… is for downgrading. Don’t use that. Use -Syu for normal updates and -Syyu after refreshing the mirror list.
The downgrading would only adjust the package versions with the current repo status, it’s only downgrading if the installed packages are newer than the repo version. I don’t see a case this could be an issue…
2 Likes
You are correct, but I was thinking farther ahead than that.
Many people use -Syyuu or -Syuu because they read it somewhere and they’re blindly parroting what someone else wrote instead of reading the man page to see what those options do. And then they’re making it into a habit of always using those options, which makes it dangerous. 
I am writing from the damaged Manjaro Installation. It boots, starts up, but at this point I’m not sure of what is working and what is not.
I can’t get any response apart from ‘nothing to do’ with all combinations of ‘-S’ and ‘y’ and ‘u’.
Another thing I have noticed is that most errors are in the usr/lib path. Type of errors are ‘empty file’ and ‘not an ELF file -wrong magic byte at start’.
I did add “fsck.mode=force” and “fsck.repair=yes” to GRUB
at the line that starts with GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=
And fsck executes during bootup soon after the luks partition is opened.
But the file system just isn’t fixing itself.
Manjaro Hello doesn’t work. I uninstalled it, reinstalled it, not working inspite of this.
“journalctl --verify” shows many empty files and one damaged entry (flashes in red)
What to do now?
Make sure you have a recent backup of all your user data and reinstall. There’s no point in trying to salvage this. Your system is hosed beyond repair. 
1 Like
I’m hanging on because this installation has Oracle Jdk8 8u351 installed, I need this for a professional software that won’t run on anything except Oracle Jdk8 8u351…no longer available on YAY or pamac or flatpak and the file from Oracle archives won’t install.
Anyways, I’ll hang on till this installation stops booting. It’s booting and currently running many things, including the Oracle JDK 8u351 based professional software.
Thanks all. Appreciate the efforts.
And of course, you never thought about making backups? 
Thanks, Aragorn, I will do that immediately. 
Thanks for the efforts!
My point is that you should have done that before the update that broke your system. Then you can reformat and reinstall, change the UUIDs in /etc/fstab to match the new filesystems, and then restore your backups. Then you’d have your Oracle et al again, on a working system.
1 Like
To salvage this kind of error i have sometimes long ago asked pacman to list all installed packages, and then forwarding the list into pacman -S to reinstall them. I don’t remember the command off hand but should not be hard to find, IIRC it can be done in couple different ways.
1 Like
If needed then;
sudo pacman -Syu $(pacman -Qnq)
There is also the --overwrite flag which should be used with care.
Theres also mapare, which will print and/or install things for you:
Sometimes I use it to see what 'default' packages have been added/changed
$ bash <(curl -s https://gitlab.com/cscs/mapare/-/raw/main/mapare) -IP
Manjaro Package Restore
Retrieve and reinstall package lists
Please provide desktop environment (kde,xfce,gnome): kde
Packages for installation:
b43-fwcutter 019-4
btrfs-progs 6.5-1
intel-ucode 20230808-1
pulseaudio 16.1-6
pulseaudio-bluetooth 16.1-6
manjaro-pulse 20221015-2
pulseaudio-zeroconf 16.1-6
grub-btrfs 4.13-1
archlinux-appstream-data 20230827-2
libhandy 1.8.2-1
libpamac 11.6.2+6+ge74fe0e-1
pamac-cli 11.6.0-1
pamac-gtk3 10.6.0-0.1
pamac-tray-icon-plasma 0.1.3-1
plymouth 22.02.122-14
plymouth-theme-manjaro 2.2-1
libfakekey 0.3-2
kcontacts 1:5.110.0-1
kpeoplevcard 0.1+r38.32d50a9-1
pulseaudio-qt 1.3-1
kirigami-addons 0.11.0-1
kdeconnect 23.08.1-1
qt6-declarative 6.5.2-2
compiler-rt 16.0.6-2
clang 16.0.6-1
llvm 16.0.6-1
shiboken6 6.5.2-2
pyside6 6.5.2-2
python-systemd 235-2
python-manjaro-sdk 0.9-2
web-installer-url-handler 2.3-1
manjaro-hello 0.7.1-2
manjaro-application-utility 1.3.3-10
manjaro-settings-manager-knotifier 0.5.7-16
plymouth-kcm 5.27.8-1
yakuake 23.08.1-1
manjaro-browser-settings 20220522-1
libva-vdpau-driver 0.7.4-6
power-profiles-daemon 0.13-1
2 Likes
CSCS I executed the command you provided, it reinstalled a lot of things, but it did not resolve the issues like ‘empty file’ and ‘wrong magic bytes’ errors and non working programs like Manjaro Hello, Sane, etc that I had mentioned earlier.
I found the following information at Wiki Archlinux
Maybe this is what I need?
How to execute this in my case?
My journal exists but is full of errors like empty file and damaged file errors.
Should I just wipe out my journal using chroot and create a new journal then fsck.repair from chroot?
Aragorn, how do I do this backup so that my Oracle JDK8 gets backed up as well? I’m a newbie, so pardon this question. Just give me the link , I’ll follow it. Thanks.
Use timeshift. It backs up your entire system — by default it does not include /home, but you can change this.
1 Like
If you reinstalled all packages, and ran sudo ldconfig, then you are truly dealing with a phantom problem. Because even if filesystem errors existed, reinstalling should re-write the data correctly. I’m not even sure ldconfig should be needed as the path to file is not changed.
1 Like
There’s something wrong I think. Manjaro Hello does not run, though I uninstalled and re installed it several times.
Flatpak had stopped working but started working again after uninstall/reinstall.
