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So I am trying to install VLC. I'm getting this:

sudo apt-get install vlc

That yields:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 vlc : Depends: vlc-nox (= 2.1.4+git20141006+r54582+19+11~ubuntu14.04.1) but it is not going to be installed
       Recommends: vlc-plugin-notify (= 2.1.4+git20141006+r54582+19+11~ubuntu14.04.1) but it is not going to be installed
       Recommends: vlc-plugin-pulse (= 2.1.4+git20141006+r54582+19+11~ubuntu14.04.1) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

So I've looked around, and other problems regarding that very same install mention held packages. So I've tried to locate any:

$ dpkg --get-selections | grep hold

Nothing comes up. To locate broken packages, Synaptic has been suggested, so I gave that a try as well. But Synaptic tells me I don't have any broken package.

Nonetheless, when I try to install vlc, sure enough I get the same error.

I've also check the PPA, I only have trusty so this shouldn't be the issue.

Thinks like

sudo apt-get install --fix-broken

& similars attemps all yields

0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

3 Answers 3

1

So I ended up using Synaptic to correct the problem. No package were broken, but by navigating through all the packages involved, I selected & removed all those marked for audio files. That is because I tried to install Rythme Box and although I could open it, it was very buggy. I had previously used it and it was fine. That led me to think that there was some problem with either drivers or packages installed with regards to audio/video.

I ended up removing the following packages (from Synaptic history):

Completely removed the following packages: gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly liba52-0.7.4 libavcodec54:i386 libavutil52 libavutil52:i386 libdvdcss2 libnspr4-0d

Removed the following packages: gstreamer1.0-libav:i386 libavformat54:i386

gstreamer came up a couple of times in command line, which is why I removed it. I have a 64 bit system, not 32, therefore the i386 seemed out of place... I guess I would have been better of going one by one to see which one it was, but then I didn't want to spend the day on it.

Then I did an update everything was fine.

3
  • You could have also tried to install a previous version of vlc to sort out the problem more precisely.
    – heemayl
    Jan 17, 2015 at 19:14
  • Well, maybe, yes. But then maybe not: what if the package causing the problem would have caused it as well on an older version? Again, I didn't want to spend tooooooo much time on this. I feel this still leaves an idea to try out for similar problems.
    – Francky_V
    Jan 17, 2015 at 20:55
  • The thing is, when you are installing an updated package then dependencies also need to be compatible or updated to work perfectly. But if you have other package(s) using the earlier versions of dependencies then it would not allow the dependencies to be updated as updating would break its operation. I have suggested you to install an earlier version of the package just to be sure that if that is the case here.
    – heemayl
    Jan 18, 2015 at 7:55
0

By chance, have you done a recent update? Maybe try an update with Synaptic by reloading and apply any updates then try installing VLC through Synaptic after checking for broken packages. I had a weird instance installing VLC in Zorin OS 9 and if memory serves me correctly this is what worked.

Worth a quick try, anyways.

1
  • Nice try, but same same result as before...
    – Francky_V
    Jan 16, 2015 at 3:25
0

got the same problem, what I did :

  1. try remove previous package

    sudo apt-get remove vlc-nox vlc-plugin-notify vlc-plugin-pulse

  2. clean it

    sudo apt-get autoclean && sudo apt-get autoremove

  3. update

    sudo apt-get update

  4. try to install it again

    sudo apt-get install vlc

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