---
title: "Comment by Arda Sevinç on \"A (pain)less journey into Arch Linux\" | Hashnode"
description: "Awesome post, sid! I'd like to comment on a few things: In the beginning of Install Arch section , there are two problems with executing pacman -Sy pacstrap"
url: "https://hashnode.com/posts/a-painless-journey-into-arch-linux/63f50bd1746c2f13df89519e/comment/63f63e7b984a1dd3f86ac83e"
---

[Discussion](https://hashnode.com/posts/a-painless-journey-into-arch-linux/63f50bd1746c2f13df89519e)

Comment [A (pain)less journey into Arch Linux](https://hashnode.com/posts/a-painless-journey-into-arch-linux/63f50bd1746c2f13df89519e)

[Arda Sevinç](https://hashnode.com/@ardasevinc)

[Feb 22, 2023](https://hashnode.com/posts/a-painless-journey-into-arch-linux/63f50bd1746c2f13df89519e/comment/63f63e7b984a1dd3f86ac83e)

Awesome post, sid!

I'd like to comment on a few things:

In the beginning of [Install Arch section](https://siddhantkhisty.hashnode.dev/a-painless-journey-into-arch-linux#heading-install-arch), there are two problems with executing `pacman -Sy`

1.  `pacstrap` already downloads the repo files, so this is not needed.
2.  **Partial updates** are not supported in arch. What this means is you should either run `pacman -Syu` or `pacman -S <package>`. When you run `pacman -Sy` you refresh the package list but don't update, this can break things later on. For more information about why partial updates are not supported, please refer to [this archwiki page](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/System_maintenance#Partial_upgrades_are_unsupported)

There are also some other places where I've seen the usage of `pacman -Sy`, like when you're installing discord and other packages.

Also for getting screenshots of the arch install right from the ISO, you can use a hypervisor like qemu, virtualbox or any other virt solution.

[Siddhant Khisty](https://hashnode.com/@siddhantkhisty)

[Feb 22, 2023](https://hashnode.com/posts/a-painless-journey-into-arch-linux/63f50bd1746c2f13df89519e/comment/63f63e7b984a1dd3f86ac83e#reply-63f63fec437bc8d091bd091f)

Thanks for mentioning these Arda. I was under the impression that `pacman -Sy` without specifying a package, only grabbed the most up-to-date version of the repositories, and the upgrade is done only if the `-u` flag was included in it.

And yea, I did see the Arch page you mentioned, sadly I got into the habit of using `-Sy` which is why the `-S` and `-Sy` is used inconsistently in this blog. Need to break that habit.

[Arda Sevinç](https://hashnode.com/@ardasevinc)

[Feb 23, 2023](https://hashnode.com/posts/a-painless-journey-into-arch-linux/63f50bd1746c2f13df89519e/comment/63f63e7b984a1dd3f86ac83e#reply-63f7572aa4069fe3b3e95c73)

[Siddhant Khisty](https://hashnode.com/@siddhantkhisty)

`pacman -Sy` _only does grab_ the most recent version of the package list as you said. The problem is that if you grab the most recent package list and then not perform a system update **immediately after**, the packages can break because of various dependency and incompatibility issues. Since Arch is a rolling release system, the maintainers always assume that all of the system is updated.

In this context, partial update means installing packages right after repo sync (`pacman -Sy`). If it happens that you install a package that depends on a new version of some other package in your system, then things will break. That's why.

Good luck and welcome to Arch! :D

I'm planning to write a similar guide to yours btw including a tiling window manager setup with awesomewm. Currently in the setup (suffering) phase...