Arch Linux pacman error: failed retrieving file

Question

I just installed Arch Linux today. I am trying to install elinks using

pacman -S elinks

And I get a long, long list of:

error: failed retrieving file 'elinks-0.13-17-i686.pkg.tar.xz' from some.mirror : Could not resolve host: some.mirror

The same happens if I try to install any other software. The only thing I could think of based on what I read is a connection problem, but I'm on the same connection that I used to install the OS, and that was just a few minutes ago.

The live medium will connect automatically; once you have installed Arch, you have to set up networking yourself... — jasonwryan, Nov 27 '16 at 01:58

score 42 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 09 '18 at 17:34

42

Although this has been answered, I encountered the same issue. I resolved it by updating my databases while installing. For instance:

sudo pacman -Syu elinks

answered Oct 09 '18 at 17:34

Oppa

521
4
3

Adding the `yu` after the `S` seemed to make the difference. I'd already tried `--disable-download-timeout` which didn't work on it's own so I had `-Syu` *and* `--disable-download-timeout` and it then worked. – NeilG Aug 13 '23 at 23:05

The Ledge · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-27T20:50:46.180

I found an answer, thanks to jasonwryan's comment.

I tried lots of things to get my ethernet connection to work and it still didn't work till I researched the netctl command (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/netctl, man netctl).

ls /etc/netctl revealed that there were no profiles in my /etc/netctl folder, so I ran

cp /etc/netctl/examples/ethernet-dhcp /etc/netctl
netctl start ethernet-dhcp

Before that, I had run (from https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=151483)

systemctl enable [email protected]
systemctl start [email protected]

And voila, the internet was working. Not sure which of the commands was responsible, but now it works.

score 7 · Answer 3 · edited Jul 18 '23 at 20:01

7

Update your pacman mirrors:

sudo pacman-mirrors -g

edited Jul 18 '23 at 20:01

Jochen Timmermans

3
2

answered Mar 09 '21 at 16:08

tristobal

171
1
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This helped me, I think my mirrors got borked. Didn't realize this command existed! (Using manjaro over here) – SeedyROM Mar 10 '21 at 15:26
1

Glad to help :) – tristobal Mar 10 '21 at 20:13
1

Had to create a new account just so I can upvote :) Thank you, fixed it for me with a single command. – JKleinne Jun 19 '21 at 23:55
`sudo: pacman-mirrors: command not found` but adding the disable timout and `Syu` solved: `sudo pacman -Syu --asdeps --disable-download-timeout graphicsmagick` – NeilG Aug 13 '23 at 23:02

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 14 '20 at 18:04

0

You can also download the package(pkg.tar.zst file) manually and use the command

sudo pacman -U package_name.pkg.tar.zst

I used this method as sudo pacman -Syu command wanted to install few extra packages of total size ~200mb, and all i have was a 8kb/s net connection

answered Aug 14 '20 at 18:04

Jose Kj

101
1

1

8kb/s in 2020 in kerala? Unbelievable – Prasanna Sep 10 '22 at 11:23

Arch Linux pacman error: failed retrieving file

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