diff --git a/projects/ArchR/packages/archr/autostart/004-seed-pacmandb b/projects/ArchR/packages/archr/autostart/004-seed-pacmandb
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..fcf8e2c0e9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/projects/ArchR/packages/archr/autostart/004-seed-pacmandb
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+# Copyright (C) 2026 ArchR (https://github.com/archr-linux/Arch-R)
+#
+# Seed the pacman *installed* (local) db on first boot so archr-update /
+# `pacman -Syu` can upgrade the BASE system, not just user-installed addons.
+#
+# The image rootfs is a squashfs, not a pacman install, so /var/lib/pacman
+# (-> /storage/.pacman/db) starts empty: `pacman -Q` returns nothing and
+# `pacman -Qu` finds no upgrades even when the repo carries newer base
+# packages. scripts/repo/gen-pacman-repo publishes a matching seed
+# (<repo>-localdb.tar.gz) alongside the packages for every build, so we pull
+# it from the same release channel and extract it once. Only seed when the
+# local db is still empty, so a user who has installed/removed packages with
+# pacman is never clobbered.
+
+. /etc/profile.d/001-functions 2>/dev/null
+
+DB=/storage/.pacman/db
+REPO_NAME=archr-core
+BRANCH="$(get_setting updates.branch 2>/dev/null)"
+BRANCH="${BRANCH:-stable}"
+SEED_URL="https://github.com/archr-linux/archr-repo/releases/download/repo-${BRANCH}/${REPO_NAME}-localdb.tar.gz"
+LOG=/var/log/pacman-seed.log
+
+mkdir -p "${DB}"
+
+# Already seeded? Anything beyond ALPM_DB_VERSION means the local db is
+# populated (by this hook earlier, or by the user's own pacman activity).
+if [ -d "${DB}/local" ] &&
+   [ "$(ls -1 "${DB}/local" 2>/dev/null | grep -vc '^ALPM_DB_VERSION$')" -gt 0 ]; then
+    exit 0
+fi
+
+# Needs network; if it is not up yet we silently retry on the next boot.
+ping -c 1 -W 3 8.8.8.8 >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0
+
+tmp=/tmp/archr-localdb.tar.gz
+if curl -fsSL "${SEED_URL}" -o "${tmp}" 2>>"${LOG}" ||
+   wget -q -O "${tmp}" "${SEED_URL}" 2>>"${LOG}"; then
+    if tar -C "${DB}" -xzf "${tmp}" 2>>"${LOG}"; then
+        echo "$(date): seeded pacman local db from ${SEED_URL}" >>"${LOG}"
+    fi
+    rm -f "${tmp}"
+fi
diff --git a/scripts/repo/gen-pacman-repo b/scripts/repo/gen-pacman-repo
index cfd1ff7e0f..496e057975 100755
--- a/scripts/repo/gen-pacman-repo
+++ b/scripts/repo/gen-pacman-repo
@@ -167,6 +167,30 @@ fi
     ln -sf "${REPO_NAME}.db.tar.gz" "${REPO_NAME}.db" && \
     ln -sf "${REPO_NAME}.files.tar.gz" "${REPO_NAME}.files" )
 
+# Seed an installed (local) db. Without it the shipped image's
+# /var/lib/pacman/local is empty: `pacman -Q` returns nothing and
+# `pacman -Syu` (archr-update) can only install user addons, never upgrade
+# the base. We register every just-built package as installed (db entry
+# only; the files already live in the image squashfs) into a staging dbpath
+# and tar the resulting local/ tree. It is published as a repo asset and
+# pulled in on first boot by the 004-seed-pacmandb autostart hook (so no
+# image-build wiring is needed; the seed always matches this build).
+echo "gen-pacman-repo: seeding installed (local) db..."
+seed_dbpath="${OUT_DIR}/.seed-dbpath"
+rm -rf "${seed_dbpath}" "${OUT_DIR}/.seed-root"
+mkdir -p "${seed_dbpath}/local" "${seed_dbpath}/sync"
+cp "${local_db}" "${seed_dbpath}/sync/${REPO_NAME}.db"
+if fakeroot pacman -U --dbonly --noconfirm \
+        --root "${OUT_DIR}/.seed-root" --dbpath "${seed_dbpath}" \
+        --cachedir "${OUT_DIR}" \
+        "${OUT_DIR}"/*.pkg.tar.zst >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    tar -C "${seed_dbpath}" -czf "${OUT_DIR}/${REPO_NAME}-localdb.tar.gz" local
+    echo "  wrote ${REPO_NAME}-localdb.tar.gz ($(ls -1 "${seed_dbpath}/local" | wc -l) entries)"
+else
+    echo "  WARNING: local-db seed failed; base will not be pacman-upgradable" >&2
+fi
+rm -rf "${seed_dbpath}" "${OUT_DIR}/.seed-root"
+
 echo ""
 echo "gen-pacman-repo: ready at ${OUT_DIR}"
 ls -1sh "${OUT_DIR}" | head -20