Arch Linux fix the kernel ZFS dependency
Table of Contents
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.
The problem: Kernel dependency #
If you see error message like this when you want to update packages:
root@linux ~# 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:
The solution #
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 You might have found on the Internet outdated guide notes that link to different url.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 🎉 now you can simply update and fully patch your system!
pacman -Syyu