Every Package I Select in to Install in Synaptic is Broken

[mhumm2]

I don't understand what happened. I've reloaded the repositories and issued the 'update' command, but all the packages I select to install from Synaptic displays a red box and under properties, the status = Broken. In the status bar, on the bottom left of the Synaptic panel, it states:

5 packages listed, 2788 installed, 1 broken, 3 to install/upgrade, 0 to remove; 10.3 MB will be used

I was trying to install bluefish at the time. The confusing thing is it doesn't matter what I try to install, I get the same '1 broken...' status display.

I've been using Kubuntu for some time now and I'm happy to say that due to my experience with this OS, I'm sure, whatever broke, is a direct or indirect result of me doing something I should not have done (assume humble and self-deprecating grin here).

What exactly is wrong and how do I fix it?

Here's what happens when I try to install a package from the terminal:

mark@AMD64-LTS:~$ sudo apt-get install bluefish
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
bluefish : Depends: bluefish-plugins (= 2.2.5-1) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
mark@AMD64-LTS:~$

I get the same error on all terminal install attempts.

[wizard10000]

Try this in a terminal session -

sudo apt-get -f install

That should identify and hopefully fix the broken package.

Hope this helps -

[mhumm2]

Thank you wizard10000, but I get the same terminal warning:

mark@AMD64-LTS:~$ sudo apt-get -f install bluefish
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
bluefish : Depends: bluefish-plugins (= 2.2.5-1) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Please understand, I don't believe this has anything to do with Bluefish. It happens with every install I attempt from: terminal, Synaptic, and deb installer.

[wizard10000]

Try it without the bluefish.

sudo apt-get -f install

[GreyGeek]

And, also use
dpgk --configure -a
along with
apt-get install -f

Repeat those two several times.

Another thing to try is to comment out lines in the source.list file, do an apt-get update, and retry those two commands. Keep commenting and updating and using those commands until the errors quit. Then uncomment those commented lines one at a time, redoing that fix sequence after each uncomment & update.

[mhumm2]

Thank. As a matter of fact there were 2 source list entries that could not be found and I did comment them out from Synaptic. Here's what I get from the terminal commands:

M:confused:ark@AMD64-LTS:~$ dpgk --configure -a
No command 'dpgk' found, did you mean:
Command 'dpkg' from package 'dpkg' (main)
dpgk: command not found
mark@AMD64-LTS:~$ sudo dpgk --configure -a
sudo: dpgk: command not found

mark@AMD64-LTS:~$ sudo apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 314 not upgraded.

[vinnywright]

And, also use
dpgk --configure -a
along with
apt-get install -f

Repeat those two several times.

Another thing to try is to comment out lines in the source.list file, do an apt-get update, and retry those two commands. Keep commenting and updating and using those commands until the errors quit. Then uncomment those commented lines one at a time, redoing that fix sequence after each uncomment & update.

that was a typo ,,,,it should be "dpkg" ,,,,so

sudo dpkg --configure -a

VINNY

[mhumm2]

Thanks Vinnywright. That helped. The dpkg command is just processed and the user prompt echoes for the next command. the apt-get -f install responds the same way I cited above, everytime. The update command goes through all my sources list without a single error, but Synaptic still shows any package I select to install as broken.

[vinnywright]

try to install one on the command line and lets see the errors ,,,,

sudo apt-get install somepackage

where "somepackage" is the name of the package you want

have you added any PPA's to your system's sources.list or sources.list.d

VINNY

[mhumm2]

I gotta tell you guys, this is getting very old, very quickly. What the hell is the problem?

mark@AMD64-LTS:~$ sudo apt-get install 0ad
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
0ad : Depends: 0ad-data-common (>= 0.0.15) but it is not going to be installed
      Depends: 0ad-data-common (< 0.0.16) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

[GreyGeek]

I gotta tell you guys, this is getting very old, very quickly. What the hell is the problem?

mark@AMD64-LTS:~$ sudo apt-get install 0ad
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
0ad : Depends: 0ad-data-common (>= 0.0.15) but it is not going to be installed
      Depends: 0ad-data-common (< 0.0.16) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

It looks like you may have deleted some critical system libraries.
Clean the apt cache
$ sudo apt-get clean
and then redo the sequence
sudo apt install -f
sudo dpkg --configure -a
several times.

You can use apt-cache depends (or rdepends) to see a listing of files a package depends on, or on which other packages depend. This may help you find which libraries or dependencies may be missing. Knowing that, the trick will be to install them. That may amount to unzipping the package and pulling them out and placing them where they are supposed to be.

PS- I'm "getting old" too (76) and one lesson I've learned is that getting angry rarely solves problems.

