Arch Linux

Primoz

Member

From: Ljubljana-Slovena-EU

Registered: 2009-03-04

Posts: 697

Is there a way to install from a 5-year old .iso?

I probably should check how old my USB with arch install was before plunging in, but here we are...
I got to the part where I would need to use Pacstrap to install kernel and other packages. First obstacle were the mirrors. But after updating the mirrorlist, I've hit another seeming insurmountable wall.
Actually 5 year old pacstrap doesn't even have -K option, so I've been using -G, but I'm pretty sure that's not the main problem here.
Anyway, when I do:

pacstrap -G /mnt base linux linux-firmware

I now get "could not open file /mnt/var/lib/pacman/sync/core.db: unrecognized archive format".
Because apparently 5 years ago /sync didn't exist yet? There's only /local subfolder.
So is there a way I can somehow update arch-install scrips during installation process?
Obviously the easy answer would be to just write a new .iso on a USB and start again.
The only problem, I've already formatted entire hard-drive. There's no functional boot or anything.
So I'm not sure if I could even boot back into installation. Thankfully I'm doing this on a old laptop nobody is using, so I can afford to "brick it".
But I'd rather keep it working - that was why I've decided to try and install Arch on it, it got really slow with Win10, and they're unsupported and it isn't Win11 compatible.
Thanks for any pointers!

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Arch x86_64 ATI AMD APU KDE frameworks 5
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Whatever I do, I always end up with something horribly mis-configured.

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 14,565

Re: Is there a way to install from a 5-year old .iso?

There have been changes that require manual intervention, https://archlinux.org/news/ has a list .

If you do wish to continue your best chance is to use https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_Linux_Archive as a mirror and start from a date close to the date of the iso.

Once you have a working install you can update in steps to process all changes that need intervention .

Starting over may be simpler/faster .

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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

Primoz

Member

From: Ljubljana-Slovena-EU

Registered: 2009-03-04

Posts: 697

Re: Is there a way to install from a 5-year old .iso?

There have been changes that require manual intervention, https://archlinux.org/news/ has a list .

If you do wish to continue your best chance is to use https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_Linux_Archive as a mirror and start from a date close to the date of the iso.

Once you have a working install you can update in steps to process all changes that need intervention .

Starting over may be simpler/faster .

Thanks!
I tried your suggestion, and maybe I did something wrong, but it didn't work.
What did work though was a way irresponsible approach.
First of I found the sync folder. Now maybe the archival mirror helped or something else happened, because all of the sudden it was there.
Then I deleted the /sync folder, to repopulate it with current version.
with:

rm -R /mnt/var/lib/pacman/sync

This got me closer. Now the install started, but I've got gpg errors that prevented installation of anything.
At first I wanted to do a subtler approach, but I kind of gave up on trying to download the current gpg list and instead opted to add this line to pacman.conf:

SigLevel = Never

This means that pacman just ignores any pgp key issues. It's incredibly irresponsible but it worked. And I did use only official repos and mirrors, so I have trust that this didn't completely broke the instalation.
Hopefully this helps anyone. (if you also end up realising mid-instalation process that your iso is out of date)

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Arch x86_64 ATI AMD APU KDE frameworks 5
---------------------------------
Whatever I do, I always end up with something horribly mis-configured.

obelisk

Member

Registered: 2021-01-10

Posts: 75

Re: Is there a way to install from a 5-year old .iso?

Hi,
I don't know if I understanding it right. I know that my englisch is not the best.
Please correct me if I misunderstand.
You have a laptop, where you want install archlinux with a 5 years archiso usb-stick?
And you trying to install with pacstrap some basic packages?

-Have you already created partitions on the harddrive?
-Did you manage it to install the base system on the target partition?
-Have you tried to use arch-chroot (mount before the target / and /boot and /home, if they are on separate partitions).
-In the past I had a problem with updating an archlinux which I didn't had active for some month. pacman -S archlinux-keyring had solved it. Maybe this is helpful for you.

Can you explain what are you trying to do, what you did and what step are you currently hanging?