Need to use update pamac command twice because waiting for another package manager

Support Software & Applications
1

Hi all

Lately, after I get an updates notification, I need to use the update pamac command twice because AUR fails to sync and I get a message saying waiting for another package manager to quit.

I did see a similar topic on the forum but my problem happens frequently. The second time I enter sudo pamac update it works.

Please can someone advise.

Thank you for your time.

[manupc@manupc-2 ~]$ sudo pamac update
[sudo] password for manupc: 
Preparing...
Synchronizing package databases...
Failed to synchronize AUR database
Resolving dependencies...
Checking inter-conflicts...

To upgrade (3):
  libpamac                 11.7.3-1  (11.7.2-2.1)  extra  887.8 kB
  libpamac-flatpak-plugin  11.7.3-1  (11.7.2-2.1)  extra  30.3 kB
  libpamac-snap-plugin     11.7.3-1  (11.7.2-2.1)  extra  26.5 kB

Total download size: 944.6 kB

Apply transaction ? [y/N] y
Waiting for another package manager to quit...
[manupc@manupc-2 ~]$ sudo pamac update
Preparing...
Synchronizing package databases...
Failed to synchronize AUR database
Resolving dependencies...
Checking inter-conflicts...

To upgrade (3):
  libpamac                 11.7.3-1  (11.7.2-2.1)  extra  887.8 kB
  libpamac-flatpak-plugin  11.7.3-1  (11.7.2-2.1)  extra  30.3 kB
  libpamac-snap-plugin     11.7.3-1  (11.7.2-2.1)  extra  26.5 kB

Total download size: 944.6 kB

Apply transaction ? [y/N] y
Download of libpamac-snap-plugin (11.7.3-1) started                             
Download of libpamac-flatpak-plugin (11.7.3-1) finished                         
Download of libpamac-snap-plugin (11.7.3-1) finished                            
Download of libpamac (11.7.3-1) finished                                        
Checking keyring...                                                        [3/3]
Checking integrity...                                                      [3/3]
Loading packages files...                                                  [3/3]
Checking file conflicts...                                                 [3/3]
Checking available disk space...                                           [3/3]
Running pre-transaction hooks...
Creating Timeshift snapshot before upgrade...                              [1/1]
==> skipping timeshift-autosnap due skipRsyncAutosnap in /etc/timeshift-autosnap.conf set to TRUE.
Upgrading libpamac (11.7.2-2.1 -> 11.7.3-1)...                             [1/3]
Upgrading libpamac-flatpak-plugin (11.7.2-2.1 -> 11.7.3-1)...              [2/3]
Upgrading libpamac-snap-plugin (11.7.2-2.1 -> 11.7.3-1)...                 [3/3]
Running post-transaction hooks...
Reloading system manager configuration...                                  [1/5]
Restarting marked services...                                              [2/5]
Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate...                                             [3/5]
Updating the MIME type database...                                         [4/5]
Reloading system bus configuration...                                      [5/5]
Transaction successfully finished.
[manupc@manupc-2 ~]$

