Hi everyone, I’m trying to install the system in China and encountering some network hurdles:
Without VPN: The installer hangs on the image/mirror update because geoip.kde.org is unreachable.
With VPN: The GeoIP check passes, but create-pacman-keyring consistently fails due to a timeout.
Is there a way to skip the automated mirror update or the GeoIP check during the installation process? Any workarounds would be appreciated. Thanks!
For CachyOS repositories:
sudo nano /etc/pacman.d/cachyos-mirrorlist
Add these Chinese mirrors at the top of the file (pacman uses the first working ones)
Server = https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/cachyos/repo/$repo/$arch
Server = https://mirror.nju.edu.cn/cachyos/repo/$repo/$arch # If available; check current list
Comment out (#) other mirrors if needed.
For Arch Linux repositories (used for many packages):
Use Chinese Arch mirrors (e.g., from Arch Linux - Mirror Overview or archlinux.cn).
sudo nano /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
Add at the top:
Server = https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://mirror.lzu.edu.cn/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Then refresh:
sudo pacman -Syy
After this, launch the Calamares installer—it should proceed without needing to re-rank mirrors aggressively.
If it still hangs In the live environment, temporarily rename/disable the ranking tool:
sudo mv /usr/bin/rate-mirrors /usr/bin/rate-mirrors.bak
sudo mv /usr/bin/cachyos-rate-mirrors /usr/bin/cachyos-rate-mirrors.bak # If present
Or edit /etc/calamares/scripts/update-mirrorlist to skip the ranking (add exit 0 early or comment out the rate-mirrors call).
This forces it to use the existing (manually set) mirrorlist.
These steps have resolved similar issues for users in restricted network regions (including China, Russia, India). If the thread has recent replies with a specific fix, try the latest ISO + Chinese mirrors first—that often solves it without manual tweaks.