"Remote Peer Disconnected" error when trying to open Add/Remove Software

Support
1

A bit new to this so excuse if the formatting is odd. A few days ago, I got an error and wasn’t able to open Add/Remove Software. Whenever I did try to open it, either nothing would happen or I would get an “X” Icon with red around it saying “Remote Peer Disconnected”. I didn’t understand why since no update happened little or not really and this just spontaneously happened when I was going to check it for any updates.

I started looking around and only found 1 post on here that was talking about it.

I eventually tried one of the commands that were in the response which was this.

sudo pacman-mirrors --continent && sudo pacman -Syu

Good news it did work, but then this happened again a couple days later. And while the same command worked and fixed it again, I’m worried why this problem might be re-occurring. I’m also worried if eventually the command just won’t work and I’m just left without a working Pacman.

Also keep in mind, while I have been using Linux for a bit over 2 years, I don’t really know much at all about it. I just try to keep up with the news about the updates and everything and just try and be careful. I just want a desktop that works and is stable. I would try learning about the commands and everything but it just stresses and worries me too much really.

First time posting here as well, so if there was something I had to read before posting I don’t know where it is so sorry about that. I will try my best to answer questions and give details to the best of my ability.

2

There has been many reports that pamac is/was having issues with the AUR meta data file.

If you have enabled AUR onThird Party tab in the GUI this could be just that.

Disabling AUR may solve your issue - at the very least the Check for updates option for AUR.

3

Ok, but what if I do have AUR packages and such, won’t they need updates when they come around or so?

4

This command combination sorts mirrors and then performs the update. Sometimes a mirror might be temporarily unavailable for a number of reasons. Quite often it might be a problem somewhere between your machine and the mirror(s), or an issue with the mirror itself.

There are potentially many reasons why a remote peer might be disconnected. If updating via WiFi, for example, the likelihood is high that there might be an interruption during updating. Always use a wired network connection where possible.

To help minimise the issue you could arguably use the same command combination every time you perform an update.

This is where expectation meets reality. I’m afraid that Linux demands a certain amount of maintenance to be performed by the User; a hands-on approach; despite the usual blurbs one might read. This is the best way to maintain the ‘just works’ ideal. :slight_smile:

The Manjaro Wiki shouldn’t stress or worry you. Even if you refuse to learn commands, it doesn’t take much effort to bookmark (and/or print) instructions and commands commonly needed. Then you can use them as a reference whenever the information might be needed.

Hi @Horizon and welcome to the Manjaro community.

As a new forum user, please take some time to familiarise yourself with Forum requirements; in particular, the many ways to use the forum to your benefit:

To that end, some or all of these links may be invaluable:

Last, but not least, the Update Announcements, which you should check frequently for important update related information.

An issue may be directly related to a particular update; these announcements should generally be checked before posting a request for support.

I hope this is helpful.

Cheers.

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5

Alright thanks for that, I will try and keep all that in mind and be careful in the future.

6

There is no computer system which is set and forget and Manjaro Linux is no exception.

User intervention is required on a regular base.

Know your system - best practise is individual - you will know.

In order to separate any possible issues when syncing your system - custom packages, that is AUR, Flatpak, Snap or AppImage - should be maintained separately.

Always do a base system sync first.

Then launch your custom applications one at a time and verify they are in a working state.

If any of your custom packages has become dysfunctional - especially python based apps - then you need to rebuild the package in question.

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7

Sorry about this, this is alot to take in and I’m trying to keep up. I was looking myself if I had any AUR packages and I don’t know if i do. I checked the AUR area in the pacman GUI and I couldn’t find anything really. I also don’t know how to do a base system sync. And if a package does become dysfuctional, would rebuilding classify as re-installing it or something else?

8

This simple command syncs system packages with those available in the official Manjaro repositories; this is more commonly referred to as updating your system; the difference is that this command only syncs/updates official Manjaro packages:

sudo pacman -Syu

Notice its the same command you used earlier.

pacman cannot update packages from the AUR. Another (similar looking) command would typically be used to update packages from the AUR (only if the AUR has been configured by you).

pamac update

Note that if you never configure AUR for pamac you will never need to be concerned with it.

There is no “Pacman GUI”. :eyes:

Add/Remove applications is the GUI version of Pamac; completely separate from Pacman, despite the similarity in names.

Both Pamac (commandline) and Pamac (GUI) can be used to manage AUR packages, and rebuild them as necessary.

Yes, sometimes rebuilding an application from the AUR is needed; particularly after a base system sync/update (using pacman).

This is where it might get confusing for newer users, as pamac also syncs/updates packages from the official repositories (but does not use pacman).

My suggestion is not to enable AUR at all (in Pamac) unless you have a specific need to.

I think you will already see that an amount of learning is needed. When asking for support, it is generally expected. I dare say, there are few forum users who enjoy having to pry enough information from a User to understand the problem they are having, before they can offer a solution.

The links given help to avoid those problems, by encouraging someone to learn how to provide useful information. This is always preferable to a game of 1000 questions.

Simply acknowledging the information given doesn’t help at all, unless you actually follow the links, and read the content.

Please don’t ignore it.

I think you’ll find with just a little effort you can find sufficient information to guide you throughout your Manjaro experience.

Good luck.

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