Yay version 12.5.6-1?

General system Pacman & AUR helpers
22

Please see the warning about using Discover for updating repo packages on Arch (or an Arch-based distro):

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/KDE#Discover_does_not_show_any_applications

Warning

As explained in a GitHub comment by a Package Maintainer, “Handling system packages via packagekit is just fundamentally incompatible with our high-maintenance rolling release distro, where any update might leave the system in an unbootable or otherwise unusable state if the user does not take care reading pacman’s logs or merging pacnew files before rebooting.”

23

Thanks for your time and the links. I read the topics, and the Github thread is addressing Gnome DE users, probably those trying to use Discover or something in Gnome, not KDE DE users with a few a Gnome apps, and I cannot see why Discover on Plasma would try to use the Gnome DE base which is installed for the gnome apps I have, and with the Plasma base installed and running as my DE: I haven’t used Gnome in over 14 years, and don’t like it.

The ArchWicki post is saying to upgrade to packagekit-qt6 in KDE, but again, I haven’t tried Discover in KDE 6+ yet, nor for quite a while in v 5 before v6 release either because of those problems I mentioned, and if I’m correct packagekit-qt6 wasn’t even a thing that long ago. I have to assume that if I install Discover now it should install packagekit-qt6 or higher.

Now right below the ArchWiki post you linked to, there’s this one:

Discover stops showing updates from Arch repositories

Discover sometimes will not remove its PackageKit alpm lock. To release it, remove /var/lib/PackageKit/alpm/db.lck. Use “Refresh” in Discover and updates should appear (if there are any updates pending).

which is kind of a turn off, if it’s still the case (no dates on that page), and may be the answer why it wasn’t updating certain apps in the more distant past, and out of sync with what I had installed via pacman or yay, and I guess I was asking if it still has trouble with that since I didn’t know it was the issue in the first place, which I can probably look up to get up to date info: KDE has so many sites, making it harder to find information, and finding parts on different ones when trying to build a more complete picture.

Last I still wonder if those issues are fixed, I can get Discover to work with the AUR, otherwise the limitation will still be a bummer, as it was last time I used Discover.

Again: I’d rather not use a package manager with a UI if it comes with too many drawbacks, they just have a few conveniences terminal apps or any text only books… don’t have for me, given I do much better with illustrations, contextual pictures, buttons rather than commands and the like; I got into computers in 1979, but on the hardware side for having electrons understanding and required skills my friends got me into because they were trying to make working systems out of all sorts of mismatched surplus, but were developer types, not electricians or electrical engineers. I saw plenty of good reasons to get with using computers but I didn’t get into it for not being able to wrap my mind around the required code and scripting needed to even use them until the GUI became a thing.

24

The problem with using Discover/packagekit on an Arch-based system is not limited to GNOME or any other desktop environment. Please read the red-boxed Warning from the Arch wiki link posted above (I also have quoted that warning).

If for some reason that doesn’t discourage you from using Discover to update your Arch-based system, then try this: Type KDE Discover Arch into your favorite search engine and look through the results.

This is how you successfully maintain an Arch installation:

First, always check the Arch website’s Latest News for potentially required manual interventions.

https://archlinux.org/

You should open a terminal and update with pacman (or with a pacman wrapper/AUR helper, like yay or paru).

Pay attention to pacman’s output. Investigate any warnings, and deal with any pacnew files.

An AUR helper like yay or paru can update both repos packages and AUR packages using one command; personally I prefer to keep the transactions entirely separate. If an AUR packages requires new libraries, you will have to rebuild that AUR package against its new dependencies.

If you use flatpaks/snaps/appimages, they are a separate update process.

I can lead you to water, but I can’t make you drink.

25

What part about I am not a coder or can even do bash script worth sh*t, which kind of indicates I am not familiar with the vast depths of any OS or distro: I’m a power user in I do a great many things with the computer, not on or to the computer OS…

As to my choice and use of Arch, I had a huge beef with Windows (used it since 3.1 all the way to 7, and what was forgivable in the early versions became unforgivable in later versions, mostly the lack of control over any details in the OS’s behavior and functionality, and having few choices to make it suit the workflow I had in mind, even as a Windows user who did use the terminal when needed, a good grasp on the registry… compared to the average Window user.

The early draft of the Windows 10 EULA was the last straw for adding insult to injury, so I quit windows and all of Microsoft right then and there, and finally really got with Linux which I was trying since the very first official Slackware release, but again way above my pay grade. After distro hopping for only a few months for all of the warnings newbies should start with Ubuntu, Ubuntu based distro’s, or anything newbie friendly, which to me lacked that which I was looking for, and not that much better than Windows in that regard, so I tried Arch via Antergos of which it’s community a few years later when it was no longer to be set out to create EOS to be similar to. Ditto for KDE for giving me all the bells and whistles needed to make the OS fit me, and I finally had the closet thing to what I wanted since Windows 98, and now pretty much have my own distro, sans distribution, which is also way above my pay grade.

I have learned a lot, but that never ends with anything that evolves and morphs as Linux does at a pretty fast pace, especially with the parts I have a hard time wrapping my head around, but I am willing to at least try hard, sometimes for days even weeks first before asking others for help, and don’t just go at it until my efforts become exhausted, this being one rare case as my stats here probably indicate, which you didn’t bother to check before giving me the RTFM, and on this excellent forum of all places which I have been a member since day one, which is quite unbecoming.