Can't update or install software

[kqlnut]

Thanks for your reply. If you're willing to help me solve this I'll be happy to follow your instructions. The only thing is, I'm really new to doing command line stuff, so things that seem obvious to you go right over my head. When it comes to entering commands you really have to spell it out like I'm a complete moron or I won't get it.

Sure. Open a terminal window and follow the steps below. Everything preceded by a # is a comment and should not be entered as a command. Doing this on a big screen either with an external screen attached or via SSH makes it a lot easier, but you could also type it all on the phone itself. Selected text in a terminal window can be copied with Ctrl+Shift+C and pasted with Ctrl+Shift+V (you need to use an external keyboard for this, I suggest you use one).

Code:

# Show the contents of the file where possible mirrors are listed. I don't have Arch installed, so I'm not sure what's here, but there should be some different URLs. Copy or remember one of them.
cat /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

# Edit pacman's configuration to use a specific mirror.
sudo nano /etc/pacman.conf

This will open the file in the nano text editor. Instructions on how to use the editor are shown on the bottom of the screen (the carat symbol ^ stands for Ctrl, so ^X would be Ctrl+X for example).
The file will have multiple sections, each with a heading in brackets like [core], [extra] etc. All those sections are for different repositories that contain different types of packages (core for core system functionality e. g.).
A mirror is a server that has all those repos in different folders under some domain. For example: https://somedomain.org/somesubdomain/$repo/os/$arch
Words preceded by a $ are usually variables or, more generally, placeholders. So in this case of a mirror URL $repo is a placeholder for the sections mentioned above (core, extra, ...). $arch is placeholder for the architecture and should be defined elsewhere in the configuration file, you don't have to worry about it.
Under each section heading (like [core]) insert a new line like so:

Code:

[section]
Server = https://somedomain.org/somesubdomain/$repo/os/$arch

$repo needs to be replaced with the respective section heading, so in the case of [core] like this:

Code:

[core]
Server = https://somedomain.org/somesubdomain/core/os/$arch

Do this for all the sections (core, extra, community, alarm, aur). Save and close the file.

Force pacman to update the package database. This will use the new mirror you specified.

Code:

sudo pacman -Syy

Now check what the output of the command shows.

Generally, if you don't know what something does, look it up. It's the best way to learn. You will find helpful results quickly with the search engine of your choice. Also man pages are very helpful, they document what a command and all its options do, how to use it and often include examples as well. You can read a man page for command in the terminal like this (replace command with the command you are curious about):

Code:

man command