Conflict between linux617 and linux-meta on update

Support Kernel
1

I have encountered the same problem as flutes today: Conflict between linux-meta and linux617 unfortunately that topic is locked. My pacman error was something like (copied from his post)

error: failed to prepare transaction (conflicting dependencies)
:: linux-meta-6.18-1 and linux617-6.17.13-1 are in conflict

The marked “solution” was a non-solution for me and manually --ignoreing the package did nothing for me:

root# pacman -Su --ignore linux617{,-headers,-virtualbox-host-modules}

The above still hit the same error.

Go to my solution below.

PPS:

2

My solution:

  1. Reboot to an older kernel (I didn’t care to check which one I was running), so I don’t operate on packages belonging to current kernel.
  2. Then manually install current kernel packages (I had actually installed them one by one, but in the same order).
sudo pacman -S linux-headers-meta \
   linux-virtualbox-host-modules-meta \
   linux-meta
  1. It will ask to remove (replace) conflicting kernel package, confirm.
  2. With kernel packages manually installed (updated) / old versions removed, you can update the rest of the system with pacman -Su again.
  3. Remove unneeded old kernel versions, if you didn’t yet.
    • view installed versions: pacman -Q | grep '^linux'

I hope this helps.

PS: I don’t understand why this removal/replace hadn’t happened with initial -Su and I can’t tell anymore, because I didn’t save the terminal output.

3

Now remove the eol kernel 6.17 and in the future use -Syu and read the FINE announcement to see which kernels are EOL.

2 Likes
4

“EOL” usually means end of (active) support. Apparently, here it implicitly means “you are required to uninstall this”.

As of Linux 6.17.13, the 6.17 series is now EOL (End Of Life). Please install 6.18 stable and/or 6.12 LTS (Long Term Support). - link

I’m pretty sure, I was attempting to install/update to 6.18 above. And, of course, I had run -Syu/-Syuw multiple times before and updated mirrors too.

5

Kernel 6.17 has reached EOL (on 2025-12-18) and updates are no longer provided via the Manjaro repositories.

It is strongly recommended to uninstall kernel 6.17 at your earliest convenience and install a currently supported kernel such as 6.18 (LTS) or 6.12 (LTS).

Not everyone is quite as verbose.

However, the underlying message remains that kernels should ideally be dealt with as a matter of priority; sooner, rather than later.

Of course, one could continue using a kernel that has reached EOL until it becomes obviously impractical, but then, one’s system would arguably be in an unsupported state.

1 Like
6

Not really, because after another month the EOL kernel will be removed from the repos. And then when the user finally decides to update, the update starts with removal of all kernels, but this one doesn’t exist anymore in the repos, and if it was the only kernel the user will not be able to boot.

User who doesn’t want to be bothered with the kernel topic should install LTS kernel.

1 Like
7

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