Initramfs unpacking failed: read error

This is not going particularly well for me:

[manjaro /]# [ -f /var/lib/pacman/db.lck ] && rm -f /var/lib/pacman/db.lck
[manjaro /]# pacman -Syu
:: Synchronizing package databases...
 core.db failed to download
error: failed retrieving file 'core.db' from mirror.netcologne.de : Could not resolve host: mirror.netcologne.de
warning: too many errors from mirror.netcologne.de, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'core.db' from mirrors.nic.cz : Could not resolve host: mirrors.nic.cz
warning: too many errors from mirrors.nic.cz, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'core.db' from mirror.telepoint.bg : Could not resolve host: mirror.telepoint.bg
warning: too many errors from mirror.telepoint.bg, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'core.db' from manjaro.astra.in.ua : Could not resolve host: manjaro.astra.in.ua
warning: too many errors from manjaro.astra.in.ua, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'core.db' from mnvoip.mm.fcix.net : Could not resolve host: mnvoip.mm.fcix.net
warning: too many errors from mnvoip.mm.fcix.net, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'core.db' from mirrors.sonic.net : Could not resolve host: mirrors.sonic.net
warning: too many errors from mirrors.sonic.net, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'core.db' from mirrors.pku.edu.cn : Could not resolve host: mirrors.pku.edu.cn
warning: too many errors from mirrors.pku.edu.cn, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'core.db' from free.nchc.org.tw : Could not resolve host: free.nchc.org.tw
warning: too many errors from free.nchc.org.tw, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed to synchronize all databases (invalid url for server)
[manjaro /]# mhwd-kernel -i linux515
:: Synchronizing package databases...
 core.db failed to download
error: failed retrieving file 'core.db' from mirror.netcologne.de : Could not resolve host: mirror.netcologne.de
warning: too many errors from mirror.netcologne.de, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'core.db' from mirrors.nic.cz : Could not resolve host: mirrors.nic.cz
warning: too many errors from mirrors.nic.cz, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'core.db' from mirror.telepoint.bg : Could not resolve host: mirror.telepoint.bg
warning: too many errors from mirror.telepoint.bg, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'core.db' from manjaro.astra.in.ua : Could not resolve host: manjaro.astra.in.ua
warning: too many errors from manjaro.astra.in.ua, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'core.db' from mnvoip.mm.fcix.net : Could not resolve host: mnvoip.mm.fcix.net
warning: too many errors from mnvoip.mm.fcix.net, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'core.db' from mirrors.sonic.net : Could not resolve host: mirrors.sonic.net
warning: too many errors from mirrors.sonic.net, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'core.db' from mirrors.pku.edu.cn : Could not resolve host: mirrors.pku.edu.cn
warning: too many errors from mirrors.pku.edu.cn, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'core.db' from free.nchc.org.tw : Could not resolve host: free.nchc.org.tw
warning: too many errors from free.nchc.org.tw, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed to synchronize all databases (invalid url for server)
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...

Packages (2) linux515-5.15.125-1  linux515-virtualbox-host-modules-7.0.10-7

Total Download Size:   100.29 MiB
Total Installed Size:  104.80 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] y
:: Retrieving packages...
 linux515-5.15.125-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst failed to download
 Total (1/2)           100.3 MiB  9.79 GiB/s 00:00 [######################] 100%
error: failed retrieving file 'linux515-5.15.125-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from mirror.netcologne.de : Could not resolve host: mirror.netcologne.de
warning: too many errors from mirror.netcologne.de, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'linux515-5.15.125-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from mirrors.nic.cz : Could not resolve host: mirrors.nic.cz
warning: too many errors from mirrors.nic.cz, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'linux515-5.15.125-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from mirror.telepoint.bg : Could not resolve host: mirror.telepoint.bg
warning: too many errors from mirror.telepoint.bg, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'linux515-5.15.125-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from manjaro.astra.in.ua : Could not resolve host: manjaro.astra.in.ua
warning: too many errors from manjaro.astra.in.ua, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'linux515-5.15.125-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from mnvoip.mm.fcix.net : Could not resolve host: mnvoip.mm.fcix.net
warning: too many errors from mnvoip.mm.fcix.net, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'linux515-5.15.125-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from mirrors.sonic.net : Could not resolve host: mirrors.sonic.net
warning: too many errors from mirrors.sonic.net, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'linux515-5.15.125-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from mirrors.pku.edu.cn : Could not resolve host: mirrors.pku.edu.cn
warning: too many errors from mirrors.pku.edu.cn, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
error: failed retrieving file 'linux515-5.15.125-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from free.nchc.org.tw : Could not resolve host: free.nchc.org.tw
warning: too many errors from free.nchc.org.tw, skipping for the remainder of this transaction
warning: failed to retrieve some files
error: failed to commit transaction (invalid url for server)
Errors occurred, no packages were upgraded.
[manjaro /]#

I saw a few suggestions in this post: Initramfs unpacking failed: invalid magic as start of compressed - #28 by sire

You need to chroot to your broken system with live USB stick, then edit /etc/mkinitpcio.conf to change the compression to gzip, then run mkinitcpio -P && update-grub, then reboot

And then Zesko saying that one can just update mkinitcpio
If I update mkinitcpio to the latest version while on chroot, do you think that would solve the issue?