new Pinebook Pro, complete confusion

[Yehuda]

I just received my machine in the mail today. Out of the box I was able to get it running. The wifi works. A Firefox button appears on the dashboard. I can run Firefox. I accessed my university email. This was all encouraging.

My next order of business on all new machines is to install LaTeX (Texlive), emacs, and Auctex. I also make sure there is a PDF viewer and word processor (Libreoffice).

I tried to install Texlive with pacman and got a slew of "error: failed retrieving file" responses. I read a little online about what the problem could be, and the main suggestion was to update my mirrors with

$ sudo pacman-mirrors -g
$ sudo pacman-mirrors -f 5

and such things. I tried these, and it didn't help.

I tried installing emacs and ran into the same problem. I cannot retrieve anything.

Then I tried installing Libreoffice and was told that

:: Libreoffice-still and Libreoffice-fresh are in conflict. Remove Libreoffice-fresh?

This surprised me, because I cannot detect Libreoffice anywhere on the machine. I opened the filesystem navigator and searched for Libreoffice and found nothing. Then I searched for Firefox and also found nothing, even though I am able to run Firefox.

So basically I cannot use this computer. I cannot install the software I need (or any software), and I cannot locate the software that I already have (except for Fierfox, by launching it from the dashboard icon).

I have used linux (Debain primarily) and BSD (free BSD primarily) systems for many years and cannot understand why this is so completely different from anything I've ever seen before.

I want this to work out. I am attracted to the Pinebook philosophy.

[moonwalkers]

If you're used to and prefer Debian you can install it on your PBP, see http://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=8487. You can also install the latest kernel from Sid/Unstable and it will work fine, though (at least for now) it doesn't seem to support deep sleep, unlike xmixahx's 5.8.x kernel. Otherwise your issues seem to be distro-specific.

[wdt]

Probably your mirrors are wrong,, /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
a clip (partial) from my mirrors
--------
## Country : United_Kingdom
Server = https://mirrors.gethosted.online/manjaro...rm-stable/$repo/$arch

## Country : Georgia
Server = https://repos.silknet.com/manjaro/arm-stable/$repo/$arch

## Country : Taiwan
Server = http://free.nchc.org.tw/manjaro/arm-stable/$repo/$arch

## Country : Bulgaria
Server = https://manjaro.ipacct.com/manjaro/arm-stable/$repo/$arch

## Country : Sweden
Server = https://ftp.lysator.liu.se/pub/manjaro/arm-stable/$repo/$arch

## Country : Austria
Server = http://mirror.easyname.at/manjaro/arm-stable/$repo/$arch

## Country : Italy
Server = https://ct.mirror.garr.it/mirrors/manjaro/arm-stable/$repo/$arch

## Country : China
Server = https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/man...rm-stable/$repo/$arch
-----
This list dated May 30

[nightranger73]

Have you updated system and PKGs db with

sudo pacman -Syu

Or have you just tried installing new apps?

Were you using pamac GUI or pacman to install?

And the warning about LibreOffice means it is installed by default (that's the case in Manjaro plasma) and you were trying to overwrite the package with the stable (still) version

Package naming is sometime different from debian. If you're unsure try with

pacman -Ss appname

[wdt]

I don't know about "discover", but pamac (gui) seems to always download
the db's as first action, so i think pacman -Syu is only needed for cli

[nightranger73]

OP used pacman from CLI.
BTW I don't think discover is installed by default on manjaro plasma

and about pacman-mirrors it wouldn't be better to run it with --continent ?

[wdt]

Up until recently, i didn't much like discover, somehow it is the update daemon,
even though I didn't install or choose
The mirrors have changed, maybe 2 times?? so he can at least see if they are almost right
(the order may be different, the url should match)

[carlosqueso]

So basically I cannot use this computer. I cannot install the software I need (or any software), and I cannot locate the software that I already have (except for Fierfox, by launching it from the dashboard icon).

I have used linux (Debain primarily) and BSD (free BSD primarily) systems for many years and cannot understand why this is so completely different from anything I've ever seen before.

I want this to work out. I am attracted to the Pinebook philosophy.

It sounds like you're trying to locate the files themselves.  If you're using the default Manjaro KDE, you don't need to fire up the file manager, just click the Manjaro icon in the bottom left corner of the taskbar and it functions basically like the Windows start menu or the old GNOME (pre GNOME 3) Applications menu.

Alternatively, just open up a teminal and type "libreoffice" without the quotes; it should come up.

[KC9UDX]

You can run NetBSD, too. It takes a little more to get it set up, but then there are no surprises.

There are a plethora of operating systems you can run now. Run the one you prefer, don't run one because everyone else is. This is the best part about this hardware (in my opinion).

[Yehuda]

I am the OP. Thanks everyone for your comments.

What I had to do was simply to reboot after updating the mirrors. I have been able to install things just fine now. Texlive, emacs, AUCTex all speaking to each other as they should.

Your other remakrs helped me get oriented with Manjaro a bit.

And I tweaked the touchpad sensitivity. That and the unavailability of Zoom are currently the only obstacles to full functionality.