First pacman corrupted system

[stevelipinski]

This is my first time with Arch Linux. I decided to use Arch for my Pi based on the way arch is constantly updating, etc.

However, my first attempt at doing "anything" with it rendered it useless.

I installed Arch on my Pi based on the 2013-07-22 version. All went well.
I then tried to setup up a static IP on the interface and got that working but ip addr was reporting some confusing results, see:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=172973

In any case, while troubleshooting that problem, I tried to install ethtool via pacman but got a 404 error. Reviewing the Arch forum, the common solution was to update first, then install. So, I proceeded to perform a 'pacman -Syu'.

It was churning aloing nicely until it got to updating dhcpcd. It seems to have updated dhcpcd but then stopped. It did not progress for 4+ hours, and I could not longer get in via SSH. I power cycled the Pi, and now I it boots to a sh prompt with the following:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
sh: cannot set terminal process group (-1): Inappropriate ioctl for device
sh: no job control in this shell
sh-4.2#
')

I have tried many things. It seems proc is not mounted, so I tried to mount it
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
sh-4.2# mount -t proc proc /proc
mount: error while loading shared libraries: /usr/lib/libmount.so.1: file too short
')

I have tried bringing up my interface manually with an IP and starting SSHd. When I connect, I get:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
PTY allocation request failed on channel 0
')

Any help would be appreciated.

[pepedog]

Please use latest image
http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv6/raspberry-pi
Foundation has not updated their mirrors

[stevelipinski]

pepedog - Thanks, if need be, I will reinstall with the latest available image.

I was however, hoping to avoid that. Luckily, I had not really done anything yet nor set up my device. However, I'm concerned that if I had a device configured, running, contained data, etc. I'm concerned that a system update can corrupt the system to the point of needing a reinstall. If that is the case, I'm not sure Arch is the way to go then. I would really like to get this straightened out because Arch seems like it has so many benefits.

Is there no way to correct the system such that I can get pacman to update my device to the latest?

[crashmaster]

Your report also sounds like you have some corrupted files on your sdcard. I think you know about the quality problems with some cards.

[stevelipinski]

Anything is possible. This was a brand new SD card, however. I dd'ed the image onto it, and it was running for a few days - everything was fine. I booted it 20-30 times without issue. The issue started after pacman hung/stuck. So, although not absolutely sure - it is likely that the pacman problem caused the inability to boot.

I am trying to identify first:
- Is there something corrupt on the the boot image of the SD
- And/Or, is there something corrupt in the OS/filesystem

Second, would be how to correct it without reinstalling the ArchARM image onto the SD - essentially wiping out everything.

Googling this issue led to someone mentioning (not in an ARM/Pi thread) booting up a LiveCD and then mounting the corrupted SD partition and using pacman to update at that mount point. I could do this, but how would I go about booting a LiveCD on the Pi? I guess I could boot up another PC with a LiveCD and mounting the SD card there and trying that...

I guess that is my next step.

Any other ideas greatly appreciated....

[crashmaster]

I would install the latest image now like pepedog said above.

[pepedog]

The biggest cause of corruption seems to be not issuing sync before commands reboot or poweroff (recommend commands), especially when there is kernel and/or firmware updates (they write to fat32 partition).

Use a live cd.
Fschk the card
Manually get packages from repo, extract with tar xf filename, copy the boot stuff. Always sync before umount