Pamac authentication errors

[lagagnon]

My system is up to date but cannot access anything in the AUR due to pamac authentication errors:

Error: restricting filesystem access failed because Landlock is not supported by the kernel!
Error: switching to sandbox user ‘alpm’ failed!
failed to retrieve some files
Failed to synchronize databases
failed to retrieve some files
Preparing…
==== AUTHENTICATING FOR org.manjaro.pamac.commit ====
Authentication is required to install, update, or remove packages
Authenticating as: ****
==== AUTHENTICATION FAILED ====
Error: Authentication failed

Any assistance greatly appreciated…

[scotty65]

Please provide the output of:

inxi --filter --verbosity=8

or the short form (preferred):

inxi -zv8

• inxi man pages (Arch Manual)

Running `inxi` in `chroot`

@Running `inxi` in `chroot`

If you need to run inxi from within a chroot environment, and find the output is laced with unexpected 12’s, please try again with:

• Add to the long form command: --color=0
• or, change the short form to: inxi -zv8c0

Providing `inxi` when you cannot access your desktop environment

@Providing `inxi` when you cannot access your desktop environment

If you are unable to copy and paste the inxi output due to being unable to access your desktop, but can still access a TTY text session, then you can send the inxi output to a pastebin service:

inxi -zv8c0 | nc termbin.com 9999

Note: the nc command may require installation of the openbsd-netcat package:

pamac install openbsd-netcat

or

sudo pacman -Syu openbsd-netcat

After the output is sent, a link to the inxi output will be provided, which you can then add to your forum post.

If you are not allowed to post links in the forum due to being a new member, you can still paste the link as code by typing 3 backticks ``` on empty lines above and below the pasted URL.

@Your privacy is respected

When inxi is run using the --filter or -z parameters, any personally identifiable information is filtered from the resulting output.

Please be aware that any code or command output (such as inxi output) should be placed within a scrollable pre-formatted text enclosure according to forum guidelines.

See here for instructions

---

[Mini How-To] format code or command output

Select and copy all the text in the Terminal window (minus the prompt, if you are using zsh).

Then paste the output in between two lines containing three backticks:
```
or three tildes:
~~~

Or:

Copy & paste, then highlight the pasted text and click the </> button at the top of the reply window (easier for smaller outputs).

---

Could you please also confirm the actual command you ran which produced the error?

If I were to have a guess though, it would be that you are running an older kernel (pre-linux66), and are thus encountering the polkit issue that was first mentioned in Announcements > Stable Updates during January 2026.

[Fangdrasil]

As @scotty65 says, more information is needed, but your problems seems similar to this:

Pamac & landlock access problem

This is a configuration issue. You have a system where the DownloadUser = alpm tries to access a restricted folder. You can add lsm=landlock,lockdown,yama,integrity,apparmor,bpf to your cmdline as defined in /etc/default/grub or you can uncomment the line #DisableSandbox in /etc/pacman.conf. If you choose to add it to your kernel cmdline - you need to rebuild your init and grub config.

[nikgnomic]

Landlock: unprivileged access control — The Linux Kernel documentation

[giulia_privacy408]

One small check before changing pacman.conf: what kernel are you actually booted into?

uname -r

If it is older than 6.6, booting a current LTS kernel is probably cleaner than disabling the sandbox. If you choose the Landlock kernel cmdline route instead, remember to rebuild grub/initramfs and reboot before testing Pamac again, otherwise it will still see the old kernel state.

[pwx]

Could it be that pamac was run with sudo beforehand?

[soundofthunder]

More reference;

landlock(7) — Arch manual pages