Arch Linux

dax79

Member

Registered: 2021-12-28

Posts: 7

Failed to check for chroot() environment: Permission denied

Hi, on my archlinux fully update pc when i run pacman -Syu i get a lot of

Failed to check for chroot() environment: Permission denied

This happen after a resize/moving hard disk partition through gparted.
I also tried to search the web but without results.
Can somebody give me a start point for further investigation?
Thanks
Davide

noesoespanol

Member

Registered: 2026-03-30

Posts: 9

Re: Failed to check for chroot() environment: Permission denied

It could be incorrect or overly restrictive mount options on your root. Try "mount | grep -E ' / | /boot | /home'" to check current mount options, or "cat /etc/fstab" to check what fstab says. Also "ls -ld / /boot /var/cache/pacman/pkg", have a look at permissions. Look for noexec, nosuid, or nodev on the root (/) filesystem?

Remount root with proper options temporarily:

sudo mount -o remount,exec,suid,dev /

Edit fstab:

sudo nano /etc/fstab

Make sure the root line looks like this (adjust UUID or PARTUUID):

UUID=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx / ext4 defaults 0 1

Remove any noexec, nosuid, nodev from the root / line, but for /boot or EFI partition, defaults or noatime is usually fine. I use noatime myself. Less "junk" imho. Example for root: defaults,noatime (no noexec etc.).

I use BTRFS though, so mine looks like:

<idiiii>    /    btrfs        defaults,rw,noatime,compress=zstd:3,ssd,space_cache=v2    0 0

Test fstab and see: "sudo mount -a"