Here's an example:

[darose@darsys4 ~]$ sudo pacman -S udev
:: udev conflicts with hotplug. Remove hotplug? [Y/n] y

Remove: hotplug

Targets: udev-079-1

Total Package Size: 0.2 MB

Proceed with upgrade? [Y/n] y

checking package integrity... done.
error: this will break the following dependencies:
hotplug: is required by hwd

[darose@darsys4 ~]$ pacman -Q hwd
Package "hwd" was not found.

[darose@darsys4 ~]$ pacman -Q | grep hwd
[darose@darsys4 ~]$

Hmm, strange. According to ABS, hwd does not even depend on hotplug.

Take a look at the files in /var/lib/pacman/extra/hwd-4.7.1-1. Do you see any references to hotplug in the "desc" or "depends" files?

What happens if you completely remove the directory /var/lib/pacman/extra/hwd-4.7.1-1 and then try --sync'ing udev? (Btw, don't --refresh first, or the hwd directory will show up again).

If you don't see any problems with the desc/depends files, please tar/gzip up your entire /var/lib/pacman directory and send it to me. Email is fine if you don't want to attach it here.

I have the EXACT same problem as David. Removing hwd does not fix the problem. I can't upgrade as long this error exists...

[root@lc2430 eugenia]# pacman -Suy
:: Synchronizing package databases...
:: current is up to date
:: extra is up to date
:: pcmciautils conflicts with pcmcia-cs. Remove pcmcia-cs? [Y/n]
:: udev conflicts with hotplug. Remove hotplug? [Y/n]

Remove: pcmcia-cs hotplug

Targets: anjuta-1.2.4a-1 mozilla-firefox-1.5-1 devhelp-0.11-1 epiphany-1.8.3-2 galeon-2.0.0-1
gnomemeeting-1.2.3-1 hal-0.5.5.1-4 kernel26-2.6.15-2 libgphoto2-2.1.6-5 lirc-0.7.2-6
man-pages-2.18-2 mkinitrd-1.01-25 mysql-5.0.18-1 pcmciautils-011-1 sane-1.0.17-2
slmodem-2.9.11-6 udev-079-1 wlan-ng26-0.2.3-3 yelp-2.12.2-1

Total Package Size: 66.9 MB

Proceed with upgrade? [Y/n]

checking package integrity... done.
error: this will break the following dependencies:
hotplug: is required by hwd

[root@lc2430 eugenia]# pacman -R hotplug
error: this will break the following dependencies:
hotplug: is required by hwd
hotplug: is required by pcmciautils
hotplug: is required by udev

[root@lc2430 eugenia]# pacman -S udev
:: udev conflicts with pcmcia-cs. Remove pcmcia-cs? [Y/n]
:: udev conflicts with hotplug. Remove hotplug? [Y/n]

Remove: pcmcia-cs hotplug

Targets: udev-079-1

Total Package Size: 0.2 MB

Proceed with upgrade? [Y/n]

checking package integrity... done.
error: this will break the following dependencies:
hotplug: is required by hwd
hotplug: is required by pcmciautils

Eugenia, please send me your pacman DB.

# tar cjf pacmandb.tar.bz2 /var/lib/pacman

Then email the resulting pacmandb.tar.bz2 to me and I'll take a look. Thanks.

Sent. Please let me know if you haven't receive it for some reason.

For some reason, even though hwd no longer depends on hotplug, it has been left as a REQUIREDBY package in hotplug, which is preventing you from upgrading.

Here are the steps to manually fix. I know this isn't ideal. If many users have this problem, I'll post a script or equivalent that will do the job for them.

1. As root, edit "/var/lib/pacman/local/hotplug-2004_09_23-4/depends" with a text editor
2. Delete all package names that come _after_ "%REQUIREDBY%" and _before_ the blank line that comes before "%CONFLICTS%"

For example, here is the depends file before editing. I've explicitly marked the blank lines.

[snip]
%DEPENDS%
usbutils
-----BLANK LINE HERE-----
%REQUIREDBY%
hwd
pcmciautils
udev
-----BLANK LINE HERE-----
%CONFLICTS%
-----BLANK LINE HERE-----
%PROVIDES%
-----BLANK LINE HERE-----
[/snip]


Now here is the file after editing.

[snip]
%DEPENDS%
usbutils
-----BLANK LINE HERE-----
%REQUIREDBY%
-----BLANK LINE HERE-----
%CONFLICTS%
-----BLANK LINE HERE-----
%PROVIDES%
-----BLANK LINE HERE-----
[/snip]


Once finished editing, try upgrading again. I tested with your DB, Eugenia, and this hacky little solution worked. Sorry for the confusion.

this worked, thanks. I got the following output though during removal:

checking package integrity... done.
removing pcmcia-cs...
warning: /etc/pcmcia/wireless.opts saved as /etc/pcmcia/wireless.opts.pacsave
warning: /etc/pcmcia/serial.opts saved as /etc/pcmcia/serial.opts.pacsave
warning: /etc/pcmcia/scsi.opts saved as /etc/pcmcia/scsi.opts.pacsave
warning: /etc/pcmcia/parport.opts saved as /etc/pcmcia/parport.opts.pacsave
warning: /etc/pcmcia/network.opts saved as /etc/pcmcia/network.opts.pacsave
warning: /etc/pcmcia/memory.opts saved as /etc/pcmcia/memory.opts.pacsave
warning: /etc/pcmcia/ieee1394.opts saved as /etc/pcmcia/ieee1394.opts.pacsave
warning: /etc/pcmcia/ide.opts saved as /etc/pcmcia/ide.opts.pacsave
warning: /etc/pcmcia/ftl.opts saved as /etc/pcmcia/ftl.opts.pacsave
warning: /etc/pcmcia/config.opts saved as /etc/pcmcia/config.opts.pacsave
warning: /etc/conf.d/pcmcia saved as /etc/conf.d/pcmcia.pacsave
done.
removing hotplug...
warning: /etc/hotplug/usb.usermap saved as /etc/hotplug/usb.usermap.pacsave
warning: /etc/hotplug/usb.handmap saved as /etc/hotplug/usb.handmap.pacsave
warning: /etc/hotplug/usb.distmap saved as /etc/hotplug/usb.distmap.pacsave
warning: /etc/hotplug/blacklist saved as /etc/hotplug/blacklist.pacsave
done.
loading package data... done.

Yeah, that fix worked for me too. Really weird how that dependency got stuck like that!

Yes, those are leftover config files that pacman always saves by default. You can delete them with this command:

# find /etc/pcmcia /etc/hotplug -name "*.pacsave" -exec rm {} \;

No, I mean really weird how that:

%REQUIREDBY%
hwd

got stuck there.

status ?

Judd's recommendation worked for me. However, this is something that must be fixed on Pacman so it doesn't happen again.