error: failed to initialize alpm library

[bordermick]

Hello, I have been trying to get yaourt working in fedora but I continue to run into this issue when trying to run

pacman -Sy
error: failed to initialize alpm library
(could not find or read directory: /opt/arch/var/lib/pacman/)

I have tried following the fixes given in this issue report but there has still been no luck. Does anyone know how I would go about getting this working successfully? Any help would be great, thanks in advance.

[1dot75cm]

Hi @bordermick
I'm so sorry. These days, I'm not online.
You may need to check the alsm library exists.

$ pacman -V
Pacman v5.0.1 - libalpm v10.0.1
$ ldd /usr/bin/pacman
libalpm.so.10 => /lib64/libalpm.so.10 (0x00007f71cf847000)
$ ll /usr/lib64/libalpm.so.10.0.1
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root ...

[bordermick]

No problem, I ran those same commands and got the same outputs as you so I assume that means that the alsm library exists.

[1dot75cm]

Please use --debug option to see more information.

-> $ pacman -V
Pacman v5.0.1 - libalpm v10.0.1
-> $ pacman -v
Root      : /opt/arch1/
Conf File : /etc/pacman.conf
DB Path   : /opt/arch1/var/lib/pacman/
Cache Dirs: /var/cache/pacman/pkg/  
Hook Dirs : /opt/arch1/usr/share/libalpm/hooks/  /etc/pacman.d/hooks/  
Lock File : /opt/arch1/var/lib/pacman/db.lck
Log File  : /var/log/pacman.log
GPG Dir   : /etc/pacman.d/gnupg/
-> $ pacman -Sy --debug
[04:03:54] debug: pacman v5.0.1 - libalpm v10.0.1
......

[bordermick]

Sorry for the late response, I have been rather busy over the past 3 days.

When I run pacman -v I get the same error:

$ pacman -v
error: failed to initialize alpm library
(could not find or read directory: /opt/arch/var/lib/pacman/)

This is my pacman -Sy --debug output:

$ pacman -Sy --debug
[18:32:47] debug: pacman v5.0.1 - libalpm v10.0.1
[18:32:47] debug: config: attempting to read file /etc/pacman.conf
[18:32:47] debug: config: new section 'options'
[18:32:47] debug: config: rootdir: /opt/arch/
[18:32:47] debug: config: dbpath: /opt/arch/var/lib/pacman/
[18:32:47] debug: config: logfile: /var/log/pacman.log
[18:32:47] debug: config: arch: x86_64
[18:32:47] debug: config: new section 'core'
[18:32:47] debug: config: SigLevel: Optional
[18:32:47] debug: config: SigLevel: TrustedOnly
[18:32:47] debug: config file /etc/pacman.conf, line 10: including /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
[18:32:47] debug: config: new section 'community'
[18:32:47] debug: config: SigLevel: Never
[18:32:47] debug: config file /etc/pacman.conf, line 14: including /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
[18:32:47] debug: config: new section 'multilib'
[18:32:47] debug: config: SigLevel: Never
[18:32:47] debug: config file /etc/pacman.conf, line 18: including /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
[18:32:47] debug: config: new section 'extra'
[18:32:47] debug: config: SigLevel: Never
[18:32:47] debug: config file /etc/pacman.conf, line 22: including /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
[18:32:47] debug: config: new section 'archlinuxfr'
[18:32:47] debug: config: SigLevel: Optional
[18:32:47] debug: config: SigLevel: TrustedOnly
[18:32:47] debug: config: new section 'archlinuxcn'
[18:32:47] debug: config: SigLevel: Optional
[18:32:47] debug: config: SigLevel: TrustedOnly
[18:32:47] debug: config: finished parsing /etc/pacman.conf
[18:32:47] debug: setup_libalpm called
[18:32:47] error: failed to initialize alpm library
(could not find or read directory: /opt/arch/var/lib/pacman/)

[1dot75cm]

I saw some similar problems https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=191861 . In fact, you need to run pacman as root permissions. @bordermick

$ pacman -Sy
error: failed to initialize alpm library
(database is incorrect version: /opt/arch1/var/lib/pacman/)
try running pacman-db-upgrade
$ sudo pacman -Sy
:: Synchronizing package databases...
Initializing download: http://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/archlinux/core/os/x86_64/core.db
-OR-
$ su -
# pacman -Sy

I will update wiki, thanks.

[bordermick]

Still getting the same error, even when I run it as root.

# pacman -Sy
error: failed to initialize alpm library
(could not find or read directory: /opt/arch/var/lib/pacman/)

[markzz]

So create that directory. ALPM cannot initialize if the root or dbpath don't exist on the filesystem.

# mkdir -p /opt/arch/var/lib/pacman

[alick]

Closing as fixed