manupc@manupc-2 ~]$ inxi --full --admin --filter --width
System:
  Kernel: 6.6.75-2-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 14.2.1
    clocksource: tsc avail: hpet,acpi_pm
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.6-x86_64
    root=UUID=1adc77d4-359c-4d50-8e77-204cccc1b265 rw quiet apparmor=1
    security=apparmor udev.log_priority=3 ibt=off
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.20.0 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.43 wm: xfwm4 v: 4.20.0
    with: xfce4-panel tools: light-locker vt: 7 dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0
    Distro: Manjaro base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: PRO B660M-E DDR4 (MS-7D46) v: 1.0
    serial: <superuser required> uuid: <superuser required> UEFI: American
    Megatrends LLC. v: 2.00 date: 12/27/2021
CPU:
  Info: model: 12th Gen Intel Core i5-12400F bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    arch: Alder Lake gen: core 12 level: v3 note: check built: 2021+
    process: Intel 7 (10nm ESF) family: 6 model-id: 0x97 (151) stepping: 2
    microcode: 0x37
  Topology: cpus: 1x dies: 1 clusters: 6 cores: 6 threads: 12 tpc: 2
    smt: enabled cache: L1: 480 KiB desc: d-6x48 KiB; i-6x32 KiB L2: 7.5 MiB
    desc: 6x1.2 MiB L3: 18 MiB desc: 1x18 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 800 min/max: 800/4400 scaling: driver: intel_pstate
    governor: powersave cores: 1: 800 2: 800 3: 800 4: 800 5: 800 6: 800 7: 800
    8: 800 9: 800 10: 800 11: 800 12: 800 bogomips: 59916
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
  Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via
    prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer
    sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Enhanced / Automatic IBRS; IBPB: conditional;
    RSB filling; PBRSB-eIBRS: SW sequence; BHI: BHI_DIS_S
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GK208B [GeForce GT 730] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: nvidia
    v: 470.256.02 alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm non-free: series: 470.xx+
    status: legacy-active (EOL~2024-09-xx) arch: Kepler-2 code: GKxxx
    process: TSMC 28nm built: 2012-2018 pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 4
    link-max: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 8 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1287
    class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.15 compositor: xfwm4 v: 4.20.0 driver:
    X: loaded: nvidia gpu: nvidia display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 509x286mm (20.04x11.26")
    s-diag: 584mm (22.99")
  Monitor-1: Unknown-1 mapped: HDMI-0 res: mode: 1920x1080 hz: 60
    scale: 100% (1) dpi: 102 size: 476x268mm (18.74x10.55") modes: 1920x1080
  API: OpenGL Message: Unable to show GL data. glxinfo is missing.
  Info: Tools: de: xfce4-display-settings gpu: nvidia-settings,nvidia-smi
    x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-S HD Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel alternate: snd_sof_pci_intel_tgl
    bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:7ad0 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: NVIDIA GK208 HDMI/DP Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 4 link-max: gen: 2
    speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 8 bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:0e0f class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.6.75-2-MANJARO status: kernel-api with: aoss
    type: oss-emulator tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: JACK v: 1.9.22 status: off tools: N/A
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 1.2.7 status: off tools: pw-cli
  Server-3: PulseAudio v: 17.0-43-g3e2bb status: active with: pulseaudio-alsa
    type: plugin tools: pacat,pactl,pavucontrol
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-V vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: e1000e
    v: kernel port: N/A bus-ID: 00:1f.6 chip-ID: 8086:1a1d class-ID: 0200
  IF: eno1 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
2

searching for the message I found these as the first hits:

Waiting for another package manager to quit - #9 by kisun

https://www.reddit.com/r/ManjaroLinux/comments/avl1le/pamac_waiting_for_another_package_manager_to_quit/

Apparently there is a lock file left behind for some reason …

3

The reason is that you are updating the updater…just use pacman to update pamac.

1 Like
4

Using the Pamac CLI - Manjaro Wiki

Warning

Using sudo with pamac can have undesirable effects, especially when building packages. if in doubt, don’t use sudo. Pamac will ask for escalated rights if needed.

inxi data in post #1 is truncated and does not show which package managers or AUR helpers are installed. Please post more information:

inxi -Ia
5

Thank you, nikgnomic, Nachlese and Teo for your help.

Nikgnomic, here is the output. I’m wondering if the culprit is yay?

[manupc@manupc-2 ~]$ inxi -Ia
Info:
  Memory: total: 16 GiB available: 15.48 GiB used: 1.88 GiB (12.1%)
  Processes: 269 Power: uptime: 12m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: deep
    avail: s2idle wakeups: 0 hibernate: platform avail: shutdown, reboot,
    suspend, test_resume image: 6.18 GiB services: upowerd,xfce4-power-manager
    Init: systemd v: 257 default: graphical tool: systemctl
  Packages: pm: pacman pkgs: 1472 libs: 427 tools: pamac,yay pm: flatpak
    pkgs: 0 Compilers: clang: 19.1.7 gcc: 14.2.1 Shell: Bash v: 5.2.37
    running-in: xfce4-terminal inxi: 3.3.37
[manupc@manupc-2 ~]$
6

I was under the impression that pamac update somehow did more than sudo pacman -Syu

If I go back to using sudo pacman -Syu perhaps that is all there is to my problem?

1 Like
7

pamac update will include any AUR packages unless you specifically excude them, like this pamac update --no-aur – when excluding the AUR the theory is that only packages from the official Manjaro repositories are updated.

