I’m seeing many people in the forums reporting that they’ve had problems with Pamac recently, generally being buggy or not completing an install properly and some people have also switched to Octopi instead.
I was just wondering what needs to be done to make Pamac work properly again? is it still actively being developed? does it need a big code overhaul?
Pamac is one of the few GUI package managers out there with an easy to use interface (especially for new users) and it has screenshots of many apps when you click on them for details, which I think is very useful… I’m just curious what “went wrong” and how can it be fixed?
I would say that it’s regarded by the Manjaro Team as still being under active development.
However, due to reasons I’m not privy to, the original developer appears to be hard to get a hold of.
I don’t think so. And actually — with the disclaimer that I only ever use pamac-cli, and that I don’t have pamac-gtk, pamac-gtk3 or even pamac-tray-icon-plasma on my system — I believe that its crashes could be the result of some changes in gtk itself.
Either way, pamac has already often had issues during its lifetime, but the increase in pamac crashes — especially the two gtk variants — started happening about a month ago, and the pamac we’re using now was last (re)built in December 2025. This suggests that the instability of late would either way be caused by a still recent change in whatever underlying components pamac depends on.
Therefore, somebody would seriously need to inspect its code for bugs, and for compatibility with the shared libraries, et al.
Aragorn san! Always a pleasure to see a post or a reply from you.
I was just worried with so many people (including some Manjaro team members) switching to Octopi that Pamac would be left by the wayside… I hope it continues (or rather resumes) being a core focus of Manjaro. (it… it is a core focus right? please say yes? )
Recommended course of action: Invite said original developer to a pint (or two, but not three) of the good stuff!
I do not have a problem with pamac. But i am using it only for letting me know that a new update is ready to install.
Then i am going to CLI and run it there.
Why, yes, pamac is very much a core component of Manjaro.
One of the packagers has already given him a nudge, but I don’t know whether he has responded yet.
I use it only for installing or updating my AUR packages. I use pacman for everything else, although on occasion I also use octopi — usually so as to quickly look up on a package, its dependencies, and whether I’ve got it installed (and for what reason).
The fact that the names of the dependencies and provided packages are shown as clickable links in octopi, and that you can also quickly look at what files are or would be installed, makes it a great tool, in my opinion.
Oh, i should have mentioned it. Before running pamac i also the AUR packages i am using what has been changed.
Thanks for the hint with octopi. I was using yay so far
I, for one, would shout really loudly until that idea were squashed…
The only experience better than using a nice one-liner to upgrade is having a one-stop shop connected to all of your chosen repositories (however toxic or controversial they may be).
Octopi is fine, but it won’t pull results from flatpak when you’re looking for a candidate to give you stremio, for example, which has a flatpak version too.
This is pretty much how I use pamac. Tray icon turns red, pacman goes -Syu Brrrrrrrrrr .
:: Synchronizing package databases...
core is up to date
extra is up to date
multilib is up to date
error: target not found: Brrrrrrrrrr
I did use pamac for years, though; especially on GUI. Even on the CLI the options were more intuitive. I still use it for browsing, as I find it a lot more convenient for that. Now I use pacman, mainly, after I finally took time to figure out the options and their combinations. I did have the occasional weird issue with pamac, but so far in the last 6 months, I haven’t had a single one with pacman (that would’ve resulted from the program itself). Time and place for everything, I guess.
Yes exactly! It’s easy to see in one place all the things that you need to update and it has pictures and descriptions too! Sometimes you want to just browse the software that’s available… and it’s nice to see what software has a native version and a flatpak version as well…
Always a pleasure to see a post or a reply from you.
(it… it is a core focus right? please say yes? 
)
