Due to the decreasing popularity of i686 among the developers and the community, we have decided to phase out the support of this architecture.
The decision means that February ISO will be the last that allows to install 32 bit Arch Linux. The next 9 months are deprecation period, during which i686 will be still receiving upgraded packages. Starting from November 2017, packaging and repository tools will no longer require that from maintainers, effectively making i686 unsupported.
However, as there is still some interest in keeping i686 alive, we would like to encourage the community to make it happen with our guidance. The arch-ports mailing list and #archlinux-ports IRC channel on Freenode will be used for further coordination.
The [multilib] repository will not be affected by this change.
mesa
-17.0.0-3 can now be installed side-by-side with nvidia
-378.13 driver without any libgl/libglx hacks, and with the help of Fedora and upstream xorg-server patches.
First step was to remove the libglx symlinks with xorg-server-1.19.1-3 and associated mesa/nvidia drivers through the removal of various libgl packages. It was a tough moment because it was breaking optimus system, xorg-server
configuration needs manual updating.
The second step is now here, with an updated 10-nvidia-drm-outputclass.conf file that should help to have an "out-of-the-box" working xorg-server
experience with optimus system.
Please test this extensively and post your feedback in this forum thread or in our bugtracker.
The upgrade to ca-certificates-utils 20170307-1 requires manual intervention because a symlink which used to be generated post-install has been moved into the package proper.
As deleting the symlink may leave you unable to download packages, perform this upgrade in three steps:
# pacman -Syuw # download packages
# rm /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt # remove conflicting file
# pacman -Su # perform upgrade
Due to high maintenance cost of scripts related to the Arch Build
System, we have decided to deprecate the abs
tool and thus rsync
as a way of obtaining PKGBUILDs.
The asp
tool, available in [extra], provides similar functionality to
abs
. asp export pkgname
can be used as direct alternative; more
information about its usage can be found in the documentation.
Additionally Subversion sparse checkouts, as described here, can
be used to achieve a similar effect. For fetching all PKGBUILDs, the
best way is cloning the svntogit mirrors.
While the extra/abs
package has been already dropped, the rsync
endpoint (rsync://rsync.archlinux.org/abs) will be disabled by the end
of the month.
The perl package now uses a versioned path for compiled modules. This means that modules built for a non-matching perl version will not be loaded any more and must be rebuilt.
A pacman hook warns about affected modules during the upgrade by showing output like this:
WARNING: '/usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl' contains data from at least 143 packages which will NOT be used by the installed perl interpreter.
-> Run the following command to get a list of affected packages: pacman -Qqo '/usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl'
You must rebuild all affected packages against the new perl package before you can use them again. The change also affects modules installed directly via CPAN. Rebuilding will also be necessary again with future major perl updates like 5.28 and 5.30.
Please note that rebuilding was already required for major updates prior to this change, however now perl will no longer try to load the modules and then fail in strange ways.
If the build system of some software does not detect the change automatically,
you can use perl -V:vendorarch
in your PKGBUILD to query perl for the
correct path. There is also sitearch
for software that is not packaged with
pacman.
Following 9 months of deprecation period, support for the i686 architecture effectively ends today. By the end of November, i686 packages will be removed from our mirrors and later from the packages archive. The [multilib] repository is not affected.
For users unable to upgrade their hardware to x86_64, an alternative is a community maintained fork named Arch Linux 32. See their website for details on migrating existing installations.
The zita-resampler 1.6.0-1 package was missing a library symlink that has been readded in 1.6.0-2. If you installed 1.6.0-1, ldconfig would have created this symlink at install time, and it will conflict with the one included in 1.6.0-2. In that case, remove /usr/lib/libzita-resampler.so.1 manually before updating.
The new version of glibc removes support for NIS and NIS+. The default
/etc/nsswitch.conf
file provided by filesystem
package already
reflects this change. Please make sure to merge pacnew file if it exists
prior to upgrade.
NIS functionality can still be enabled by installing libnss_nis
package. There is no replacement for NIS+ in the official repositories.
pam 1.3.0-2
no longer ships pam_unix2 module and pam_unix_*.so
compatibility symlinks. Before upgrading, review PAM configuration files
in the /etc/pam.d
directory and replace removed modules with
pam_unix.so
. Users of pam_unix2 should also reset their passwords
after such change. Defaults provided by pambase
package do not need
any modifications.