Likewise for YAY. And Opera Browser. Started working after uninstall and reinstall using the GUI package manager built into Manjaro KDE.
This is the message generated each time I try to install Manjaro Hello, and Manjaro Hello does not work —>
Preparing...
Synchronizing package databases...
Resolving dependencies...
Checking inter-conflicts...
Download of lsb-release (2.0.r53.a86f885-1) started
Download of lsb-release (2.0.r53.a86f885-1) finished
Download of python-manjaro-sdk (0.9-2) started
Download of python-manjaro-sdk (0.9-2) finished
Download of web-installer-url-handler (2.3-1) started
Download of web-installer-url-handler (2.3-1) finished
Download of manjaro-hello (0.7.1-2) started
Download of manjaro-hello (0.7.1-2) finished
Checking keyring...
Checking integrity...
Loading packages files...
Checking file conflicts...
Checking available disk space...
Installing lsb-release (2.0.r53.a86f885-1)...
Installing python-manjaro-sdk (0.9-2)...
Installing web-installer-url-handler (2.3-1)...
touch: cannot touch '/.config/mimeapps.list': No such file or directory
/usr/bin/xdg-mime: line 887: /.config/mimeapps.list.new: No such file or directory
Installing manjaro-hello (0.7.1-2)...
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libnetsnmp.so.40 is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libQt5DesignerComponents.so is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libnetsnmptrapd.so.40.1.0 is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libnetsnmpmibs.so is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libQt5Designer.so.5 is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libQt5Help.so.5 is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libpyside6.abi3.so is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libstd-3832a15f20d69b64.so is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libQt5Designer.so.5.15 is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libpyside6.abi3.so.6.5.2 is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libm17n-core.so is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libnetsnmptrapd.so.40 is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libQt5DesignerComponents.so.5 is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libpyside6qml.abi3.so.6.5.2 is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libnetsnmphelpers.so.40 is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libshiboken6.abi3.so is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libnetsnmpagent.so.40.1.0 is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libnetsnmp.so is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libm17n-flt.so.0.4.2 is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libm17n.so.0.4.2 is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libshiboken6.abi3.so.6.5.2 is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libpyside6qml.abi3.so.6.5 is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libpyside6.abi3.so.6.5 is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libpyside6qml.abi3.so is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libm17n-gui.so.0 is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libnetsnmp.so.40.1.0 is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libnetsnmphelpers.so is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libtest-4267710c4664eb03.so is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libqpdf.so.29 is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libsnmp.so is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libOkular5Core.so.11.0.0 is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libsnmp.so.40 is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libQt5Help.so.5.15.10 is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libm17n-flt.so is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libnetsnmpmibs.so.40.1.0 is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libQt5Designer.so is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libsnmp.so.40.1.0 is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libnetsnmpmibs.so.40 is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libnetsnmpagent.so.40 is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libm17n-gui.so.0.4.2 is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libnetsnmphelpers.so.40.1.0 is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libre2.so.11.0.0 is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libm17n-core.so.0 is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libm17n-gui.so is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libQt5DesignerComponents.so.5.15.10 is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libre2.so.11 is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libnetsnmptrapd.so is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libQt5Help.so.5.15 is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libqpdf.so.29.6.0 is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libshiboken6.abi3.so.6.5 is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libQt5Help.so is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libm17n.so is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libnetsnmpagent.so is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libqpdf.so is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libQt5DesignerComponents.so.5.15 is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libre2.so is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libostree-1.so.1.0.0.old is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libOkular5Core.so.11 is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libOkular5Core.so is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/librustc_driver-392e30d67b5926f8.so is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libm17n-core.so.0.4.2 is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libm17n-flt.so.0 is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libQt5Designer.so.5.15.10 is empty, not checked.
ldconfig: /usr/lib/libm17n.so.0 is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start.
Running post-transaction hooks...
Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate...
Updating the desktop file MIME type cache...
Transaction successfully finished.
Just reinstall the system after you have backed up personal files.
Reinstall your specific JDK version, by taking the old AUR archive autu: Update to 8u351-1 - aur.git - AUR Package Repositories and reinstall with that (you apparently need to have the jdk-8u351-linux-x64.tar.gz archive manually downloaded and added to the other files beforehand though, available on their website). You could do a TimeShift snapshot on an external device ‘just in case’ before reinstalling but that still makes no sense if the system is broken.
At this point you have proven your system is doomed, people told you to reinstall, but you still want to keep your doomed system. And you’re even talking about making a backup of this broken system now.
Not to be rude but at this point it is total non sense.
//EDIT: do a full system snapshot if you can with TimeShift as already suggested, save that on external device so you could restore your broken system (maybe?) later if really no other choice, but you need to reinstall at this point. The AUR archive will contain all you need to reinstall this old JDK version, it should work no problem.
//EDIT after closing thread: @vikram72 If you need help to reinstall your old JDK on your freshly reinstalled system, open up a new thread for that and you can tag me @omano and I’ll be notified, I will try to help for that.
2 Likes
Yes, there is, and you have been told several times already what to do, but @omano sums it up really concisely here.
There is nothing we can do to help you anymore, @vikram72. Your system is broken, and if it is your choice to keep on messing with that, then so be it, but then you’re going to have to bear the responsibility for that all on your own.
You are wasting both your own time and ours. And if your system was so important to your work, then you would have been making regular backups already, but from the looks of it, you haven’t made a single backup yet so far.
So as a last advice, make a copy of all that’s in your /home on some external storage medium (with a Linux-native filesystem, unless you’re opting to create a .tar archive), and then reformat and reinstall the damn thing. Case closed.
I am sorry, but this thread could carry on for all eternity and you would still not get a working system out of it. Therefore, there’s no point.