[SOLVED] Unable to update system, there is nothing to do

dakota · 2026-05-12 17:21:10

I'm doing something very silly. I'm sure of it.

I am trying to update a virtual machine that I have not powered up since last Fall.

The kernel appears to be out of date.

uname -a
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Linux medusa 6.16.8-arch1-1 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Fri, 19 Sep 2025 15:58:36 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux

The update tells me there is nothing to do.

$ sudo pacman -Syu
:: Synchronizing package databases...
 core is up to date
 extra is up to date
:: Starting full system upgrade...
 there is nothing to do

Pacman.conf tells pacman to use the mirrorlist for core and extra.

cat /etc/pacman.conf
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#
# /etc/pacman.conf
#
# See the pacman.conf(5) manpage for option and repository directives

#
# GENERAL OPTIONS
#
[options]
# The following paths are commented out with their default values listed.
# If you wish to use different paths, uncomment and update the paths.
#RootDir     = /
#DBPath      = /var/lib/pacman/
#CacheDir    = /var/cache/pacman/pkg/
#LogFile     = /var/log/pacman.log
#GPGDir      = /etc/pacman.d/gnupg/
#HookDir     = /etc/pacman.d/hooks/
HoldPkg     = pacman glibc
#XferCommand = /usr/bin/curl -L -C - -f -o %o %u
#XferCommand = /usr/bin/wget --passive-ftp -c -O %o %u
#CleanMethod = KeepInstalled
Architecture = auto

# Pacman won't upgrade packages listed in IgnorePkg and members of IgnoreGroup
#IgnorePkg   =
#IgnoreGroup =

#NoUpgrade   =
#NoExtract   =

# Misc options
#UseSyslog
#Color
#NoProgressBar
CheckSpace
#VerbosePkgLists
ParallelDownloads = 5
DownloadUser = alpm
#DisableSandboxFilesystem
#DisableSandboxSyscalls

# By default, pacman accepts packages signed by keys that its local keyring
# trusts (see pacman-key and its man page), as well as unsigned packages.
SigLevel    = Required DatabaseOptional
LocalFileSigLevel = Optional
#RemoteFileSigLevel = Required

# NOTE: You must run `pacman-key --init` before first using pacman; the local
# keyring can then be populated with the keys of all official Arch Linux
# packagers with `pacman-key --populate archlinux`.

#
# REPOSITORIES
#   - can be defined here or included from another file
#   - pacman will search repositories in the order defined here
#   - local/custom mirrors can be added here or in separate files
#   - repositories listed first will take precedence when packages
#     have identical names, regardless of version number
#   - URLs will have $repo replaced by the name of the current repo
#   - URLs will have $arch replaced by the name of the architecture
#
# Repository entries are of the format:
#       [repo-name]
#       Server = ServerName
#       Include = IncludePath
#
# The header [repo-name] is crucial - it must be present and
# uncommented to enable the repo.
#

# The testing repositories are disabled by default. To enable, uncomment the
# repo name header and Include lines. You can add preferred servers immediately
# after the header, and they will be used before the default mirrors.

#[core-testing]
#Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

[core]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

#[extra-testing]
#Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

[extra]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

# If you want to run 32 bit applications on your x86_64 system,
# enable the multilib repositories as required here.

#[multilib-testing]
#Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

#[multilib]
#Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

# An example of a custom package repository.  See the pacman manpage for
# tips on creating your own repositories.
#[custom]
#SigLevel = Optional TrustAll
#Server = file:///home/custompkgs

The mirrorlist has been updated and I've tried the following 10 mirrors one at a time.

cat /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
##
## Arch Linux repository mirrorlist
## Filtered by mirror score from mirror status page
## Generated on 2026-05-12
##

## United States
Server = https://nnenix.mm.fcix.net/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://mirrors.logal.dev/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://mirror.arizona.edu/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://mirror.wdc1.us.leaseweb.net/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = http://mirror.fcix.net/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://mirrors.ocf.berkeley.edu/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://mirror.zackmyers.io/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = http://arlm.tyzoid.com/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://arch.hugeblank.dev/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://ohioix.mm.fcix.net/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch

Cheers,

Last edited by dakota (2026-05-12 20:20:49)

schard · 2026-05-12 18:40:11

`uname -a` shows your running kernel.
What does `pacman -Q linux` show?

seth · 2026-05-12 18:41:57

uname is the *running* server, not the installed one - you might have updated interim but not rebooted since?

pacman -Qikk linux
ls -l /var/lib/pacman/sync/
date

Edit: heyy…

Last edited by seth (2026-05-12 18:42:20)

dakota · 2026-05-12 20:20:27

Well... shoot. I knew I was doing something dumb.

Thank you both for your feedback!

Cheers,

After a *reboot*, all is well.

$ pacman -Qikk linux
Name            : linux
Version         : 7.0.5.arch1-1
Description     : The Linux kernel and modules
Architecture    : x86_64
URL             : https://github.com/archlinux/linux
Licenses        : GPL-2.0-only
Groups          : None
Provides        : KSMBD-MODULE  NTSYNC-MODULE  VIRTUALBOX-GUEST-MODULES  WIREGUARD-MODULE
Depends On      : coreutils  initramfs  kmod
Optional Deps   : linux-headers: headers and scripts for building modules
                  linux-firmware: firmware images needed for some devices [installed]
                  scx-scheds: to use sched-ext schedulers
                  wireless-regdb: to set the correct wireless channels of your country
Required By     : None
Optional For    : base
Conflicts With  : None
Replaces        : virtualbox-guest-modules-arch  wireguard-arch
Installed Size  : 147.40 MiB
Packager        : Jan Alexander Steffens (heftig) <heftig@archlinux.org>
Build Date      : Fri 08 May 2026 02:29:23 AM PDT
Install Date    : Mon 11 May 2026 01:56:37 PM PDT
Install Reason  : Explicitly installed
Install Script  : No
Validated By    : Signature

linux: 7714 total files, 0 altered files

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
$ ls -l /var/lib/pacman/sync/
total 58312
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   129937 May 11 03:22 core.db
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  1472684 May 11 03:22 core.files
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  8612511 May 12 09:39 extra.db
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 49490439 May 12 09:21 extra.files

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
$ date
Tue May 12 01:17:20 PM PDT 2026

Arch Linux

#1 2026-05-12 17:21:10

[SOLVED] Unable to update system, there is nothing to do

#2 2026-05-12 18:40:11

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to update system, there is nothing to do

#3 2026-05-12 18:41:57

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to update system, there is nothing to do

#4 2026-05-12 20:20:27

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to update system, there is nothing to do

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