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When I tried to install GNOME Shell (using Ubuntu Software Center) this error showed up.

Error message

The message says:

Package dependencies cannot be resolved

This error could be caused by required additional software packages which are missing or not installable. Furthermore there could be a conflict between software packages which are not allowed to be installed at the same time.

Here the dependencies:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:

gnome-shell: Depends: libpulse-mainloop-glib0 (>= 1:0.99.1) but 1:1.0-0ubuntu3 is to be installed
             Depends: libpulse0 (>= 1:0.99.1) but 1:1.0-0ubuntu3 is to be installed
             Depends: libxfixes3 (>= 1:5.0) but 1:5.0-4 is to be installed

So can you help me install GNOME Shell?

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  • are you installing the 'gnome-shell' package using the Software Center? If not, can you try that? Dec 17, 2011 at 19:15
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    Although it may not initially look like it, you can scroll that error message's details down. Exactly what dependencies is it complaining about? Alternatively, if it is a lot to write, you can try running sudo apt-get install gnome-shell in a terminal and paste the output in an edit, or use pastebin.ubuntu.com. Dec 17, 2011 at 20:15
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    with terminal I wrote that command ,but it printed an error says The following packages have unmet dependencies: gnome-shell : Depends: gnome-icon-theme-full but it is not going to be installed Recommends: gnome-session-fallback but it is not going to be installed E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages. I wrote sudo apt-get install gnome-icon-theme-full but with another error : The following packages have unmet dependencies: gnome-icon-theme-full : Depends: gnome-icon-theme (= 3.2.0-0ubuntu1) but 3.2.0-0ubuntu2 is to be installed.
    – creative
    Dec 18, 2011 at 6:20
  • Have you tried running updates lately? If that returns an error, it is possible you might need to fix your package dependencies. Dec 18, 2011 at 7:51

3 Answers 3

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I had similar problem with gnome-session-fallback instalation. The problem seems to be because you try to install something that depends on old versions of

libpulse-mainloop-glib0, libpulse0 and libxfixes3

. Try to uninstall those three and then install the gnome shell. The dependencies should get installed in older versions as a result.

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  • The problem is that removing these breaks Unity, Cinnamon, etc.
    – Robin
    Sep 30, 2014 at 17:38
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I was getting the same error, and I compared the package versions in a fresh install with those of the mirror and noticed a discrepancy.

Turns out that in my default Oneiric install, updates are not enabled by default.

To fix this,

  1. Open the Software Sources application.
  2. Go to the Updates tab and enable oneiric-security and oneiric-updates.
  3. Open a terminal window and run sudo apt-get update.

Now you will be able to install gnome-shell and all its dependencies without problems.

At least that fixed the exact same error message that I got.

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try to install from terminal

sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

if any dependency is missing , it will be displayed too, install them too. after this you might be good to go.

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