ichase Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 (edited) I know why, it is a typo. Those { } should be brackets [ ] I know they are supposed to be []brackets. But when you try to put brackets around an entry while writing code, it gets confused. [Archlinuxfr] So my entry actually really is[Archlinuxfr]Server = http://repo.archlinux.fr/$archI thought someone was going to catch that. :hysterical:Edit: OK, well it worked that time. :hysterical:EXTREMELY Windy here in SE VA, I have NEVER driven through the amount of rain I drove through on my way from VA Beach to Norfolk this morning. Could not see anything and running about 5 MPHYes, back to Eric's issue. Did not mean to Threadjack my friend. Edited April 5, 2011 by ichase Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa4chq Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 Thanks for the info!! No, you do not have to install updates but you may miss a security update or two. The reason you need to keep updating a rolling distro, is because things change so quickly. If you do not update for awhile, and then try to update you may fry your installation.Back to Eric's issue, have you gotten anywhere? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted April 5, 2011 Author Share Posted April 5, 2011 HAHA! You sound like you're apologizing because it's your fault, J. Don't sweat it, brother. I'll figure it out. Keep ya' posted... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 HAHA! You sound like you're apologizing because it's your fault, J. Don't sweat it, brother. I'll figure it out. Keep ya' posted...I do not feel that way, I just like to help out if I can :' /> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted April 5, 2011 Author Share Posted April 5, 2011 When it comes to Arch, you've helped out a H3LLUVA lot! :' /> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 When it comes to Arch, you've helped out a H3LLUVA lot! :' />Oh just Arch? Gee thanks....just kidding :' /> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted April 6, 2011 Author Share Posted April 6, 2011 You mean you answer other questions, too? Man! We really need to see about getting you a raise. :' /> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vagabond Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 For ichase:You say your mirrorlist includes this entry...[Archlinuxfr]Server = http://repo.archlinux.fr/$arch...and that it works. CMIIAW, but I doubt it can possibly work. See securitybreach's tip, where he suggests that you specify 32 or 64 bit architecture. "$arch" does not refer to Arch Linux, but to your architecture. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 For ichase:You say your mirrorlist includes this entry...[Archlinuxfr]Server = http://repo.archlinux.fr/$arch...and that it works. CMIIAW, but I doubt it can possibly work. See securitybreach's tip, where he suggests that you specify 32 or 64 bit architecture. "$arch" does not refer to Arch Linux, but to your architecture.Actually, $arch should work as well. From my VPS:[comhack@DarkStar ~]$ cat /etc/pacman.conf | tail[community]Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist# An example of a custom package repository. See the pacman manpage for# tips on creating your own repositories.#[custom]#Server = file:///home/custompkgs[archlinuxfr]Server = http://repo.archlinux.fr/$arch It should work for him as well but it is not for some reason. That is why I suggested for him to put the actual architecture in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vagabond Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 I stand corrected...and amazed. On my install, if I try to -Syy with that setting, I get an error message. (I tried it before posting.)What makes my setup different? 1. I don't use a mirrorlist. The links to it are commented out. My sources are in /etc/pacman.conf.2. The command pacman is an alias for pacman-color.I have to specify my architecture. The URL for each mirror ends in x86_64. So why did securitybreach suggest specifying the architecture instead of leaving the entry as $arch ? I don't want to wander OT, but I'd like to understand what's going on....anybody? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 I stand corrected...and amazed. On my install, if I try to -Syy with that setting, I get an error message. (I tried it before posting.)What makes my setup different? 1. I don't use a mirrorlist. The links to it are commented out. My sources are in /etc/pacman.conf.2. The command pacman is an alias for pacman-color.I have to specify my architecture. The URL for each mirror ends in x86_64. So why did securitybreach suggest specifying his architecture instead of leaving the entry as $arch ? I don't want to wander OT, but I'd like to understand what's going on....anybody?I only asked ian to try to use his architecture since $arch was nor working for him. As far as not having a mirrorlist, I would suggest against doing this since pacman uses the mirrorlist to upgrade packages and you will probably break something along the way by not using one. I also use pacman-color but I would strongly suggest against not using a mirrorlist since you will end up with out of date packages. I may be wrong but I have not heard of anyone doing that in the last 4 years of using Arch. With any distro, it is best to follow their documentation unless you know what you are doing. Otherwise you are asking for trouble, Like I said, I do not know everything about Arch. but you are the first I know of that did not use a mirrrorlist file. