The Arch install failed at once: "error: failed to synchronize all
databases (unable to lock database)" then "reflector: command not
found". Cause: cloud-init was still running its own pacman (installing
qemu-guest-agent/openssh) and held /var/lib/pacman/db.lck when our
bootstrap started, so every pacman call failed and reflector never got
installed.
Fix: the remote install now waits for cloud-init to finish first
("cloud-init status --wait", 15 min timeout) before touching any package
manager — this releases the apt/dnf/pacman lock cloud-init holds during
its package stage (helps all distros). For Arch, also drop a stale
db.lck when no pacman is actually running. Verified live: cloud-init
done, no lock, reflector + refresh + curl/git/make all succeed.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Mathieu Benoit
137f4245ec