Due to the SONAME of /usr/lib/libmozjs-52.so
not matching its file name, ldconfig created an untracked file /usr/lib/libmozjs-52.so.0
. This is now fixed and both files are present in the package.
To pass the upgrade, remove /usr/lib/libmozjs-52.so.0
prior to upgrading.
The libutf8proc package prior to version 2.1.1-3 had an incorrect soname link. This has been fixed in 2.1.1-3, so the upgrade will need to overwrite the untracked soname link created by ldconfig. If you get an error
libutf8proc: /usr/lib/libutf8proc.so.2 exists in filesystem
when updating, use
pacman -Suy --overwrite usr/lib/libutf8proc.so.2
to perform the upgrade.
The update to mariadb 10.4.6-1 and later changes configuration layout as recommended by upstream.
The main configuration file moved from /etc/mysql/my.cnf
(and its include directory /etc/mysql/my.cnf.d/
) to /etc/my.cnf
(and /etc/my.cnf.d/
). Make sure to move your configuration.
Instantiated services (like mariadb@foo.service
) are no longer configured in separate files (like /etc/mysql/myfoo.cnf
). Instead move your configuration to configuration blocks with group suffix in main configuration file, one for each service. A block should look something like this:
[mysqld.foo]
datadir = /var/lib/mysql-foo
socket = /run/mysqld/mysqld-foo.sock
...
Like every mariadb feature update this requires the data directory to be updated. With the new configuration in place run:
systemctl restart mariadb.service && mariadb-upgrade -u root -p
The libbloom package prior to version 1.6-2 was missing a soname link. This has been fixed in 1.6-2, so the upgrade will need to overwrite the untracked soname link created by ldconfig. If you get an error
libbloom: /usr/lib/libbloom.so.1 exists in filesystem
when updating, use
pacman -Suy --overwrite usr/lib/libbloom.so.1
to perform the upgrade.
The tensorflow packages prior to version 1.14.0-5 were missing some soname links. This has been fixed in 1.14.0-5, so the upgrade will need to overwrite the untracked soname links created by ldconfig. If you get an errors like so
tensorflow: /usr/lib/libtensorflow.so.1 exists in filesystem
tensorflow: /usr/lib/libtensorflow_cc.so.1 exists in filesystem
tensorflow: /usr/lib/libtensorflow_framework.so.1 exists in filesystem
when updating, use
pacman -Suy --overwrite=usr/lib/libtensorflow.so.1,usr/lib/libtensorflow_cc.so.1,usr/lib/libtensorflow_framework.so.1
to perform the upgrade.
The astyle package prior to version 3.1-2 was missing a soname link. This has been fixed in 3.1-2, so the upgrade will need to overwrite the untracked soname link created by ldconfig. If you get an error
astyle: /usr/lib/libastyle.so.3 exists in filesystem
when updating, use
pacman -Suy --overwrite usr/lib/libastyle.so.3
to perform the upgrade.
The base
group has been replaced by a metapackage of the same name. We advise users to install this package (pacman -Syu base
), as it is effectively mandatory from now on.
Users requesting support are expected to be running a system with the base package.
Addendum:
Be aware that base
as it stands does not currently contain:
- A kernel
- An editor
... and other software that you might expect. You will have to install these separately on new installations.
The compression algorithm zstd
brings faster compression and decompression, while maintaining a compression ratio comparable with xz
. This will speed up package installation with pacman
, without further drawbacks.
The imminent release of pacman 5.2 brings build tools with support for compressing packages with zstd
. To install these packages you need libarchive
with support for zstd
, which entered the repositories in September 2018. In order for zstd
compressed packages to be distributed, we require all users to have updated to at least libarchive 3.3.3-1. You have had a year, so we expect you already did update. Hurry up if you have not.
If you use custom scripts make sure these do not rely on hardcoded file extensions. The zstd
package file extension will be .pkg.tar.zst
.
Today, one email was sent to the arch-announce mailing list that was able to circumvent the whitelisting checks that are done by the mailman software. This was not due to unauthorized access and no Arch Linux servers were compromised.
We have implemented measures to make sure this does not happen again, by using mailman's poster password feature. We are also making sure, these simple whitelist checks are not used anywhere else.
