Pamac (gui) AUR search broken?

deemon · 22 April 2026 23:06

Has pamac recently lost the ability to search for AUR packages or update the lists? I mean it has something from AUR, but doesn’t have many other packages.

$ yay -Ss helium
aur/helium-browser-bin 0.11.3.2-1 (+66 16.56)
    Private, fast, and honest web browser based on Chromium (Latest/Stable)
aur/helium-wallet 2.1.1-1 (+0 0.00)
    Helium Wallet
aur/helium-browser 0.11.3.2-1 (+3 1.14)
    Private, fast, and honest web browser based on - Ungoogled - Chromium
aur/helium-ledger-cli 2.2.3-1 (+0 0.00)
    Helium Application for Ledger
aur/helium-gtk-theme 1.8.10r6-1 (+0 0.00)
    GTK4 and GNOME Shell themes used in tauOS
aur/helium-ledger-app-bin 1.1.2-1 (+0 0.00)
    Helium Application for Ledger
aur/helium-ledger-cli-bin 2.0.0-1 (+0 0.00)
    Companion app for Helium and Ledger devices
aur/helium-browser-beta-bin 0.7.10.1-3 (+0 0.00)
    Private, fast, and honest web browser based on Chromium (pre-release)
aur/plasma-theme-helium 9.13-2 (+8 0.00) (Orphaned) (Out-of-date: 2020-05-01)
    A translucent theme for Plasma 5.
aur/libhelium 1.8.71-1 (+2 0.03)
    The application framework for tauOS apps.
aur/tau-enigma 0.1.0-1 (+0 0.00)
    A simple text editor written using libhelium
aur/libhelium-git r1594.f173173-1 (+0 0.00)
    The application framework for tauOS apps.
aur/plasma-theme-helium-git 9.0.1-1 (+0 0.00) (Out-of-date: 2024-04-27)
    A translucent theme for Plasma 5

$ pamac search helium
tau-enigma  0.1.0-1                                                                                                                                           AUR
    A simple text editor written using libhelium
plasma-theme-helium-git  9.0.1-1                                                                                                                              AUR
    A translucent theme for Plasma 5
plasma-theme-helium  9.13-2                                                                                                                                   AUR
    A translucent theme for Plasma 5.
libhelium-git  r1594.f173173-1                                                                                                                                AUR
    The application framework for tauOS apps.
libhelium  1.8.54-1                                                                                                                                           AUR
    The application framework for tauOS apps.
helium-wallet  2.1.1-1                                                                                                                                        AUR
    Helium Wallet
helium-ledger-cli-bin  2.0.0-1                                                                                                                                AUR
    Companion app for Helium and Ledger devices
helium-ledger-cli  2.2.3-1                                                                                                                                    AUR
    Helium Application for Ledger
helium-ledger-app-bin  1.1.2-1                                                                                                                                AUR
    Helium Application for Ledger
helium-gtk-theme  1.8.10r6-1                                                                                                                                  AUR
    GTK4 and GNOME Shell themes used in tauOS

Mod edit: split the output of the 2 commands to make it easier to compare them

for example was trying to find helium-browser and it just fails to find it. But at the same time it has a long list of other packages containing “helium” in the name from AUR. Almost like it fails to update the package list from AUR and uses whatever it has from whenever it was last updated?

