[Solved] error could not open file /var/lib/pacman/sync/core.db

Question

I am trying to install Arch but when I type "pacstrap /mnt base base-devel"  I keep on getting this error "error could not open file /var/lib/pacman/sync/core.db unrecognized archive format".
I have tried:
# rm -R /var/lib/pacman/sync/
# pacman -Syuf
I have also tried pacman -Syy with no luck.
What more is there to do besides installing ubuntu?
Last edited by johane (2012-08-11 08:22:07)

Answer 1

johane wrote:
I am trying to install Arch but when I type "pacstrap /mnt base base-devel"  I keep on getting this error "error could not open file /var/lib/pacman/sync/core.db unrecognized archive format".
I have tried:
# rm -R /var/lib/pacman/sync/
Pacstrap was telling you it couldn't open a file, so you just deleted the entire directory tree? Did it appear to be downloading the database files correctly before this? Did you try running pacstrap again after you deleted everything?
And then you tried to run pacman with the -f (force) option? What happened? "no luck" doesn't tell us anything.
What more is there to do besides installing ubuntu?
There are many things you can do. You can give us more information about what you did and what happened. Did you follow all the steps in the Beginners Guide up to the pacstrap step? Did you get any errors or warnings before that step? Are you sure you had a working network connection? Did you interrupt the pacstrap process at any time? Did you try running it again after you deleted /var/lib/pacman/sync?
Did you check the sha1sum of the iso you downloaded before you put it on a usb stick?
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Be … oaded_file
How did you put it on the usb stick?
When you got the error, did you do
ls /var/lib/pacman/sync
to see what (if anything) was there?
Last edited by 2ManyDogs (2012-08-06 23:38:27)