Common Issues

Verifying RSA keys

If the Void RSA key has changed, xbps-install(1) will report the new key fingerprint and ask you to confirm it:

<repository> repository has been RSA signed by "Void Linux"
Fingerprint: <rsa_fingerprint>
Do you want to import this public key? [Y/n]

To verify the key, ensure the <rsa_fingerprint> matches one of the fingerprints in both void-packages and void-mklive.

Errors while updating or installing packages

If there are any errors while updating or installing a new package, make sure that you are using the latest version of the remote repository index. Running xbps-install(1) with the -S option will guarantee that.

"Operation not permitted"

An "Operation not permitted" error, such as:

ERROR: [reposync] failed to fetch file https://repo-default.voidlinux.org/current/nonfree/x86_64-repodata': Operation not permitted

can be caused by your system's date and/or time being incorrect. Ensure your date and time are correct.

"Not Found"

A "Not Found" error, such as:

ERROR: [reposync] failed to fetch file `https://repo-default.voidlinux.org/current/musl/x86_64-repodata': Not Found

usually means your XBPS configuration is pointing to the wrong repositories for your system. Confirm that your xbps.d(5) files refer to the correct repositories.

shlib errors

An "unresolvable shlib" error, such as:

libllvm8-8.0.1_2: broken, unresolvable shlib `libffi.so.6'

is probably due to outdated or orphan packages. To check for outdated packages, simply try to update your system. Orphan packages, on the other hand, have been removed from the Void repos, but are still installed on your system; they can be removed by running xbps-remove(1) with the -o option.

If you get an error message saying:

Transaction aborted due to unresolved shlibs

the repositories are in the staging state, which can happen due to large builds. The solution is to wait for the builds to finish. You can view the builds' progress in the Buildbot's Waterfall Display.

repodata errors

In March 2020, the compression format used for the repository data (repodata) was changed from gzip to zstd. If XBPS wasn't updated to version 0.54 (released June 2019) or newer, it is not possible to update the system with it. Unfortunately, there isn't an error message for this case, but it can be detected by running xbps-install with the -Sd flags. The debug message for this error is shown below.

[DEBUG] [repo] `//var/db/xbps/https___repo-default_voidlinux_org_current/x86_64-repodata' failed to open repodata archive Invalid or incomplete multibyte or wide character

In this situation, it is necessary to follow the steps in xbps-static.

Broken systems

If your system is for some reason broken and can't perform updates or package installations, using a statically linked version of xbps to update and install packages can help you avoid reinstalling the whole system.