I agree, and once the mirrors are not set to Stable, any updates won’t be coming from that repo any more. I have to admit I’m perplexed by what is going on here.
Differing version numbers of some local and remote packages: Cannot reinstall all installed packages
No, of course not. I documented in this thread the reasons for it.
Looks like you’ve installed stuff either from unstable branch, the AUR, or manually.
Perhaps the iso really does have inconsistent versions…more likely you copied/used the wrong command, and then changed back (perhaps without realising it at any point).
I didn’t think octopi was pre-installed any more, now that pamac is.
This is how to downgrade and overwrite.
sudo pacman -Syuu --overwrite '*'
The part you quoted shows nothing about branches. This is the problem with people quoting what they think is important, it’s often not and they leave out stuff that may actually be important.
Did you change anything else, because this is not normal output for pacman:
It looks more like pamac, but you show it as part of pacman’s output.
Then consult the manual.
man pacman
Here are the relevant bits:
-u, --sysupgrade
Upgrades all packages that are out-of-date. Each currently-installed package will be examined and upgraded if a newer package exists. A report of all packages to upgrade will be presented, and the operation will not proceed without user confirmation.
Dependencies are automatically resolved at this level and will be installed/upgraded if necessary.
Pass this option twice to enable package downgrades; in this case, pacman will select sync packages whose versions do not match with the local versions. This can be useful when the user switches from a testing repository to a stable one.
Additional targets can also be specified manually, so that -Su foo will do a system upgrade and install/upgrade the "foo" package in the same operation.
-y, --refresh
Download a fresh copy of the master package databases (repo.db) from the server(s) defined in pacman.conf(5). This should typically be used each time you use --sysupgrade or -u. Passing two --refresh or -y flags will force a refresh of all package databases,
even if they appear to be up-to-date.
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I don’t think it is. I’ll check a current VM and report back. I explicitly installed it on my other system; the “birth-date” being a few years ago (this machine currently has a roughly 7-year-vintage installation).
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If @BG405 would try to reproduce the things I documented here in this thread using a VM, then I would appreciate this. Please use the iso file for the “minimal” installation for Manjaro with KDE.
There is a certain procedure to switch branches.
Perhaps you did not do this deliberately at all.
I submit that you might have found a reference to it in some forum post, and blindly executed the commands, without understanding what you were doing.
This at least might explain it.
Your update has now completed albeit with these warnings.
Using one of the pacman-mirrors commands given earlier likely helped to reach this point.
It’s often a good idea to use a pacman-mirrors command command in conjunction with sudo pacman -Syu any time you experience unexpected results; but, you knew this, right?
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Did you get warnings of packages being newer than in the repos?
Seems not. Sounds like you accidentally switched branches, installed stuff (possibly without updating), then switched back, and then had issues. 
Either way:
EDIT:
It’s also possible you installed stuff from the AUR, or another way that left you with the newer versions.
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I need to fix VirtualBox first though! I forgot I hadn’t done so already. (Or run it on the other machine when I get back, which I’ll probably opt for this time).
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Well, because I am often documenting what I am doing with regard to software-related issues like Linux distributions I am not familiar with (like Manjaro/ArchLinux or compiling certain software source code), I also documented relevant things for myself regarding the installation and configuration of Manjaro, so I noted for myself the following in German in a text file:
Mit den folgenden Befehlen wird die mirrorlist aktualisiert:
$ sudo pacman -Syyu $ sudo pacman-mirrors -c Germany,Austria,Switzerland,France,Belgium,Netherlands,Poland,Czechia --api --protocol https -m rank
This forces an update of the local package database. Then updates the system.
If the mirrors database is old then you’ll download it and start using it, which is why it’s not recommended except in certain circumstances.
This updates the mirrorlist.
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And this may be the root of the problem. Learning a new system of commands can be challenging for anyone, regardless of their previous experience in other platforms or distributions.
Here, I can only echo the comment from @dmt .
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Du solltest Deine Notiz auf den tatsächlich richtigen Stand bringen.
Das erste Kommando hat rein gar nichts mit dem aktualisieren der mirror list zu tun.
Das gehört nicht in eine Notiz für spätere Referenz zu dieser Aufgabe.
Auf die Weise lernst Du und erhälst Du das falsche.
Das zweite Kommando - das zweite ganz allein - ist, was das tut.
You should update your “note to self” to reflect reality.
The first command has got nothing to do whatsoever with updating the mirror list.
This does not belong in a notice for later reference.
This way, you’ll learn and perpetuate the decidedly wrong thing.
The second command (and only that) does that - using mirrors from all the countries listed.
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@dmt + @soundofthunder :
No, not at that point. I used that octopi (or however this GUI package manager is called) for the first general update having completed the Manjaro installation + a reboot. And then I used that octopi thing to install the following packages:
-
the latest LTS kernel, deleting the currently installed newer kernel plus installing a non-LTS kernel being older than the LTS kernel which I had installed, as already described here in this thread
-
falkon, vim, radiobox
Then I tried to install strawberry using octopi - and then I think I noted in the GUI of octopi that something went wrong with the installation of strawberry. I think this was the point when the package management in my Manjaro installation got corrupt.
And first from the point on where I wasn’t able to install that strawberry package I started using pacman, reading about its usage in the Archlinux WIKI, getting to know more and more technical background information about Archlinux/Manjaro.
And then, having noticed that something went wrong in octopi while I tried to install the strawberry package, after that moment I maybe I added an extra “y” to a specific pacman command in my personal documentation about Manjaro.
PS: I did not deliberatey add an extra “y” to a specific command. All the commands in my personal documentation about Manjaro are 1:1 copies either from the Archlinux or the Manjaro WIKI.
At this point, did you notice whether Strawberry simply installed, or it was built before installing?
The reason I ask is that it’s possible you were using pamac-manager (Add/Remove Applications) and you inadvertantly installed Strawberry from AUR (Of course, this falls short if you hadn’t yet configured Pamac for AUR).
It’s probably a good idea to use the Manjaro Wiki; there are subtle (easy to miss) differences between Arch and Manjaro.
Your first assumtion: No.
Your second assumption: No. I did not install anything from AUR because I did not switch to it. I only installed packages which I could find via the search function which octopi offers.
Could you paste the full filename of the ISO you downloaded?
No, nothing got build while I tried to install the strawberry package. A build process would have lasted quite a long time on my machine, which is 10 years old with an CPU providing only two kerns (“kern” - is that the right word in English?)
Yes, just a moment, please. It is still on my USB stick, just a moment.
Here is the content of one of my USB sticks:
[@ Ventoy]$ ls -ahl
total 3.3G
drwxr-xr-x 4 32K Oct 7 18:24 .
drwxr-x—+ 4 root root 80 Oct 7 18:24 …
-rwxr-xr-x 1 3.3G Oct 5 15:40 manjaro-kde-24.1.0-minimal-241001-linux610.iso
drwxr-xr-x 2 32K Dec 22 2023 ‘System Volume Information’
drwxr-xr-x 4 32K Dec 4 2022 .Trash-1001
[@ Ventoy]$
“cores”, in English (usually).
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as @soundofthunder said:
cores
von der Bedeutung her: “Herzen” auf Deutsch
… die Dinger, die das virtuelle Blut der CPU pumpen 
building strawberry could take a while - or be fast
I don’t recall
even though I have done it quite some time ago
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