Pacman package manager cheatsheet

Pacman notes

Cheatsheet

Usage Command
Package upgrade pacman -Syu
Sync package DB pacman -Sy
Search package pacman -Ss package_name
Install package pacman -S package_name
Remove package and unused dependencies pacman -Rs package_name
List installed packages pacman -Qeq
Search installed package pacman -Qs package_name

yy v.s. y

Passing two –refresh or -y flags will force a refresh of all package lists even if they appear to be up to date.

Unknown public key

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pacman -S libmng
libmng-2.0.3.tar.xz ... FAILED (unknown public key F54984BFA16C640F)

Signature from is unknown trust

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sudo pacman-key --refresh-keys

other possible fixes:

  1. https://stackoverflow.com/a/35256655/3973896

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    pacman -S archlinux-keyring
    pacman-key --populate
    pacman -Su

  2. https://forum.antergos.com/post/46752

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    wget https://git.archlinux.org/archlinux-keyring.git/snapshot/archlinux-keyring-20171213.tar.xz
    pacman -U antergos-keyring-20170524-1-any.pkg.tar.xz
    sudo pacman -Scc
    sudo pacman-key --refresh-keys
    sudo pacman -Syu

  3. Disable packages that are blocking update

    • For example, I was getting this error for pkgbuilder author’s key

    • Re-assign key also failed

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      $  sudo pacman-key -r 5EAAEA16
      gpg: keyserver receive failed: No data
      ==> ERROR: Remote key not fetched correctly from keyserver.

    • The kiyring is outdated but pacman upgrades are blocked by this key

    • The only workaround at this point is to disable upgrading pkgbuilder

    • sudo /etc/pacman.conf , edit IgnorePkg to include pkgbuilder:

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      IgnorePkg   = fakeroot,pkgbuilder

    • and comment out pkgbuilder repository:

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      # [pkgbuilder]
      # Server = https://pkgbuilder-repo.chriswarrick.com/

    • after the upgrade, revert pkgbuilder

    • then sudo pacman-key --refresh-keys should fix the issue
      • or follow their README to resign the key

The requested URL returned error: 404

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error: failed retrieving file 'python2-requests-2.18.4-4-any.pkg.tar.xz' from mirrors.evowise.com : The requested URL returned error: 404
error: failed retrieving file 'python2-requests-2.18.4-4-any.pkg.tar.xz' from mirrors.kernel.org : The requested URL returned error: 404
error: failed retrieving file 'python2-requests-2.18.4-4-any.pkg.tar.xz' from mirrors.kernel.org : The requested URL returned error: 404
warning: failed to retrieve some files
error: failed to commit transaction (unexpected error)
Errors occurred, no packages were upgraded.

This is usually happened because the local database is outdated, so pacman is not aware of new version and trying to pull a old version package (which is not available anymore). The python2-requests package, at the time of writing, is actually on 2.19.1-1.

Do pacman -Syu or pacman -Syyu should fix the error.

If the problem exists, it could also be that the server mirror you’re using is outdated, try edit /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist and disable (comment out) top servers:

  • /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
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    ## Worldwide
    Server = http://mirrors.evowise.com/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
    #Server = http://mirror.rackspace.com/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch

add # to comment out the first server and try again, for me it was the worldwide server that is outdated.

lib32 packages

  • Required by some 32bit applications, or when you want to build 32bit applications from gcc.
  • NOT RECOMMAND unless required by other packages, see below error note

  • uncomment the following in /etc/pacman.conf:

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

  • gcc-multilib packages will replace gcc packages when installed. (I don’t think they can coexist)

breaks dependency error when doing pacman installs

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$  sudo pacman -Syu
:: Synchronizing package databases...
...
error: failed to prepare transaction (could not satisfy dependencies)
:: gcc-libs-multilib: installing lib32-gcc-libs (7.2.1-2) breaks dependency 'lib32-gcc-libs=7.2.0-3'

Cleanup

  • Remove unused dependencies: sudo pacman -Rns $(pacman -Qtdq)

3rd party AUR package manager

  1. add the following to /etc/pacman.conf

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    [pkgbuilder]
    Server = https://pkgbuilder-repo.chriswarrick.com/

  2. Run

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    pacman-key -r 5EAAEA16
    pacman-key --lsign 5EAAEA16
    pacman -Syyu pkgbuilder

  3. basically the usage is the same as pacman, for example pkgbuilder -S package_name and pkgbuilder -Syu

Build AUR packages manually

You need to install base-devel package for building packages

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pkgbuilder -F {package_name}
nvim PKGBUILD
makepkg -sCLf
sudo pacman -U *.pkg.tar.xz
  • For step 1, you can also download PKGBUILD file manually from AUR pages if you don’t want to use AUR package manager.
  • Use makepkg -RdLf for a “re-package”. Re-packaging is useful when the process failed in package() and you don’t want to run the long build part again.

Comments

2017-12-29
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