[mhumm2]

I'm not angry, just frustrated. I've been using Kubuntu for 10 years now and I'm tired of being a "user." I've come to the realization that I need to learn more about how it works. What would you suggest? In the mean time, I'll try your suggestion and post the outcome. Cheers!

[GreyGeek]

I'm not angry, just frustrated. I've been using Kubuntu for 10 years now and I'm tired of being a "user." I've come to the realization that I need to learn more about how it works. What would you suggest? In the mean time, I'll try your suggestion and post the outcome. Cheers!

Good!

You are running kubuntu 14.04, which is only half-way to systemd.

WIth Kubuntu 16.04 (or Neon User Edition), you are presented with three basic technologies: dpkg, systemd and the plasma desktop.

Learning the plasma desktop is just getting to know the particular apps you run, including apt (or apt-get).

The best way to learn the dpkg packaging system is its man page and Internet tutorials that give MORE detail on specifics. Check your version and make sure the tutorial is about that version or higher.

Systemd is the new guy on the block. You can start with a basic tutorial like this one and search for other bits and pieces related to Ubuntu based distros that are less than a year old. You will want to reach a level of knowledge where most of the maintenance you do on your installation is done with systemd tools. Applications that haven't or won't integrate with systemd probably won't work very well in the future as systemd gains more control over everything. Sometime in the future a Linux distro will be three basic parts: the kernel, systemd and the desktop, and all management will be done through systemd gui's and tools.

[mhumm2]

Very interesting GreyGeek,

I'll take a look at the systemd tutorial.

Anyway, back to my current, system, I can't imagine how I would have deleted any system files. The only way I delete something is via Synaptic, or sudo apt-get remove.

Mark@AMD64-LTS:~$ sudo apt-get clean
[sudo] password for mark: 
mark@AMD64-LTS:~$ sudo apt install -f
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 19 not upgraded.
mark@AMD64-LTS:~$ sudo dpkg --configure -a
mark@AMD64-LTS:~$

I just picked the first package in Synaptic to install from the terminal so I used it to see if there were any problems with its dependencies.

mark@AMD64-LTS:~$ sudo apt-cache depends 0ad
0ad
 Depends: 0ad-data
 Depends: 0ad-data
 Depends: 0ad-data-common
 Depends: 0ad-data-common
 Depends: libboost-filesystem1.54.0
 Depends: libc6
 Depends: libcurl3-gnutls
 Depends: libenet2a
 Depends: libgcc1
|Depends: libgl1-mesa-glx
   libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-utopic
   libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-vivid
   libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-wily
   libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-xenial
 Depends: <libgl1>
   libgl1-mesa-glx
   libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-utopic
   libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-vivid
   libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-wily
   libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-xenial
 Depends: libgloox11
 Depends: libjpeg8
 Depends: libminiupnpc8
 Depends: libmozjs185-1.0
 Depends: libnvtt2
 Depends: libopenal1
 Depends: libpng12-0
 Depends: libsdl1.2debian
 Depends: libstdc++6
 Depends: libvorbisfile3
 Depends: libwxbase3.0-0
 Depends: libwxgtk3.0-0
 Depends: libx11-6
 Depends: libxcursor1
 Depends: libxml2
 Depends: zlib1g
 PreDepends: dpkg
   dpkg:i386
 Conflicts: 0ad:i386

What's the conflict about with 0ad:i386?

[GreyGeek]

...

I just picked the first package in Synaptic to install from the terminal so I used it to see if there were any problems with its dependencies.

mark@AMD64-LTS:~$ sudo apt-cache depends 0ad
0ad
 Depends: 0ad-data
.....
 PreDepends: dpkg
   dpkg:i386
 Conflicts: 0ad:i386

What's the conflict about with 0ad:i386?

Ubuntu (Kubuntu, etc...) has multi-architecture (multiarch) capability which, for now, means i386 and amd64. The ability to run i386 (32bit) apps AND amd64 (64bit) apps on the same system. Generally, you can run 32bit apps on an amd64 system, but you cannot run 64bit apps on an i386 system. Some apps allow both of their versions to be installed. The "Conflicts: 0ad:i386" means that you should not install the 32 bit AND the 64 bit version of 0ad on the same system. You'll end up breaking one or both versions.

Note that aptitude cannot handle conflicts with multiarch enabled. It's best to stick with apt-get.

32bit packages are fading away as the older PCs wear out. I have not enabled i386 because I haven't found a 32 bit package that I need. I've always been able to find pkgs for amd64 that do what I need.
IF you want to enable i386 and populate your system with ia-32 libraries the instructions are here.