installArchives() failed: dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of "package"

Question

Every time I attempt to use the Ubuntu Software Center, I get an error message that says "Items cannot be installed or removed until the package catalog is repaired". When I try to repair, it then says "The installation or removal of a package failed".

Under details, it says:

installArchives() failed: dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-generic:
 linux-generic depends on linux-image-generic (= 3.2.0.38.46); however:
  Version of linux-image-generic on system is 3.2.0.58.69.
 linux-generic depends on linux-headers-generic (= 3.2.0.38.46); however:
  Version of linux-headers-generic on system is 3.2.0.58.69.
dpkg: error processing linux-generic (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
Errors were encountered while processing:
 linux-generic
Error in function: 
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-generic:
 linux-generic depends on linux-image-generic (= 3.2.0.38.46); however:
  Version of linux-image-generic on system is 3.2.0.58.69.
 linux-generic depends on linux-headers-generic (= 3.2.0.38.46); however:
  Version of linux-headers-generic on system is 3.2.0.58.69.
dpkg: error processing linux-generic (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured

Thanks for any help that can be provided.

Answer 1

You will need a terminal to solve the situation, the Software Center isn't able to handle this kind of problems. To do this use:

sudo dpkg -r linux-generic linux-image-generic
sudo apt-get install linux-generic

That should solve the problem.

Answer 2

First do the following:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get -f upgrade

Then:

sudo apt-get autoremove

PS: As you are not an enterprise I would recommend you to update to the latest version 13.10. Hope it helped