I am very interested in trying Obarun, and am running the LiveUSB (with JWM) on an old Dell Latitude E6400. Pleased with what I have seen so far, I am trying to install the XFCE flavor to a fresh system SSD. I have cleared a few hurdles, but am now finally stumped. Perhaps I am simply in over my head, and should throw in the towel. But, having gone as far as I can go on my own, I thought I'd take a shot with my initial post to this forum.

- When I tried to run the installer via the LiveUSB desktop launcher, nothing launched. I also tried the launcher in the JWM menu, but that didn't work either.

- I therefore opened the installer via the command line, using sudo obarun-install.

- I was greeted with a litany of "time warp" errors in the gpg key checks. I discovered that my system clock was using a date in year 2009, so I updated the date via the command line. I restarted the installer, and now got past the gpg checks.

- Using the assisted disk partitioning option, I chose to use the whole SSD, with a root partition and a swap partition.

- I eventually got the installer to run a great deal further, but it apparently does not reach its correct conclusion. I never reach a dialog to create a user account, etc. There are some errors indicated at the end of my install session (see below), and my SSD (installation target) will not boot. (The poor Dell PC just keeps trying, over and over.) I have tried the install several times, with the same results.

The tail end of my install session is shown below. If anyone can suggest why things are hung up, and what I might try in order to fix this, I would be much obliged.

Enter a selection (default=all):
resolving dependencies...
:: There are 2 providers available for atk:
:: Repository obextra
1) at-spi2-core
:: Repository extra
2) at-spi2-core

Enter a number (default=1):
warning: ignoring package systemd-libs-253.2-1
warning: cannot resolve "systemd-libs", a dependency of "btrfs-progs"
:: There are 4 providers available for jack:
:: Repository obextra
1) jack2 2) pipewire-jack
:: Repository extra
3) jack2 4) pipewire-jack

Enter a number (default=1):
:: There are 2 providers available for libpipewire-0.3.so=0-64:
:: Repository obextra
1) libpipewire
:: Repository extra
2) libpipewire

Enter a number (default=1):
warning: ignoring package systemd-libs-253.2-1
warning: cannot resolve "systemd-libs", a dependency of "btrfs-progs"
warning: cannot resolve "btrfs-progs", a dependency of "libblockdev"
warning: cannot resolve "libblockdev", a dependency of "udisks2"
warning: cannot resolve "udisks2", a dependency of "gvfs"
warning: ignoring package systemd-libs-253.2-1
warning: cannot resolve "systemd-libs", a dependency of "btrfs-progs"
warning: cannot resolve "btrfs-progs", a dependency of "libblockdev"
warning: cannot resolve "libblockdev", a dependency of "udisks2"
warning: cannot resolve "udisks2", a dependency of "gvfs"
warning: cannot resolve "gvfs=1.50.2", a dependency of "gvfs-smb"
:: The following packages cannot be upgraded due to unresolvable dependencies:
btrfs-progs gvfs gvfs-smb

:: Do you want to skip the above packages for this upgrade? [y/N]
error: failed to prepare transaction (could not satisfy dependencies)
:: unable to satisfy dependency 'systemd-libs' required by btrfs-progs
:: unable to satisfy dependency 'systemd-libs' required by btrfs-progs
:: unable to satisfy dependency 'btrfs-progs' required by libblockdev
:: unable to satisfy dependency 'libblockdev' required by udisks2
:: unable to satisfy dependency 'udisks2' required by gvfs
:: unable to satisfy dependency 'systemd-libs' required by btrfs-progs
:: unable to satisfy dependency 'btrfs-progs' required by libblockdev
:: unable to satisfy dependency 'libblockdev' required by udisks2
:: unable to satisfy dependency 'udisks2' required by gvfs
:: unable to satisfy dependency 'gvfs=1.50.2' required by gvfs-smb
obarun-install: fatal: Failed to install packages with pacman
obarun-install: info: Cleaning up
obarun-install: info: Killing process
obarun-install: info: Umount /mnt
obarun-install: tracing: Check mounted filesystem on /mnt
obarun-install: tracing: Check mounted /mnt/proc
obarun-install: tracing: Check mounted /mnt/sys
obarun-install: tracing: Check mounted /mnt/dev/pts
obarun-install: tracing: Check mounted /mnt/dev/shm
obarun-install: tracing: Check mounted /mnt/run
obarun-install: tracing: Check mounted /mnt/tmp
obarun-install: tracing: Check mounted /mnt/dev
obarun-install: tracing: Check mounted /mnt/var/cache/pacman/pkg
obarun-install: info: Restore your shell options
oblive@ Ob66 ~ %
Sorry, Iggy64, your issue - I think - stems solely from btrfs-progs, which recently @ Arch took on systemd-libs as a hard dependency.

