Death by ncurses?

Angelicus_Malus · 2009-01-25 22:36:20

I seem to be having the same problem as mentioned in this thread:
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=58568
and this thread:
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=59229
but to avoid bumping old threads or hijacking said threads I'm posting a new one, as my problem seems to differ slightly. I'm a bit of a Linux n00b at the moment, as this is my first Linux install, so please forgive me if I'm posting a dumb question.

I have tried the solutions offered in both threads repeatedly, however, I haven't been able to get them to work. Most likely, I'm doing something wrong, and I'm assuming that because I seem to have a different setup that I'll have to take a few more steps to solve this problem.

My current setup has Arch running on a windows xp dual boot with the following partitions:

sda1:    Windows XP    NTFS
sda2:    /boot        ext3
sda3:    extended partition
  sda5:    /        ext3
  sda6:    /swap        swap
  sda7:    /var        ReiserFS
  sda8:    /usr        ext3
  sda9:    /tmp        ext3
  sda10:/opt        ext3
  sda11:/srv        ext3
  sda12:/home        ext3
sda4:    /data        NTFS (partion shared by both windows and linux for media files and such)

As such, I've had trouble mounting the partitions properly, as per profjim's solution, as I am still learning the system. I first tried his solution verbatim, but the error messages I got in response suggested that I didn't have everything mounted as it repeatedly threw errors about missing files when trying to run pacman. So I tried mounting root and var individally as follows:

mount /dev/sda5 /mnt
mount /dev/sda7 /mnt/var

and then followed the instructions from there with the --bind commands, assuming that I had only mounted root by mistake. Unfotunately, It still threw an error that said /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ didn't exist. Assuming I hadn't mounted it properly, I rebooted and tried mounting and --bind-ing everything individually.

mount /dev/sda5 /mnt
mount /dev/sda7 /mnt/var
mount --bind /var/cache/pacman/pkg

It wouldn't let me --bind them all together with the last line, so I tried it again with:

mount --bind /var/cache/pacman/pkg/

just to be sure, but that didn't work either. I tried the following:

mount --bind /  /mnt
mount --bind /var  /mnt/var
mount --bind /var/cache  /mnt/var/cache
mount --bind /var/cache/pacman  /mnt/var/cache/pacman

However, when I tried the last line, it wouldn't let me --bind the pacman folder, saying it didn't exist, so I had to continue with the other commands without --bind-ing /pacman or /pkg.

mount --bind /dev  /mnt/dev
mount --bind /proc  /mnt/proc
mount --bind /sys  /mnt/sys

I then chroot-ed /mnt and ran pacman, but got the same error saying that /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ didn't exist.

I'm at my wit's end. I don't understand why it says my pacman folder doesn't exist, and short of wiping my entire install and starting over from scratch, I don't have the slightest idea what I can do. I really don't want to scrap my install though, as I really want to understand what is causing this and learn how to work with Arch, so I can solve future problems on my own.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

arch_nemesis · 2009-01-26 01:52:42

I can't begin to sort out your problem -- it's just beyond my level of experience.

However, I wanted to say that you should get a medal for trying Arch as your first Linux distro ever.

You seem pretty comfortable trying some of this out for someone so new -- I'm betting you like Arch. Don't let your problems discourage you too much!

Good luck!!

Angelicus_Malus · 2009-01-26 02:46:04

Thanks the for support. ^_^

And yes, I love my new Arch install. I feel like a kid at Christmas with it. I chose Arch because I love a challenge. I didn't want to get an "out-of-the-box" distro like Ubuntu and find myself knowing next to nothing about it after using it a year. I like that Arch has a steep learning curve; I'll never get bored with it, because there will always be something new to learn.

Now, if I could just figure out this little mishap... XD

Leigh · 2009-01-26 05:49:56

Welcome to arch. I'm certainly no guru. I have to say having a seperate partition for everything like you do sure makes things look complicated. If you don't really need a seperate partition for everything it would simplify things to minimize the amount of partitions. You could install everything on just one partition as you don't really even need a swap anymore from what I'v read. I'm a little old fashioned and just use 3 partitions. one for boot at aprox 100mb in size. one swap, and everything ese on another as /

Allan · 2009-01-26 05:58:48

This is not the most elegant solution.... but how about just downloading a copy of the latest ncurses packages, and extract:

/usr/lib/libncurses.so
/usr/lib/libncurses.so.5
/usr/lib/libncurses.so.5.7

to your file system. Then when you boot up, do a "pacman -Sf ncurses" and you should be fine.

I still have absolutely no idea how this is occurring for some people but not others...

Angelicus_Malus · 2009-01-26 07:21:24

This just keeps getting weirder...I downloaded the ext3 and reiser divers for my windows install and managed to look around my Arch files. The strange thing is that, according to what I'm seeing via windows, I already have the latest ncurses package in my /pacman/pkg folder, and when looking into /user/lib, it says all three of those files are already there. Yet, I still get that error that says it's missing and my Arch install still won't boot. The other thing that's odd, is that windows shows that my copies of libncurses.so and libncures.so.5 are both 1 kb but the ones included in the tar.gz file are both listed at 0 kb. Unfortunately, I can't open either of them up to see what's actually in there.

Allan · 2009-01-26 07:29:59

The file /usr/lib/libncurses.so is a linker script so will be really small. /usr/lib/libncurses.so.5 is a symlink to libncurses.so.5.7 which is the actual library file.

Angelicus_Malus · 2009-01-26 09:30:32

Well...I copied the files over, but I'm still getting the same error. Don't know why though, seeing as the files are there. o.O

Allan · 2009-01-26 09:54:37

Check there is not a /usr/lib/libncurses.so.5 symlink in /lib.

Angelicus_Malus · 2009-01-26 22:30:54

hrm...there's a libncursesw.so.5 and libncursesw.so.5.7 in /lib...does that count? o.O

Arch Linux

#1 2009-01-25 22:36:20

Death by ncurses?

#2 2009-01-26 01:52:42

Re: Death by ncurses?

#3 2009-01-26 02:46:04

Re: Death by ncurses?

#4 2009-01-26 05:49:56

Re: Death by ncurses?

#5 2009-01-26 05:58:48

Re: Death by ncurses?

#6 2009-01-26 07:21:24

Re: Death by ncurses?

#7 2009-01-26 07:29:59

Re: Death by ncurses?

#8 2009-01-26 09:30:32

Re: Death by ncurses?

#9 2009-01-26 09:54:37

Re: Death by ncurses?

#10 2009-01-26 22:30:54

Re: Death by ncurses?

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