Can't update or install software

[P3TER]

I installed Arch Linux ARM on my Pinephone. When I go to the software store to update, it seems to know there are updates, but it won't install them. I tried the latest release of Phosh, the latest release of Plasma and the July release of Phosh and they all do basically the same thing. I copied the code I got from the latest version of Plasma for your reference:

$ sudo pacman -Syu

We trust you have received the usual lecture from the local System Administrator. It usually boils down to these three things:

#1) Respect the privacy of others.
#2) Think before you type.
#3) With great power comes great responsibilty.

[sudo] sqassword for alarm:
:: Sychronizing package databases...
pine64     790.0 B 2.00 B/s
pine64         9.0 KiB  18.4 KiB/s
00:00
plasma       789.0  B  2.00  B/s
plasma 16.0 KiB  31.8 KiB/s
00:01
phosh        4.8 KiB  15.0  B/s
phosh 18.3 KiB  35.0  KiB/s
00:01
danctnix        2.1 KiB  6.00  B/s
danctnix        29.4 KiB  52.2  KiB/s
error: failed retrieving file 'core.db' from mirror.archlinuxarm.org : Resolving timed out after 10001 milliseconds
error: failed retrieving file 'extra.db' from mirror.archlinuxarm.org : Resolving timed out after 10000 milliseconds
error: failed retrieving file 'community.db' from mirror.archlinux.org : Resolving timed out after 10000 milliseconds
warning: too many errors from mirror.archlinuxarm.org, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'alarm.db' from mirror.archlinuxarm.org : Resolving timed out after 10000 milliseconds
error: failed retrieving file 'aur.db' from mirror.archlinuxarm.org : Connection time-out
error: failed to synchronize all databases (download library error)
[alarm@danctnix ~]$

On initial bootup, in the code that scrolls past I see some errors. I just reinstalled the latest release of Phosh and snapped a pic of the code:

==> Generating pacman master key. This may take some time.
gpg: Generating pacman keyring master key...
[FAILED] Failed to activate swap /dev/zram0. 
[DEPEND] Dependency failed for Swaps
[   13.148714] iio iio:device2: failed to read Who-Am-I register
[FAILED] Failed to activate swap /dev/zram0.
[DEPEND] Dependency failed for Swaps.
gpg: key75880CB9A4EE6B8 marked as ultimately trusted
gpg: directory '/etc/pacman.d/gnupg/openpgp-revocs.d' created
gpg; revocation certificate stored as '/etc/pacman.d/gnupg/openpgp-revocs.d/116F79C5F8AEFD B1EAF3EFB375880CB9A4EEE6B8.rev'
gpg: Done

Any idea what's going on or what I can do to fix it?

[bcnaz]

I encountered the same problem,  this is how I handled it :

Using the 'onboard Software Store'  I installed Gnome Package Updater.

I ran that, it showed I think 27 updates, > I went ahead and installed those.  and did a restart.

When I re-opened the software store,  it no longer showed any available updates.

And the basic functions,  calls in and out, 2 way sms text, wifi, and cellular data were working.

That "Worked" for me.

[kqlnut]

The mirror where pacman gets its data from seems to be unavailable. Check out this article on mirrors and try another one.

[bcnaz]

I was on Arch arm/Phosh, I did not try Plasma.

[P3TER]

I encountered the same problem,  this is how I handled it :

Using the 'onboard Software Store'  I installed Gnome Package Updater.

I ran that, it showed I think 27 updates, > I went ahead and installed those.  and did a restart.

When I re-opened the software store,  it no longer showed any available updates.

And the basic functions,  calls in and out, 2 way sms text, wifi, and cellular data were working.

That "Worked" for me.

Thanks, I get the following message: "Unable to install "GNOME Package UPdater" as download failed: download library error"

[P3TER]

The mirror where pacman gets its data from seems to be unavailable. Check out this article on mirrors and try another one.

Thanks! I read the article but it's a little over my head, still new to this stuff. I tried to ping mirror.archlinuxarm.org and it seems to be working:

sudo ping mirror.archlinuxarm.org
...
64 bytes from archlinuxarm.org (50.116.36.11
0):icmp_seq=220 ttl=49 time=86.4 ms 
...

The first error I observed was on the initial boot script when it was "Generating pacman keyring master key" and failed, and it wasn't connected to the internet at the time since WiFi wasn't logged in yet, so the mirror wasn't part of the mix. I thought maybe it needs an internet connection on initial boot (although that wasn't in the instructions) so I reinstalled Arch, plugged the dock into it, and hardwired it to my router for the initial boot sequence, but it didn't change anything. And I saw the same error message come up when I was installing the July build too. The fact that nobody else seems to have this problem makes me wonder if it's something about what I'm doing on my end. I'm using ZorinOS 15, Jumpdrive (Pine64-Pinephone.img.xz), and the stock "Repair Disk Image" utility (which I used to install Manjaro/Plasma with no problems). I wonder if using Windows 10 with BalenaEtcher would have different results. 

