Pamac error: Failed to prepare transaction: invalid or corrupted package

you can try this first, it doesn’t harm but maybe it’s this simple fix:

sudo pacman -Scc
sudo pacman-mirrors -f5
sudo pacman -Syyu

Did not help, but thanks :slight_smile:

please give us some more information, everything else is a guess:

:+1: Welcome to Manjaro! :+1:

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    Now we know the symptom of the disease, but we need some more probing to know where the origin lies… :grin:
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:+1:

also please tell us is this stable/unstable DE ?

sudo pacman-mirrors -G

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Thanks a lot, I tried to include everything in my initial question

also please tell us is this stable/unstable DE ?

sudo pacman-mirrors -G

I was adding that just as you replied :slight_smile:

did you install applications from aur ? they caused a lot of trouble with the latest update.
next question, what about changing the de to unstable, that will force a complete update to unstable and after changing back to stable and redo the update ? personal i would try this hard way to override the actual settings. be aware to uninstall the aur packages first.

I have actually installed quite some applications from AUR and chaotic AUR.

in my opinion this is the main problem. as philm already explained with the actual update all aur packages have to be updated to python3.9 etc… from what i read it’s the best way to uninstall the aur packages, run the update, reinstall the aur-packages.

I have uninstalled all AUR packages, I still get the same error message:

pamac update
Preparing...
Synchronizing package databases...
Resolving dependencies...
Checking inter-conflicts...
Warning: could not fully load metadata for package ghostscript-9.55.0-3
Error: Failed to prepare transaction: invalid or corrupted package

uninstall ghostscript-package also and try again. you can reinstall it anytimes, so no loss. it’s a try worth, but if the problems still exist i would recommend the hard-way to define a different branch (unstable) and force the update to change to a different branch. after this you can change the branch back to stable and redo the process. that might sound a little bit oversized but sometimes ar(s)ch needs the hammer-method

i am unable to remove it:

sudo pacman -R ghostscript                                                                                                                                                                                                   
error: could not open file /var/lib/pacman/local/ghostscript-9.55.0-3/desc: No such file or directory
warning: could not fully load metadata for package ghostscript-9.55.0-3
checking dependencies...
error: failed to prepare transaction (could not satisfy dependencies)
:: removing ghostscript breaks dependency 'ghostscript' required by cups-pdf
:: removing ghostscript breaks dependency 'ghostscript' required by graphviz
:: removing ghostscript breaks dependency 'ghostscript' required by hplip
:: removing ghostscript breaks dependency 'ghostscript>=9.00' required by libspectre
:: removing ghostscript breaks dependency 'ghostscript' required by manjaro-printer
:: removing ghostscript breaks dependency 'ghostscript' required by splix

as already suggested, i would use the hard way.

sudo pacman-mirrors --api --set unstable
sudo pacman-mirrors --fasttrack 5 && sudo pacman -Syyu

https://wiki.manjaro.org/index.php/Switching_Branches

there seems to be the problem
it could help to just reinstall ghostscript from local cache or download it separately and install it via sudo pacman -U /path/to/file

…but the local cache is already gone. I guess, since you probably ran
sudo pacman -Scc
earlier …

I’d rather try this first before switching branches and thereby replace most software …

I am not quite sure where to download it from, I just found the newer version online 9.55.0-4
which did not help

sudo pacman -U ghostscript-9.55.0-4-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst                                                                                                                                               
loading packages...
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...
error: could not open file /var/lib/pacman/local/ghostscript-9.55.0-3/desc: No such file or directory
warning: could not fully load metadata for package ghostscript-9.55.0-3
error: failed to prepare transaction (invalid or corrupted package)

I have read about similar problems and I believe the solution for at least one case was
to actually create the missing file (as an empty file):
sudo touch /var/lib/pacman/local/ghostscript-9.55.0-3/desc

then try installing the ghostscript package you downloaded again

If you haven’t found these problems/solutions … just try it.
It can’t hurt - it’s already broken :wink:

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THIS seems to have fixed it!
I Actually did not even install the newer version, because as soon as I created the missing file, pamac updated automatically. HUGE THANKS!

You are welcome!
I’d have spotted it earlier but the pamac error messages did not include the hint at the missing file - only later, when you used pacman, this message appeared.

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