Edited to add: There was a second email that was also sent today, in order to make sure the poster password feature was working. That email did not circumvent any check and was intentionally sent.
All our official kernels: linux, linux-lts, linux-zen and linux-hardened, do not install the actual kernel to /boot anymore.
The installation is done by mkinitcpio hooks and scripts, as well as removals. There is no need for any manual intervention.
The intention is to make the kernel packages more self-contained, as well as making the boot process more flexible, while also keeping it backwards compatible.
As of now, only mkinitcpio has hooks for handling kernels installations and removals. We do not ship any for dracut yet, but it will have similar hooks in the near future.
The primus_vk package prior to version 1.3-1 was missing some soname links. This has been fixed in 1.3-1 so the upgrade will need to overwrite the untracked soname links. If you get an error like:
primus_vk: /usr/lib/libnv_vulkan_wrapper.so.1 exists in filesystem
primus_vk: /usr/lib/libprimus_vk.so.1 exists in filesystem
when updating, use:
pacman -Syu --overwrite=/usr/lib/libnv_vulkan_wrapper.so.1,/usr/lib/libprimus_vk.so.1
to perform the upgrade.
In the process of Xorg cleanup the update requires manual intervention when you hit this message:
:: installing xorgproto (2019.2-2) breaks dependency 'inputproto' required by lib32-libxi
:: installing xorgproto (2019.2-2) breaks dependency 'dmxproto' required by libdmx
:: installing xorgproto (2019.2-2) breaks dependency 'xf86dgaproto' required by libxxf86dga
:: installing xorgproto (2019.2-2) breaks dependency 'xf86miscproto' required by libxxf86misc
when updating, use: pacman -Rdd libdmx libxxf86dga libxxf86misc && pacman -Syu
to perform the upgrade.
As announced on the mailing list, on Friday, Dec 27 2019, our package compression scheme has changed from xz (.pkg.tar.xz) to zstd (.pkg.tar.zst).
zstd and xz trade blows in their compression ratio. Recompressing all packages to zstd with our options yields a total ~0.8% increase in package size on all of our packages combined, but the decompression time for all packages saw a ~1300% speedup.
We already have more than 545 zstd-compressed packages in our repositories, and as packages get updated more will keep rolling in. We have not found any user-facing issues as of yet, so things appear to be working.
As a packager, you will automatically start building .pkg.tar.zst packages if you are using the latest version of devtools (>= 20191227).
As an end-user no manual intervention is required, assuming that you have read and followed the news post from late last year.
If you nevertheless haven't updated libarchive since 2018, all hope is not lost! Binary builds of pacman-static are available from Eli Schwartz' personal repository (or direct link to binary), signed with their Trusted User keys, with which you can perform the update.
Our rsync
package was shipped with bundled zlib
to provide compatibility
with the old-style --compress
option up to version 3.1.0. Version 3.1.1 was
released on 2014-06-22 and is shipped by all major distributions now.
So we decided to finally drop the bundled library and ship a package with
system zlib
. This also fixes security issues, actual ones and in future. Go
and blame those running old versions if you encounter errors with rsync
3.1.3-3
.
After upgrading to openssh-8.2p1, the existing SSH daemon will be unable to accept new connections. (See FS#65517.) When upgrading remote hosts, please make sure to restart the SSH daemon using systemctl restart sshd
right after running pacman -Syu
. If you are upgrading to openssh-8.2p1-3 or higher, this restart will happen automatically.
The software behind planet.archlinux.org was implemented in Python 2 and is no longer maintained upstream. This functionality has now been implemented in archlinux.org's archweb backend which is actively maintained but offers a slightly different experience.
The most notable changes are the offered feeds and the feed location. Archweb only offers an Atom feed which is located at here.
Hello everyone,
Some of you may know me from the days when I was much more involved in Arch, but most of you probably just know me as a name on the website. I’ve been with Arch for some time, taking the leadership of this beast over from Judd back in 2007. But, as these things often go, my involvement has slid down to minimal levels over time. It’s high time that changes.
Arch Linux needs involved leadership to make hard decisions and direct the project where it needs to go. And I am not in a position to do this.
