)

Jwalk9000 · 2025-05-17 15:57:49

Scimmia wrote:

Some of those are groups. Some of them haven't existed in a long time. The VB guest modules, for example, were upstreamed years ago. Arch changes all the time, you would need to keep up and not only realize that something changed years later.
Edit: just to make it clear:
Archbase.btrfs is designed to help users quickly deploy Arch Linux with Btrfs, system roles, and desktop environments, using YAML-based role definitions.
No, you are helping users deploy archbase.btrfs, NOT Arch Linux. You are maintaining a separate distro.

You don't need to reply again. If you are going to be Nit-Picky and arrogant, at least be accurate. It is not its own distribution, Nothing in the ArchBase.btrfs project fundamentally changes how arch is/can be installed by anyone following the official guide. It is (was until this morning anyway) more reliable for me than 'archinstall'.

I just started this project this winter and have been testing and using it on multiple systems over the last few months, as recently as 3 days ago setting up an NCR POS project machine. Literally this morning I am testing a new VM setup and a pacstrap failure shows that these are now missing. Yes, some are groups... that were working until some time in the last few days. Yes, Arch is ever evolving which is one of the reasons that I love it.

Despite the fact that I JUST joined the Arch forums, I have been around using them for years and years. Until today I've never had any issue that I couldn't find already solved or at least an answer for, and I've never run into so many packages and groups suddenly appear to go missing. One or two a couple times a year is something I am used to, but over a dozen in a few days felt, weird. I can do the leg-work to track down the replacement package or group names, but I am specifically looking for assistance to automate it for more stability going forward.

WorMzy · 2025-05-17 16:07:44

It is not 'nit-picky'. It is correct.

I JUST joined the Arch forums

And when you did, you had to agree to the following rules: https://bbs.archlinux.org/misc.php?action=rules

Your installer falls under the same category as any other "easy Arch installers", that is, users of it need to seek support from yourself, not this community.

Scimmia · 2025-05-17 16:14:11

Jwalk9000 wrote:

Literally this morning I am testing a new VM setup and a pacstrap failure shows that these are now missing. Yes, some are groups... that were working until some time in the last few days.

No it didn't, you ran some other script that came up with this list. The groups still work, as well as others on your list via provides.

Jwalk9000 wrote:

I just started this project this winter

Then how does your package list contain ones that haven't existed for multiple years?

For the record, the part of the OP asking about how to track down what happened was edited in AFTER my first post. The original just said 'hey, theses are missing'.

Last edited by Scimmia (2025-05-17 16:30:35)

mackin_cheese · 2025-05-18 06:43:02

Jwalk9000 wrote:

Scimmia wrote:
Some of those are groups. Some of them haven't existed in a long time. The VB guest modules, for example, were upstreamed years ago. Arch changes all the time, you would need to keep up and not only realize that something changed years later.
Edit: just to make it clear:
Archbase.btrfs is designed to help users quickly deploy Arch Linux with Btrfs, system roles, and desktop environments, using YAML-based role definitions.
No, you are helping users deploy archbase.btrfs, NOT Arch Linux. You are maintaining a separate distro.
You don't need to reply again. If you are going to be Nit-Picky and arrogant, at least be accurate. It is not its own distribution, Nothing in the ArchBase.btrfs project fundamentally changes how arch is/can be installed by anyone following the official guide. It is (was until this morning anyway) more reliable for me than 'archinstall'.

I just started this project this winter and have been testing and using it on multiple systems over the last few months, as recently as 3 days ago setting up an NCR POS project machine. Literally this morning I am testing a new VM setup and a pacstrap failure shows that these are now missing. Yes, some are groups... that were working until some time in the last few days. Yes, Arch is ever evolving which is one of the reasons that I love it.

Despite the fact that I JUST joined the Arch forums, I have been around using them for years and years. Until today I've never had any issue that I couldn't find already solved or at least an answer for, and I've never run into so many packages and groups suddenly appear to go missing. One or two a couple times a year is something I am used to, but over a dozen in a few days felt, weird. I can do the leg-work to track down the replacement package or group names, but I am specifically looking for assistance to automate it for more stability going forward.

it's not nitpicky. you are literally you are claiming that your script doesn't fundamentally change how arch is installed. While that MAY be true, it's not the arch community's responsibility to hold that to be true. We only support the installation guide and archinstall. If you make a script, it is on you to be responsible for it, not the community. The community is not required nor expected to support your third party installation method, even IF your script doesn't change the fundamentals of the install process

