pacman -S hangs on unknown packages

[Joymaker]

Attempting to follow skmunter’s instructions here, the output at the bottom here took place. Here's the short version:

pacman --needed -S mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc
  (worked fine)
pacman --needed -S mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain
  (worked fine)
pacman --needed -S base-devel
   (hangs without output, over an hour)
pacman -S nothing
   (hangs without output)

I have seen pacman -S hang under many circumstances. My system architecture may be of interest:

Windows 11
running on a virtual machine under Parallels 20.1 on an Apple Silicon Macintosh.
MacOS 14.2.1
Very recent install of MSYS2

Here's the full output:

[#######################################] 100%
(2/2) checking for file conflicts                                        [#######################################] 100%
(2/2) checking available disk space                                      [#######################################] 100%
:: Processing package changes...
(1/2) upgrading mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc-libs                                [#######################################] 100%
(2/2) upgrading mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc                                     [#######################################] 100%

ken@KENC2BE UCRT64 ~
$

pacman --needed -S mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain
warning: mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc-14.2.0-1 is up to date -- skipping
:: There are 12 members in group mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain:
:: Repository mingw64
   1) mingw-w64-x86_64-binutils  2) mingw-w64-x86_64-crt-git  3) mingw-w64-x86_64-gdb
   4) mingw-w64-x86_64-gdb-multiarch  5) mingw-w64-x86_64-headers-git  6) mingw-w64-x86_64-libmangle-git
   7) mingw-w64-x86_64-libwinpthread-git  8) mingw-w64-x86_64-make  9) mingw-w64-x86_64-pkgconf
   10) mingw-w64-x86_64-tools-git  11) mingw-w64-x86_64-winpthreads-git  12) mingw-w64-x86_64-winstorecompat-git

Enter a selection (default=all):
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...

Packages (12) mingw-w64-x86_64-binutils-2.43.1-1  mingw-w64-x86_64-crt-git-12.0.0.r369.g0d4221712-2
              mingw-w64-x86_64-gdb-15.2-1  mingw-w64-x86_64-gdb-multiarch-15.2-1
              mingw-w64-x86_64-headers-git-12.0.0.r369.g0d4221712-1
              mingw-w64-x86_64-libmangle-git-12.0.0.r369.g0d4221712-1
              mingw-w64-x86_64-libwinpthread-git-12.0.0.r369.g0d4221712-1  mingw-w64-x86_64-make-4.4.1-3
              mingw-w64-x86_64-pkgconf-1~2.3.0-1  mingw-w64-x86_64-tools-git-12.0.0.r369.g0d4221712-1
              mingw-w64-x86_64-winpthreads-git-12.0.0.r369.g0d4221712-1
              mingw-w64-x86_64-winstorecompat-git-12.0.0.r369.g0d4221712-1

Total Download Size:    27.50 MiB
Total Installed Size:  306.44 MiB
Net Upgrade Size:       43.14 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] y
:: Retrieving packages...
 mingw-w64-x86_64-binutils-2.43.1-1-any        6.0 MiB  3.50 MiB/s 00:02 [#######################################] 100%
 mingw-w64-x86_64-tools-git-12.0.0.r369...   316.7 KiB   327 KiB/s 00:01 [#######################################] 100%
 mingw-w64-x86_64-gdb-15.2-1-any               3.8 MiB  1304 KiB/s 00:03 [#######################################] 100%
 mingw-w64-x86_64-crt-git-12.0.0.r369.g...     4.5 MiB  1416 KiB/s 00:03 [#######################################] 100%
 mingw-w64-x86_64-make-4.4.1-3-any           138.5 KiB   354 KiB/s 00:00 [#######################################] 100%
 mingw-w64-x86_64-pkgconf-1~2.3.0-1-any       85.7 KiB   325 KiB/s 00:00 [#######################################] 100%
 mingw-w64-x86_64-winpthreads-git-12.0....    40.1 KiB   161 KiB/s 00:00 [#######################################] 100%
 mingw-w64-x86_64-gdb-multiarch-15.2-1-any     6.3 MiB  1794 KiB/s 00:04 [#######################################] 100%
 mingw-w64-x86_64-libwinpthread-git-12....    28.7 KiB   115 KiB/s 00:00 [#######################################] 100%
 mingw-w64-x86_64-winstorecompat-git-12...    24.7 KiB  99.2 KiB/s 00:00 [#######################################] 100%
 mingw-w64-x86_64-headers-git-12.0.0.r3...     6.3 MiB  1641 KiB/s 00:04 [#######################################] 100%
 mingw-w64-x86_64-libmangle-git-12.0.0....    22.1 KiB  67.4 KiB/s 00:00 [#######################################] 100%
 Total (12/12)                                27.5 MiB  6.51 MiB/s 00:04 [#######################################] 100%
(12/12) checking keys in keyring                                         [#######################################] 100%
(12/12) checking package integrity                                       [#######################################] 100%
(12/12) loading package files                                            [#######################################] 100%
(12/12) checking for file conflicts                                      [#######################################] 100%
(12/12) checking available disk space                                    [#######################################] 100%
:: Processing package changes...
( 1/12) upgrading mingw-w64-x86_64-libwinpthread-git                     [#######################################] 100%
( 2/12) upgrading mingw-w64-x86_64-binutils                              [#######################################] 100%
( 3/12) upgrading mingw-w64-x86_64-headers-git                           [#######################################] 100%
( 4/12) upgrading mingw-w64-x86_64-crt-git                               [#######################################] 100%
( 5/12) upgrading mingw-w64-x86_64-gdb                                   [#######################################] 100%
( 6/12) installing mingw-w64-x86_64-gdb-multiarch                        [#######################################] 100%
Optional dependencies for mingw-w64-x86_64-gdb-multiarch
    mingw-w64-x86_64-python-pygments: for syntax highlighting
( 7/12) installing mingw-w64-x86_64-libmangle-git                        [#######################################] 100%
( 8/12) installing mingw-w64-x86_64-make                                 [#######################################] 100%
( 9/12) installing mingw-w64-x86_64-pkgconf                              [#######################################] 100%
(10/12) installing mingw-w64-x86_64-tools-git                            [#######################################] 100%
(11/12) upgrading mingw-w64-x86_64-winpthreads-git                       [#######################################] 100%
(12/12) installing mingw-w64-x86_64-winstorecompat-git                   [#######################################] 100%

ken@KENC2BE UCRT64 ~
$ pacman --needed -S base-devel
<hangs over an hour>
Interrupt signal received

ken@KENC2BE UCRT64 ~
$ pacman -Q base-devel
error: package 'base-devel' was not found

ken@KENC2BE UCRT64 ~
$  pacman -S nothing
<hangs indefinitely>