Yay: unable to create working copy directory

General system EndeavourOS installation
1

Hi.
After a difficult installation (pacman unable to make change to installed system… neat.), then going for an offline install, and the impossibility to restore my previous profiles, with many things not installing anymore, or crashing, and … the list goes on,
Now it’s

unable to create working copy directory '***********' : permission not granted

→ error while retrieving python-node-semver : fatal : unable to create working copy directory ‘python-node-semver’ : permission not granted
context : exit status 128

error while fetching python-patch-ng : fatal : unable to create working copy directory ‘python-patch-ng’ : permission not granted
context : exit status 128

error while fetching audacium : fatal : could not create working copy directory ‘audacium’ : permission not granted
context: exit status 128

conan recovery error: fatal: could not create working copy directory ‘conan’: permission not granted
context: exit status 128

(translated). Which makes it impossible to use the AUR, or yay at least.
it’s a fresh install, I changed nothing. Only restored Desktop and Document folder, presumably including hidden files. I did not change .config etc.

2

Check the permissions on your ~.cache

ls -l ~/.cache/yay

3

looks like you used your old /home on the new system or copied too much from the old install and now permissions are wrong.
You either have to correct them manually so that your current user has permissions to write, or wipe /home and start fresh. Given that it is a fresh install, i would do the later.

3 Likes
4

The procedure to keep home from the previous user is to rename the home folder (if you want to keep username for new install) use the home partition on new install by only mounting it as /home on manual partition and after first boot copy personal data over to new users home folder from old backup, and for configs… do this one after the other and only for apps you use, test if they work and take the next…

2 Likes
5

I see, I wondered if it would go swimmingly, I’m not surprised it doesn’t entirely.
I switched to paru instead of yay and it works fine.
Thanks !