My personal preference is to keep the actions separated; something like this:

sudo pacman -Syu

followed by;

pamac update --aur

or combining the two:

sudo pacman -Syu && pamac update --aur

Regards.

8

pamac update --no-aur is equivalent to sudo pacman -Syu – update Repository packages only

pamac update -a or pamac update --aur is equivalent to using yay – update Repository & AUR packages

pamac update will update Repository & AUR packages if option to update AUR packages is enabled in Pamac GUI preferences
Or update Repository packages only if option to update AUR packages is disabled in Pamac GUI preferences

1 Like
9

Thank you so much. From now on, I will use pamac update (without the sudo) and I will enable AUR updates first in pamac GUI preferences.

1 Like
10

Screenshot_20250303_092933
Screenshot_20250303_092933781×92 8.07 KB

Can you really trust yourself? pamac and pacman words kinda merge in my brain and easily get swapped around.

However, to get a warning you could do this:

/usr/local/bin/pamac

pamac 
#!/bin/bash


if [[ $(ps -o comm= $PPID) == "sudo" ]]; then
    echo "Warning: Do not use 'pamac' with 'root' privileges. It can cause permission issues."
    read -p "Are you sure you want to continue? (y/n): " choice
    if [[ $choice != "y" ]]; then
        echo "Exiting..."
        exit 1
    else
        echo "Continuing..."
    fi
fi

/usr/bin/pamac "$@"

Create that file, and don’t forget to chmod +x

11

I tried.

According to guinux associated issues “should be fixed in libpamac 11.7.3”

Someone else can tell me if thats true. :person_shrugging: .

1 Like
12

Release 11.7.3 · manjaro/libpamac · GitHub
always perform sysupgrade transaction separately from AUR

13

Hi nikgnomic

Unfortunately I’m still having problems updating. I can’t retrieve community.db. When I look at pamac GUI there seems to be a 1.7 Gb update to be downloaded. But when I use the GUI I get an error message that the package manger failed to prepare transaction.

could not satisfy dependencies:
- removing lib32-libffi breaks dependency 'lib32-libffi' required by lib32-glib2
- removing lib32-pcre2 breaks dependency 'lib32-pcre2' required by lib32-glib2
- removing lib32-libffi breaks dependency 'libffi.so=8-32' required by lib32-glib2

When I go to the terminal and use sudo pacman -Syu:

[manupc@manupc-2 ~]$ sudo pacman -Syu
[sudo] password for manupc: 
:: Synchronizing package databases...
 core is up to date
 extra is up to date
 community.db failed to download
error: failed retrieving file 'community.db' from mirror.is.co.za : The requested URL returned error: 404
error: failed to synchronize all databases (failed to retrieve some files)
[manupc@manupc-2 ~]$

Thanks for any advice you can give.

14

Many posts already about this here - and they keep coming.
Just have a quick look at recent posts.
The community repo in /etc/pacman.conf needs to be removed.
It was addressed like two years ago with a .pacnew file but no one seems to care about those until something breaks.
Which for you and many others is: today. :slightly_smiling_face:

3 Likes
15

Hi Nachlese,

Thanks for your help. I will check recent posts before I come back to you for assistance.

16

The answer was contained in my post - even though I directed you to look at the others.

2 Likes
17

Thanks, Nachlese.

How do I remove the community repo in /etc/pacman.conf?

18

The other posts where not instructive?
…

change this:

[community]
SigLevel = PackageRequired
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

to this:

#[community]
#SigLevel = PackageRequired
#Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

or just delete those three lines

then run:
sudo pacman-mirrors -f
to refresh the list of mirrors

1 Like
19

Hi Nachlese

I made things worse. I originally opened with nano and tried to delete the community lines as in your post, but it said permission denied. I must have done something dumb next because now there is nothing under etc/pacman.config
when I open with nano.

20

kate /etc/pacman.conf
It’s actually easy to read, and there’s no risk to open and read. You only need to enter your password if you edit and save it.

If you opened and saved /etc/pacman.config then you can just do rm /etc/pacman.config because that file should not exist.

Kate is a nicer tool for a noob - no sudo is required. If you use some Gnome tools, or basic editors like nano, then you need to open with permissions (more dangerous if your cat jumps on your keyboard).

2 Likes