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vagabond Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 Thanks for the advice, Josh. I like to play by the rules, and this is not one of those times when I have decided to misbehave. In fact I don't think I am straying off the path here.As I read the pacman.conf file, there is explicit provision for it to be used as I do. It does say, "Add your preferred servers here." I followed instructions. Too, I can't see how I'll ever be guided to the wrong mirror, as long as I use the correct URL for it. So I expect to get the same results from pacman.conf or the mirrorlist. Then why does the mirrorlist exist? My guess is convenience. No typing needed, just uncomment. If you want ten or a dozen mirrors for each repo, you NEED that mirrorlist. The folks at Arch provided a helpful option. And I know you are also being helpful when you suggest that I follow standard procedure; I agree with you. You have helped me a lot, and I'll probably be needing yet more help when I get around to trying to make my nVidia card work with Debian's new kFreeBSD! Meanwhile, I think it would be interesting to know why I get an error message when I give the French mirror the $arch suffix. A puzzle, eh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 Each repository section defines a section name and at least one location where the packages can be found. The section name is defined by the string within square brackets (the two above are current and custom). Locations are defined with the Server directive and follow a URL naming structure. If you want to use a local directory, you can specify the full path with a “file://” prefix, as shown above.A common way to define DB locations utilizes the Include directive. For each repository defined in the configuration file, a single Include directive can contain a file that lists the servers for that repository.[core]# use this repository firstServer = ftp://ftp.archlinux.org/core/os/arch# next use servers as defined in the mirrorlist belowInclude = {sysconfdir}/pacman.d/mirrorlistDuring parsing, pacman will define the $repo variable to the name of the current section. This is often utilized in files specified using the Include directive so all repositories can use the same mirrorfile. pacman also defines the $arch variable to the value of Architecture, so the same mirrorfile can even be used for different architectures.Server = ftp://ftp.archlinux.org/$repo/os/$arch http://www.archlinux.org/pacman/pacman.conf.5.htmlThe mirrorlist also gets updates whereas the ones you manually add do not. Things change, servers go down, etc. It is always better to have multiple servers to fetch packages from versus the one server. You can use your method but if your mirror goes down, you know where to look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted April 6, 2011 Author Share Posted April 6, 2011 Umm... I think y'all figured this out already, but the entry for the AUR repo is supposed to be added to /etc/pacman.conf #[testing]#Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist[core]Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist[extra]Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist#[community-testing]#Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist[community]Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist[archlinuxfr]Server = http://repo.archlinux.fr/$arch This is mine above here... and the "$arch" works fine on my 64 bit system. A bit higher up in that pacman.conf file you'll see:Architecture = autoThis is why the $arch works. Anywho... carry on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vagabond Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 (edited) Sorry, Guys, I'm just not keeping up with you. I appreciate the attempt to explain it all to me, so don't think I'm being difficult, please. I just don't understand.First: my /etc/pacman.conf file does not contain any variable "Architecture" that I can mark as auto. I see several other variables on the man page for pacman.conf as well -- variables that are not in my pacman.conf, so I assume they are optional -- and that suggests to me that you added this one to your pacman.conf files, right? Having done that, you get the $arch suffix to work for you on the French mirror, but I can't. That makes sense to me. Second, I understand that mirrors get slapped around and dropped, sure. But...if the URL remains unchanged, anything I get from that mirror (using my pacman.conf file to access it) will be exactly the same as what you get using your mirrorlist, won't it? What would make the downloads different?? There is no way that I can see that the mirror would "know" to give me old or bad data, and give you the good stuff, as long as we both use the exact same URL. The mirrorlist is a list of URLs, and nothing more. Same URL, same goodies. Or?Because I know that mirrors go out of business or fail, and so on, I don't have just one or two in each of the repos in my pacman.conf. I depend a bit on the Arch list of which ones are doing well lately (edit: my source for the mirrors I put in my pacman.conf is http://archlinux.org/mirrors/status), and a bit on geography, and a bit on past experiences good and bad, and a bit on guesswork. I check things and make changes as needed and keep an eye on what pacman is doing by looking at the Arch Linux website. I'm not flying blind. I have four mirrors for each of the three main repos: my prime one is in Taiwan, then I have one in Oz, and two in Germany. I'm sure I could do a bit better if I worked at it, but here in Thailand the real factor is the local ISP; it can turn diamonds to coal. . So when the mirrorlist gets changed and a mirror I am using becomes obsolete...what will happen to me? Nothing bad, as far as I can see. I used to connect to a mirror in Michigan, and when it slowed to a crawl and then went belly up, I did not suffer. I believe the possibility of my getting corrupted software is no greater than it is for any Arch user.It seems to me as if I'm on solid theoretical and practical ground, but I'm certainly ready to learn more and move around as reason dictates. I hope I'm making sense here. Thanks for instructing this eternal novice!Edit to show where I get the URLs of the mirrors I use. Edited April 7, 2011 by Vagabond Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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