unable to install applications

[dln949]

I just this week received the PineTab2 running DanctNIX Arch from Pine64. 

When I try to use the Discover application to install more applications, I get error messages. 

Immediately after starting the table, when I first start the Discover application, it first says this:  "Unable to Lock Database".  Then it shows me another message, "No Metadata URIs for vendor directory". 

Then when I try to install an application I get this error message:  "PakageKit Daemon has crashed". 

I don't know what these messages are telling me, nor how I go about fixing whatever problem(s) they are cryptically telling me exist. 

(I realize this is posted under Arch Linux on PinePhone, but I couldn't find a category for Arch Linux on the PineTab.  I figured that since my question is focused on the Arch Linux software that this would be the more fitting place.)

[Conjada]

I also get the " "No Metadata URIs for vendor directory". But, it doesn't seem to cause a problem using Discover. Others are getting it, too.

It's probably the locked database thats making it unable to refresh. When this happened to me on my Pinephone Pro, I deleted the file db.lck

$ sudo rm /var/lib/pacman/db.lck

and then tried again. It worked.

Im not an expert. Please use due diligence before taking my advice. I dont think it will harm anything to try. But, in the past I've thought that just before I started saying bad words.

---

Btw, you can go into settings on Discover and uncheck vendor directory and it will make the other message go away. It is apparently not used.

[Kevin Kofler]

Disover does not work well for system (pacman) packages on Arch and Arch-based distributions, because the PackageKit alpm backend is buggy and poorly maintained (see, e.g., https://forum.manjaro.org/t/discover-sys...ble/110378).

[dln949]

Disover does not work well for system (pacman) packages on Arch and Arch-based distributions, because the PackageKit alpm backend is buggy and poorly maintained (see, e.g., https://forum.manjaro.org/t/discover-sys...ble/110378).

Thanks to both of you.  Deleting the lock file seems to have fixed the packagekit problem.  

I read the linik about the problems with the Discover application.  Can't say I fully understood all of it - especially since this pinetab is my first ever exposure to Arch Linux.  So, here's my question:  

For the PineTab2, what is the recommended way to update the OS, to update applications, and to search for and innstall new non-flatpak applications?

[Kevin Kofler]

The best working frontend I found is the Pamac GTK frontend. But it is not packaged in Arch Linux, only in AUR and in third-party repositories. You can find it, e.g., in the Archdroid repository: https://archdroid.org/packages/pamac-aur/.

Of course, you could theoretically also get it from Manjaro (which is the upstream for Pamac), but the Manjaro repositories also mirror all the Arch packages, so it is not a good idea to enable those repositories on Arch. (Unless you want to disable the Arch ones and convert the installation to a Manjaro installation, but that is something neither Arch nor Manjaro support, so I do not recommend attempting that.) You are better off using a small add-on repository for Arch such as Archdroid.

Otherwise, I can only recommend the pacman CLI. Any PackageKit frontend (KDE/Plasma Discover, GNOME Software, etc.) is going to work poorly.

[Conjada]

To update the OS from the command line, open a terminal (like Konsole) and type:

sudo pacman -Syu

then enter your password when it asks for it.

At this point, you are probably only going to see 1 updated file. Danct12 has mentioned that there are others currently building, but haven't been released yet, I believe. Glad the other stuff helped.