I should have realized from here that if the Obarun installer is pulling it in, then Obarun itself needs a systemd-free version of it in its own repos. It's being worked on, and should resolved by the weekend if not sooner.

Cheers, nfg
Thanks very much, @ nfg, for the explanation. I'll give it another shot after the weekend.

It is comforting to see that the Obarun system has tools in place to monitor and work around the inexorable spread of systemd in the Arch repositories. But I wonder how long a small dev team can be expected to keep up with all the work that will be required. Of course, the same thing is going on in the Debian world. Perhaps the eventual solution will involve the development of an independent package base, supplemented by appimages or the like --- as PCLOS and Void are doing. Some sort of cooperative with yet others like antiX might eventually be needed.

Anyway, thanks again for explaining my initial results with Obarun. I look forward to seeing what s6 and 66 can do!
Sorry (again), Iggy64 - I should have mentioned last night that Obarun's obcore repo now has its own btrfs-progs. So you should be good to go with the install.

The exhilirating game of Whack-a-Systemd continues...
Thanks, again, @ nfg.

Given last night's repo update you mentioned, I had another go at the installer. This time it went very smoothly --- well, almost.

The obarun-install program ran to completion and announced a successful installation at its conclusion.

So I rebooted (with the Live USB) already removed, and awaited the results.

I got a warning message: " Root device is not configured to be mounted read-write! It may be fsck'd again later."

That was followed by this message from the init system:

"66-init: fatal : Unable to read resolve file of: tty-earlier@ tty12: invalid argument. Give root password for maintenance (or Ctrl+D to continue)."

I entered the root password, and received the following prompt:

archlinux#

with a blinking underscore at the end.

Frankly, I am not smart enough to know what to do at that point.

I cycled through the reboot again and tried the Ctrl+D option, but that got no response whatsoever.

So I guess the installation did not go 100% correctly.

When time allows, I will try running the installer yet one more time, to see if I can catch any warnings or errors signaled there.

If someone can recommend specific steps to take based on the above-listed boot problems, I would be most appreciative.
Iggy64 wrote I got a warning message: " Root device is not configured to be mounted read-write! It may be fsck'd again later."
This is normal on every Obarun boot.
Iggy64 wrote That was followed by this message from the init system:

"66-init: fatal : Unable to read resolve file of: tty-earlier@ tty12: invalid argument. Give root password for maintenance (or Ctrl+D to continue)."
This part, of course, is not normal. If you chose the XFCE installation, you should get to the XFCE login manager pretty quickly.

I tried out the JWM iso in a virtual machine to see if I could generate something similar. I did note the same issue you have had with the Obarun-Install icon not functioning. But starting the installer from a terminal as you did, and quickly choosing the defaults along with XFCE gave me no issues with installation and reboot. I did it twice, once with GRUB and once with syslinux as the boot manager.

If you don't mind, try the install again. It's possible that something was in flux this morning with the Obarun repos as you were installing. If there are any other options you choose besides XFCE, it might help with figuring out the issue. And in the meantime, someone might pass through these parts with a better idea about the issue you experienced on boot.

Best, nfg
It certainly was very kind of you (@ nfg) to run those tests in my behalf. Much obliged.

At your suggestion, I gave the installation yet another shot. I made all the selections I did in the previous attempt.

This time around, I noticed that fewer packages were installed (587 vs over 600) than in the previous install.

As before, two errors were reported concerning resolution of dependencies. I could not write them out quickly enough.

In any case, the system once again "installed successfully."

This time, however, when I rebooted, all went OK and I was eventually greeted with the login screen.

Now I can move on to customizing xfce (which I have done many times, using it for over 12 years).

The next challenge will be to find my key apps in the arch repos. This is my very first venture into the Arch world, having done the Debian side of things for all these years. This past week, I have been studying up on pacman and the various repo sections.

Thank you very, very much for your kind advice and encouragement. It is really good to know that such help is available, especially at this time when I am learning a variety of new things.

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