diff --git a/commands/core.d/bootstrap.d/arch.sh b/commands/core.d/bootstrap.d/arch.sh
index 54b9d0a2d18ba4392a6337fb981e99cd438c16cc..58616557e120c5504faa633316930b02b2e2f099 100644
--- a/commands/core.d/bootstrap.d/arch.sh
+++ b/commands/core.d/bootstrap.d/arch.sh
@@ -2,10 +2,10 @@
 
 if which yaourt &>/dev/null; then
   distro_pacman="${distro_pacman:-yaourt -S --noconfirm}"
-  distro_update_cmd="${distro_update_cmd:-yaourt -Syyuu --aur --noconfirm --devel}"
+  distro_update_cmd="${distro_update_cmd:-yaourt -Syy --aur --noconfirm --devel}"
 elif which paru &>/dev/null; then
   distro_pacman="${distro_pacman:-paru -S --noconfirm}"
-  distro_update_cmd="${distro_pacman:-paru -Syyuu --noconfirm}"
+  distro_update_cmd="${distro_pacman:-paru -Syy --noconfirm}"
 else
   distro_pacman="${distro_pacman:-sudo pacman -S --noconfirm}"
   distro_update_cmd="${distro_update_cmd:-sudo pacman -Syyuu --noconfirm}"
@@ -30,4 +30,4 @@ $distro_pacman "${distro_packages[@]}"
 
 info "installing Python 3 dependencies..."
 
-sudo pip3 install "${pip_packages[@]}"
+sudo pip3 install --break-system-packages "${pip_packages[@]}"
diff --git a/lib/core b/lib/core
index a9ee2873c7c9044aa807d9393e330ddbd7d06ab6..2a24049cf9af2b93b626ad59954f0f56c825e430 100644
--- a/lib/core
+++ b/lib/core
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ function core_parse_project_config() {
   local value
 
   while read -s line; do
-    if [[ "$line" =~ ^#|\s*\[ ]]; then
+    if [[ "$line" =~ ^(#|\s*\[|$) ]]; then
       continue
     fi
 
@@ -79,6 +79,6 @@ function core_parse_project_config() {
     value="${line#*=}"
     value="${value# }"
 
-    eval "declare -gx CONF_${conf~~}='$value'"
+    eval 'declare -gx CONF_'${conf~~}'='"$value"
   done <"$_HEADSTART_PROJECT_CONFIG"
 }