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#1 2025-09-21 17:48:48

gpc
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Registered: 2025-09-21
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Upgrading old/ancient system (2017)

I'm planning to upgrade an old (ancient) Arch installation from 2017 June (original Arch before i686 support ended). I was thinking of uninstalling most packages and then incrementally upgrading through repos, following announcements for interventions required. I imagine I might need to first copy keys from my up-to-date system.

Is there a reason I shouldn't do this? (Should I fresh install from ISO instead, maybe easier anyway?)

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#2 2025-09-22 10:31:31

abaumann
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Re: Upgrading old/ancient system (2017)

You might have trouble with the signing keys of packages..
..install a pacman-static just for the case you break something. :-)

You can go though the transition "https://www.archlinux32.org/download/" "Transition from Archlinux to Archlinux32" and see what you get.

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#3 2025-09-24 08:09:42

gpc
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Re: Upgrading old/ancient system (2017)

Thanks. I'm nervous about reconnecting to the Internet with 2017 software, so I might try to copy keys from another computer and IP-restrict to the archive server.

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#4 2025-09-25 10:31:38

abaumann
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Re: Upgrading old/ancient system (2017)

If you make a firewall and just allow port 443 for a specific mirror for incoming traffic, and of course you block incoming ports but for ssh, I don't see the big risk here..

..or you create a mirror in a local network.

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#5 2025-10-02 13:42:35

gpc
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Registered: 2025-09-21
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Re: Upgrading old/ancient system (2017)

I was playing with iptables but after they got cleared by reboot I got connected to the Internet without anyway.

After a pacman refresh to the arch32 archive 2020, installing archlinux32-keyring-transition gives message

error: key "CEB167EFB5722BD6" could not be looked up remotely

So I will try figuring that out.

Last edited by gpc (2025-10-02 13:43:02)

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#6 2025-10-06 06:35:31

abaumann
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Re: Upgrading old/ancient system (2017)

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#7 2025-10-15 20:02:31

advert
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Re: Upgrading old/ancient system (2017)

The solution was in this thread, but none of those methods work anymore, and I still couldn't import the key and reinstall the package.

https://bugs.archlinux32.org/index.php? … us%5B0%5D=

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#8 2026-01-25 06:23:50

gpc
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Re: Upgrading old/ancient system (2017)

I've come back to this.

From https://bbs.archlinux32.org/viewtopic.php?id=3193 and as added to broken-keyring instructions, I ran the command:

pacman-key -r CEB167EFB5722BD6  --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80

I then ran:

pacman -Syy archlinux32-keyring-transition
pacman -Syuu

I removed some packages that I recall were causing dependency errors.

Downloading packages was then successful but pacman does not trust the signatures.

I ran

pacman-key --init
pacman-key --refresh

which reported

A specified local key could not be updated from a keyserver

I added the ubuntu server to

/etc/pacman.d/gnupg/gpg.conf

and ran

pacman-key --refresh

pacman still rejects package signatures.

I'm thinking about what I should try next. Looks like same thing as advert reported.

Last edited by gpc (2026-01-25 06:31:22)

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#9 2026-01-25 14:19:17

gpc
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Registered: 2025-09-21
Posts: 7

Re: Upgrading old/ancient system (2017)

Having downloaded packages from https://archive.archlinux32.org/repos/2020/01/01/ , should I be fine to temporarily bypass signature-check to install packages? Assume that I can trust this server and pacman's connection to it?

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#10 2026-01-25 14:20:54

abaumann
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Re: Upgrading old/ancient system (2017)

Just wanted to suggest that SigLevel=Never would be an option in your case probably.

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#11 2026-01-27 03:20:27

gpc
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Registered: 2025-09-21
Posts: 7

Re: Upgrading old/ancient system (2017)

By the way, I think the download page key section needs "pacman-key populate" replaced with "pacman-key --populate"

I tried just bypassing signatures for the keyring packages but still couldn't upgrade, so yes I went with SigLevel=Never, upgraded to 2020/01/01, and then returned SigLevel to default. So I guess I hope the server wasn't hacked before I downloaded the packages a couple of days ago, ha.

For the upgrade to latest, I removed some more packages that were causing dependency errors. Upgrade to latest resulted in error looking up PGP key for TasosSah. Rebooted and no error on importing, though not sure why was prompted endlessly to import PGP key for TasosSah. I exited after saying yes a few times. Next upgrade had signature errors.

Ran

pacman-key --init
pacman-key --populate archlinux32
pacman-key --refresh 

Attempted upgrade, got trust errors. Perhaps I can inspect the signature on the latest archlinux32-keying package myself to confirm, and bypass signature-check. Or perhaps I can again just bypass signature-check again, trusting download from mirror.math.princeton.edu, just for archlinux32-keyring-20251214-1.0

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