nikgnomic · 22 April 2026 23:18

Pamac search on my system list 13 AUR packages, similar to search on AUR

pamac search helium

tau-enigma  0.1.0-1                                                                                                  AUR
    A simple text editor written using libhelium
plasma-theme-helium-git  9.0.1-1                                                                                     AUR
    A translucent theme for Plasma 5
plasma-theme-helium  9.13-2                                                                                          AUR
    A translucent theme for Plasma 5.
libhelium-git  r1594.f173173-1                                                                                       AUR
    The application framework for tauOS apps.
libhelium  1.8.71-1                                                                                                  AUR
    The application framework for tauOS apps.
helium-wallet  2.1.1-1                                                                                               AUR
    Helium Wallet
helium-ledger-cli-bin  2.0.0-1                                                                                       AUR
    Companion app for Helium and Ledger devices
helium-ledger-cli  2.2.3-1                                                                                           AUR
    Helium Application for Ledger
helium-ledger-app-bin  1.1.2-1                                                                                       AUR
    Helium Application for Ledger
helium-gtk-theme  1.8.10r6-1                                                                                         AUR
    GTK4 and GNOME Shell themes used in tauOS
helium-browser-bin  0.11.3.2-1                                                                                       AUR
    Private, fast, and honest web browser based on Chromium (Latest/Stable)
helium-browser-beta-bin  0.7.10.1-3                                                                                  AUR
    Private, fast, and honest web browser based on Chromium (pre-release)
helium-browser  0.11.3.2-1                                                                                           AUR
    Private, fast, and honest web browser based on - Ungoogled - Chromium

scotty65 · 22 April 2026 23:25

The same here. 13 packages listed by pamac.

I’m on Testing branch, however I just checked and all 3 Manjaro branches are on the same versions of libpamac & pamac-cli: Branch compare for Manjaro - pamac.

Maybe @deemon needs to refresh their databases:

pamac update --force-refresh

deemon · 22 April 2026 23:27

Technically I was using pamac only via GUI to search for packages and stuff. Never update or install anything from there, more like just AUR and package browser.
Now managed to forcefully update the list from terminal with pamac update … but I could swear it did previously update AUR lists from GUI also (at least occasionally) when just doing searches… now it doesn’t anymore? Can I somehow force it to?

deemon · 22 April 2026 23:29

yes, this works. However how can I make pamac-manager (gui app) to do it automatically before any search or at least periodically? Or just refresh the lists automatically on pamac-manager startup once? also clicking on the “updates” button in pamac-manager kinda … starts checking for updates and then hangs there without finding anything… and seemingly semi-breaking the app (the center content window remains in the “checking for updates” forever even when clicking any other buttons.)

scotty65 · 22 April 2026 23:37

It should update the databases whenever it checks for updates, so have a look at the Updates check frequency setting in pamac GUI’s preferences:

Also, check if the AUR is set to check for updates:

If you have that disabled, pamac may only update the repo databases when it runs its scheduled update check.

You can also manually force refresh the databases via the hamburger menu:

deemon · 22 April 2026 23:41

I wish. This thing “refresh databases” literally wants to rebuild all aur packages for some reason… and remove some stuff:

what??? ( after a bit looking into it, for some reason it has decided on invoking “refresh databases” instead to replace my installed “virtualbox” with “virtualbox-bin” from AUR?? (maybe because it’s newer 7.2.8 and providing “virtualbox” also while the repo “virtualbox” is 7.2.6). Still. If I have it installed it from repo, I would rather not want pamac to replace it with AUR package at any point ever… this is quite odd behavior (if not to say security risk) … now I remember why I stopped using pamac for anything else than just browsing packages. On top of that I didn’t press any “Update” but wanted to just refresh databases

scotty65 · 23 April 2026 00:00

The first thing I would recommend is that you switch to using pamac-gtk3, which is more compatible with Plasma than the GNOME/Adwaita pamac-gtk, which uses GTK4:

sudo pacman -Syu pamac-gtk3

The above command will also update your system packages without the AUR, so your system will be fully up-to-date.

After the change, see if the Pamac GUI problem persists, or if you can review what is going to be updated in the Updates tab first before the proceed dialog pops up.

Also, I notice that your profile says you are on Stable branch, which is not recommended for AUR usage. Possibly another package that you have installed from the AUR has changed dependencies, and that package needs a more recent version of virtualbox than the Stable branch version, so it is trying to install virtualbox-bin to meet that requirement?

deemon · 23 April 2026 00:05

Check for updates was on in the settings. However somehow the time was not set how frequently to check and in /etc/pamac.conf RefreshPeriod was 0 (which according to config file comment would disable checking for updates at all? which kinda contradicts the GUI “Check for Updates” ON toggle). Also you can’t even put the period to 0 in the GUI (anymore?).

Did set it now to 6. Hopefully fixes the list never updating problem. (absolutely no idea, how or when it became 0.)

system · 26 April 2026 00:05

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