Jwalk9000 · 2025-05-18 15:03:17

I solved my own problems. All my issues yesterday stemmed from VB package name depreciation, and bad prior research on my behalf.

plasma -------------------------------- group
kde-applications ---------------------- group
gnome --------------------------------- group
gnome-extra --------------------------- group
xfce4 --------------------------------- group
xfce4-goodies ------------------------- group
xorg ---------------------------------- group
virtio-drivers ------------------------ best I can tell is this may have been an old group that I failed to to properly research and should have been the vulkan-virtio package
virtualbox-guest-modules-arch --------- pkg -- worked until recently -- replaced with -- virtualbox-guest-utils
virtualbox-guest-dkms ----------------- pkg -- worked until recently -- replaced with -- virtualbox-guest-utils
open-vm-tools-modules ----------------- pkg -- worked until recently -- replaced with -- open-vm-tools
hyperv-guest-tools -------------------- pkg -- Really old --I didn't check/test
hyperv-daemons ------------------------ pkg -- Really old -- I didn't check/test
xen-tools ----------------------------- pkg -- I remember this working but can't seem to find any info about it ever being available in the Arch repos.
dnsutils ------------------------------ group

I wont be back, and in my opinion no-one should come here for real assistance.

I didn't ask for ANY help with my scripts AT ALL, yet EVERY one of you acted as though that was what I asked.
You have all ignored the ACTUAL questions I asked which were clearly laid out.
Simply pointing out that package groups don't show up with `pacman -Si` like meta packages do would have been the most useful thing. I seem to remember that working prior, and there really is no good reason I can find for them not too.

The fact you were all more focused on looking for reasons to not help says so much about why so many people are turned away from Arch. It is an amazing distro, But this community that should be the source of support for every one having problems, or misreading/misunderstanding something, or just not knowing where to start looking, is toxic and arrogant. Virtually NO-ONE coming here for assistance lives and breaths Arch. That is the whole point of having a community that can support people and point them in the right direction. People with lives, families, jobs, and homes to take care of should not need to be expected to obsessively read the thousands of pages of documentation to keep up on every little change to answer their own questions. And since there is no REAL way presently to search every change over time, this community should be that historical database. I SHOULD-NOT have to resort to using an LLM when there is a community this large that has been around this long.

Rant Over..

seth · 2025-05-18 15:41:57

You have all ignored the ACTUAL questions I asked which were clearly laid out.

Scimmia wrote:

Some of those are groups. Some of them haven't existed in a long time. The VB guest modules, for example, were upstreamed years ago.

The main problem is that your question operated on a false premise ("At some point this week … many packages … are now missing or renamed", neither packages nor "this week" are correct), Scimmia pointed that out which renders

The fact you were all more focused on looking for reasons to not help

a lie.

Then you got hooked up on the "btw. just so you know" remark that users of your script are technically no longer using archlinux.
Then this turned into ranting and whining to deflect from the fact that there's something VERY wrong with your script when you just *now* ran into packages that were dropped a couple of years ago resulting in some self-petting on fixing your own script

is toxic and arrogant

it's even worse: they're all also very correct and not appeasing to some fictional reality - cause that won't benefit anyone (but maybe some fragile ego…)

I don't know what kind of *package information* you expect to see for *groups*, but you can

pacman -Sgg | cut -d " " -f1 | uniq

list all groups and grep that or whatever you need there.
"pacman -Slq" will list all packages, doing that before and after -Sy and drawing a diff on the lists will tell you what has changed.

Arch Linux

#1 2025-05-17 14:26:31

[SOLVED]Packages Missing or Renamed in Official Repos-Seeking Guidance

#2 2025-05-17 14:35:53

Re: [SOLVED]Packages Missing or Renamed in Official Repos-Seeking Guidance

#3 2025-05-17 15:57:49

Re: [SOLVED]Packages Missing or Renamed in Official Repos-Seeking Guidance

#4 2025-05-17 16:07:44

Re: [SOLVED]Packages Missing or Renamed in Official Repos-Seeking Guidance

#5 2025-05-17 16:14:11

Re: [SOLVED]Packages Missing or Renamed in Official Repos-Seeking Guidance

#6 2025-05-18 06:43:02

Re: [SOLVED]Packages Missing or Renamed in Official Repos-Seeking Guidance

#7 2025-05-18 15:03:17

Re: [SOLVED]Packages Missing or Renamed in Official Repos-Seeking Guidance

#8 2025-05-18 15:41:57

Re: [SOLVED]Packages Missing or Renamed in Official Repos-Seeking Guidance

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