In a team effort, the Arch Linux staff devised a new process for determining future leaders. From now on, leaders will be elected by the staff for a term length of two years. Details of this new process can be found here
In the first official vote with Levente Polyak (anthraxx), Gaetan Bisson (vesath), Giancarlo Razzolini (grazzolini), and Sven-Hendrik Haase (svenstaro) as candidates, and through 58 verified votes, a winner was chosen:
Levente Polyak (anthraxx) will be taking over the reins of this ship. Congratulations!
Thanks for everything over all these years,
Aaron Griffin (phrakture)
The firewalld package prior to version 0.8.1-2 was missing the compiled python modules. This has been fixed in 0.8.1-2, so the upgrade will need to overwrite the untracked pyc files created. If you get errors like these
firewalld: /usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/firewall/__pycache__/__init__.cpython-38.pyc exists in filesystem
firewalld: /usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/firewall/__pycache__/client.cpython-38.pyc exists in filesystem
firewalld: /usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/firewall/__pycache__/dbus_utils.cpython-38.pyc exists in filesystem
...many more...
when updating, use
pacman -Suy --overwrite /usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/firewall/\*
to perform the upgrade.
The hplip package prior to version 3.20.3-2 was missing the compiled python modules. This has been fixed in 3.20.3-2, so the upgrade will need to overwrite the untracked pyc files that were created. If you get errors such as these
hplip: /usr/share/hplip/base/__pycache__/__init__.cpython-38.pyc exists in filesystem
hplip: /usr/share/hplip/base/__pycache__/avahi.cpython-38.pyc exists in filesystem
hplip: /usr/share/hplip/base/__pycache__/codes.cpython-38.pyc exists in filesystem
...many more...
when updating, use
pacman -Suy --overwrite /usr/share/hplip/\*
to perform the upgrade.
The nss and lib32-nss packages prior to version 3.51.1-1 were missing a soname link each. This has been fixed in 3.51.1-1, so the upgrade will need to overwrite the untracked files created by ldconfig. If you get any of these errors
nss: /usr/lib/p11-kit-trust.so exists in filesystem
lib32-nss: /usr/lib32/p11-kit-trust.so exists in filesystem
when updating, use
pacman -Syu --overwrite /usr/lib\*/p11-kit-trust.so
to perform the upgrade.
The zn_poly package prior to version 0.9.2-2 was missing a soname link. This has been fixed in 0.9.2-2, so the upgrade will need to overwrite the untracked files created by ldconfig. If you get an error
zn_poly: /usr/lib/libzn_poly-0.9.so exists in filesystem
when updating, use
pacman -Syu --overwrite usr/lib/libzn_poly-0.9.so
to perform the upgrade.
Due to the fact that the AUR has been migrated to a new server, the SSH HostKeys used to connect to the host have changed. These are the new keys fingerprints:
Ed25519: SHA256:RFzBCUItH9LZS0cKB5UE6ceAYhBD5C8GeOBip8Z11+4
ECDSA: SHA256:uTa/0PndEgPZTf76e1DFqXKJEXKsn7m9ivhLQtzGOCI
RSA: SHA256:5s5cIyReIfNNVGRFdDbe3hdYiI5OelHGpw2rOUud3Q8
The fingerprints above can also be found on the AUR home page when not logged in.
We would like to hold a bug wrangling day on the 13th of September to reduce the large amount of open tickets. If you cannot take part in the bug wrangling day, then feel free to help us any time before that event.
Please review all bugs that were reported by you and check if they are still valid. Please request a task closure on the bug tracker if the task may be closed. Otherwise please provide further information so that we can continue to work on the bug. We cannot fix bugs without your feedback.
Join us at #archlinux-bugs channel on irc.freenode.net during 13th of September. As we live in different timezones not all devs and bug wranglers will be available at the same time, but feel free to report your issues to any dev available.
Also please check your mailboxes that may contain notifications about comments made on your tickets.
On the 10th and 11th of October there is going to be an online edition of Arch Conf. The conference is going to have presentations from the Arch team along with community submitted presentations and lightning talks.
We are proud to announce the first revision of the schedule!
https://pretalx.com/arch-conf-online-2020/talk/
The conference timezone is CEST/UTC+2: https://everytimezone.com/s/40cc4784
Updates and additional information can be found on the conference page: https://conf.archlinux.org
See you there!