If it doesn't have a "pacman keyring master key," that would interfere with the operation of pacman, wouldn't it? Is there a command line to redo "Generating pacman keyring master key"?

[kqlnut]

Did the error about the failed generation of a pacman keyring master key occur at another time? Because it isn't failing in the error log you posted, that's another thing failing (activating swap, not sure if this is expected, but it's not related to pacman). Also pacman shouldn't break with no internet connection at boot and neither should the flashing process have impact on this problem if you got so far as to successfully boot the OS.

Try again

Code:

sudo pacman -Syyu

If you are lucky, it was just a temporary outage and and by now it works again.

Otherwise, if the same error about not being able to resolve the repo mirror persists, try another mirror by putting it into /etc/pacman.conf directly under [core], [extra], [community], [alarm] and [aur] as described in this section. Other mirrors should be found in /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist (not sure what's in there, I don't use Arch). Pick one and put it in each of the aforementioned sections (just change $repo to each of the sections). After you saved the file, run again

Code:

sudo pacman -Syyu

to force the package database to update.

Edit: I assume your internet connection on your device works. If you can't access the internet from it, then that's the problem of course.

[tophneal]

have you tried running 'sudo pacman-mirrors --fasttrack' or 'sudo pacman -Syy'?

[P3TER]

have you tried running 'sudo pacman-mirrors --fasttrack' or 'sudo pacman -Syy'?

Thanks, I'll give it a try:

[alarm@danctnix ~]$ sudo pacman-mirrors --fasttrack
[sudo] password for alarm:
sudo: pacman-mirrors: command not found
[alarm@danctnix ~]$

I tried 'sudo pacman -Syy' but I get the same error message as before. "failed to synchronize all databases (download library error)"

I wonder if anyone here is using Arch on their Pinephone and can confirm that mirror.archlinuxarm.org is working normally for them, like they can download apps and do software updates without doing any workarounds. I haven't found anyone else talking about having this problem, which suggests to me that maybe something went wrong somewhere in the install process. I'm using ZorinOS 15, Jumpdrive for Pinephone and the stock disk repair utility. I think I might try using Windows 10 and BalenaEtcher instead because it's a more common method, and if a problem like this had cropped up, it would probably have spawned some threads on the topic.

---

Did the error about the failed generation of a pacman keyring master key occur at another time? Because it isn't failing in the error log you posted, that's another thing failing (activating swap, not sure if this is expected, but it's not related to pacman). Also pacman shouldn't break with no internet connection at boot and neither should the flashing process have impact on this problem if you got so far as to successfully boot the OS.

Try again

Code:

sudo pacman -Syyu

If you are lucky, it was just a temporary outage and and by now it works again.

Otherwise, if the same error about not being able to resolve the repo mirror persists, try another mirror by putting it into /etc/pacman.conf directly under [core], [extra], [community], [alarm] and [aur] as described in this section. Other mirrors should be found in /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist (not sure what's in there, I don't use Arch). Pick one and put it in each of the aforementioned sections (just change $repo to each of the sections). After you saved the file, run again

Code:

sudo pacman -Syyu

to force the package database to update.

Edit: I assume your internet connection on your device works. If you can't access the internet from it, then that's the problem of course.

Thanks, I checked my internet connection by running Firefox and it seems to be working normally. I tried sudo pacman -Syyu and I get the same error message as before, ending in "error: failed to synchronize all databases (download library error)"

With the second strategy, I'm not knowledgeable enough to put that together on my own. If you spelled it out for me I could enter it, but otherwise I'll have to sit down and try to work it out, and who knows how that will go, lol. 

The fact that nobody else seems to be having this problem tells me maybe something went wrong somewhere in the install process. I think I'll try using Windows 10 and BalenaEtcher instead of ZorinOS 15 and the stock disk repair utility. It worked fine to install Manjaro/Plasma, but maybe something in that setup doesn't agree with Arch.

[P3TER]

Update: so I was wondering if maybe something went wrong with the install process, so I used Windows 10, downloaded the image using Chrome and installed it using BalenaEtcher. No difference. Same error messages showing in the initial boot code, same inability to update or install software. 

Using the GUI update in the software store I get this message:

Unable to install updates:
GDBus.Error:org.gtk.GDBus.UnmappedGError.Quark._pk_2derror_2dquark.Code1: Prepared update not found: /var/lib/PackageKit/prepared-update