Arch Linux fix the kernel ZFS dependency

Ales Lerch
Ales Lerch
- 1 min read

As of November 2022 there are still issues with Arch Linux official support for zfs package. Unlike BTRFS which is part of kernel ZFS still has to be installed via packages.

ISSUE: Kernel dependency

If you see error message like this when you want to update packages: 

[email protected] ~# pacman -Suyyy
:: Synchronizing package databases...
 core                  158.6 KiB  1823 KiB/s 00:00 [########################] 100%
 extra                1762.9 KiB  17.2 MiB/s 00:00 [########################] 100%
 community               7.2 MiB  22.5 MiB/s 00:00 [########################] 100%
:: Starting full system upgrade...
:: Replace at-spi2-atk with extra/at-spi2-core? [Y/n]
:: Replace atk with extra/at-spi2-core? [Y/n]
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...
error: failed to prepare transaction (could not satisfy dependencies)
:: installing linux (6.0.7.arch1-1) breaks dependency 'linux=5.19.4.arch1-1' required by zfs-linux

This sucks since you are unable to update your system. And you definitely should update your system. So to achieve the latest version for all packages again for security reasons here is how to fix this problem:

FIX: me

To fix this first you need to do: 

pacman-key --recv-keys F75D9D76
pacman-key --finger F75D9D76
pacman-key --lsign-key F75D9D76

You can check here https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/unofficial_user_repositories#archzfs from the official guide that this links to archzfs repository for arch linux.  You might have found on the Internet outdated guide notes that link to different url. Since repository was moved as noted here:

https://github.com/archzfs/archzfs/issues/368

all you need to do is to add this inside `/etc/pacman.conf`: 

...
[archzfs]
Server = https://mirror.biocrafting.net/archlinux/archzfs/$repo/x86_64

# dont use [zfs-kernels] or you will have issues with servers down

[zfs-linux]
Server = http://kernels.archzfs.com/$repo/
...

And tada now you can call simply and fully patch and update your system. 

pacman -Syyu
1

Remember don't forget to update your system to make it difficult for the malicious attackers. There is older guide for zfs which can be still useful, it's just down so you can find it here.