Cheers from the conference team.
The ghostpcl and ghostxps packages prior to version 9.53.2-2 were missing a soname link each. This has been fixed in 9.53.2-2, so the upgrade will need to overwrite the untracked files created by ldconfig. If you get any of these errors
ghostpcl: /usr/lib/libgpcl6.so.9 exists in filesystem
ghostxps: /usr/lib/libgxps.so.9 exists in filesystem
when updating, use
pacman -Syu --overwrite /usr/lib/libgpcl6.so.9,/usr/lib/libgxps.so.9
to perform the upgrade.
nvidia is currently partially incompatible with linux >= 5.9 [1] [2]. While graphics should work fine, CUDA, OpenCL, and likely other features are broken. Users who've already upgraded and need those features are advised to switch to the linux-lts kernel for the time being until a fix for nvidia is available.
The libtraceevent package prior to version 5.9-1 was missing a soname link. This has been fixed in 5.9-1, so the upgrade will need to overwrite the untracked files created by ldconfig. If you get any of these errors
libtraceevent: /usr/lib/libtraceevent.so.1 exists in filesystem
when updating, use
pacman -Syu --overwrite /usr/lib/libtraceevent.so.1
to perform the upgrade.
We are very happy to announce that accessibility features have been added to our installation medium with archiso v49. From release 2020.11.01 onward these are available via the 2nd boot loader menu item. A specific installation guide can be found on the wiki.
Many thanks go to Alexander Epaneshnikov who integrated the features from the TalkingArch project into archiso's releng profile, which is used for creating the installation medium.
Note: The boot loader timeouts have been set to 15s to allow blind users to select the menu item as the boot loaders themselves do not offer accessibility features.
Due to issues with our anti spam measures, we had to migrate those mailing lists, that were sent from @archlinux.org before to the @lists.archlinux.org domain.
Submission to the mailing list is not affected and still works with @archlinux.org. Mails get redirected automagically.
The only change that may need to be considered on your side are filters and rules matching the From or List-id header which changed accordingly.
We are happy to announce our newest public service: A manual pages indexing site at man.archlinux.org that publishes the man pages of all our packages and allows you to search and browse them. Check out, for example, the man page of tar.
You can also find this service linked to in the sidebar as well as on every package detail page. Thanks to Wiki Admin lahwaacz for developing archmanweb for this purpose.
While there are other man page indexing sites out there, it is our hope that publishing man pages matching the versions of our released packages further improves Arch accessibility and documentation.
The php package has been updated to version 8.0. Please refer to the upstream migration guide. As some applications are not compatible with PHP 8 yet we provide a php7 package which can be installed alongside version 8. Packages that depend on PHP reflect this update and will require php7 if needed. You might need to update your configuration accordingly. PHP 7 binaries and configuration have the "7" suffix:
We also provide third party modules compiled for PHP 7:
Note that support for php7 will be limited and likely be dropped in about a year depending on how soon the majority of applications will be compatible with version 8.
Google has announced that they are going to block everything but Chrome from accessing certain Google features (like Chrome sync) starting on March 15. This decision by Google is going to affect Arch's chromium
package a bit earlier, on March 2, when Chromium 89 gets released.
We know for sure that data syncing will stop working (passwords, bookmarks, etc.). Other features such as geolocation or enhanced spell check might continue to function for a bit longer. Extensions integrating with Google Drive might misbehave and LibreOffice will lose access to documents stored there.
Other distros such as openSUSE and Fedora have already removed the soon-to-be-limited API keys from their Chromium 88 packages. Fedora's advisory provides a great deal of perspective on this and I also found this Hackaday post to be quite informative.
As linux-lts moved to the 5.10 version, all official kernels of Arch Linux now support zstd compressed initramfs images, so mkinitcpio is switching to zstd compressed images by default with version 30, which is currently on [testing].
If, for any reason, you are using a kernel version prior to 5.9, make sure to change mkinitcpio.conf COMPRESSION to use one of the compressors supported, like gzip, otherwise you will not be able to boot images generated by mkinitcpio.
The installation medium now provides a guided installer.
This addition to the default method of installation (based on the installation guide) is similar to the other methods.
If you use this installer, do not forget to mention it when asking for support and also to provide the archinstall log, when asked.
As some of you may have read over the past days, there has been an ownership dispute over the freenode.net network. The IRC network has been used by Arch Linux and many other projects over the past decades as a platform for discussion and support. The dispute led to the exodus of most former freenode staff from the network and the founding of a new network: libera.chat
Starting today, Arch Linux and its sister projects Arch Linux ARM and Arch Linux 32 will begin migrating the official IRC channels from freenode.net to libera.chat. Please bear with us as this can take some time to be fully settled in.
We thank the freenode community for the many years of great service and collaboration.
Starting with libxcrypt
4.4.21, weak password hashes (such as MD5 and
SHA1) are no longer accepted for new passwords. Users that still have
their passwords stored with a weak hash will be asked to update their
password on their next login.
If the login just fails (for example from display manager) switch to a virtual terminal (Ctrl-Alt-F2) and log in there once.
The libxml2 package prior to version 2.9.12-6 was missing the compiled python modules. This has been fixed in 2.9.12-6, so the upgrade may need to overwrite any untracked pyc files created. If you get errors like these
libxml2: /usr/lib/python3.10/site-packages/__pycache__/drv_libxml2.cpython-310.opt-1.pyc exists in filesystem
libxml2: /usr/lib/python3.10/site-packages/__pycache__/drv_libxml2.cpython-310.pyc exists in filesystem
libxml2: /usr/lib/python3.10/site-packages/__pycache__/libxml2.cpython-310.opt-1.pyc exists in filesystem
libxml2: /usr/lib/python3.10/site-packages/__pycache__/libxml2.cpython-310.pyc exists in filesystem
when updating, use
pacman -Syu --overwrite /usr/lib/python3.10/site-packages/__pycache__/\*
to perform the upgrade.
The linux-firmware package 20220119.0c6a7b3-2 implements kernel
firmware compression. Linux kernel from 5.3 on support loading
from xz compressed firmware.
CONFIG_FW_LOADER_COMPRESS kernel option must be enabled. All official Arch Linux kernel support this for a long time. [1]
The linux-firmware package has been split into smaller packages to
further reduce required disk space. Some big firmware files of
rarely used hardware have been split into separate packages.
This affects firmware for Mellanox Spectrum switches, Marvell devices,
Qualcomm SoCs, Cavium LiquidIO server adapters, QLogic devices,
Broadcom NetXtreme II 10Gb ethernet adapters.
Make sure to install additional firmware packages if needed. [2]
[1] FS#72899
[2] FS#72559 +
svn commit
We are very happy to announce that debug packages are now available in Arch Linux.
Debug symbols and source listing are provided through our debuginfod instance which can be utilized by debuggers such as gdb and delve.
https://debuginfod.archlinux.org/
A couple of sponsored mirrors are providing the debug repositories while we figure out and communicate the new mirror requirements.
Not all packages provide debug packages as enabling it for all packages is an ongoing effort.
For more information, please visit the Debuginfod wiki article, and also our newly renovated Debugging/Getting traces article.
This month we held our leader election, and our current leader Levente Polyák ran unopposed. As per our election rules he is re-elected for a new term.
Congratulations to Levente Polyak on a new term!
The keycloak
package prior to version 17.0.1-2 was running with WildFly server. Since upstream officially moved to Quarkus distribution, Arch Linux follows this approach. This means some manual intervention is required for the upgrade.
The configuration needs to be adjusted from the old .xml
format to the new /etc/keycloak/keycloak.conf
.
Prior to the upgrade, stop the keycloak service, upgrade the package and migrate the configuration before starting:
systemctl stop keycloak.service
pacman -Syu keycloak
# migrate configuration /etc/keycloak/keycloak.conf
systemctl start keycloak.service
See Keycloak migration docs and Keycloak Quarkus server docs
With the update to qemu 7.0.0 the package has been turned into a more fine grained split package utilizing meta packages.
qemu
package is now virtually provided by the meta packages
qemu-base
, qemu-desktop
and qemu-full
.qemu
prior to 7.0.0 is replaced by
qemu-desktop
qemu-headless
is replaced by
qemu-base
qemu-arch-extra
and qemu-headless-arch-extra
is replaced by qemu-emulators-full
qemu-full
provides all QEMU related
packages (excluding qemu-guest-agent
)