Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt --fix-broken install'

Question

So I have upgraded from Disco to Eoan, so far quite 'interesting' I needed to rebuild Grub to get a GUI - took a while but finished and I'm using the PC. Today I've been getting numerous browser crashes so my first thought is to run both sudo apt update sudo apt upgrade. That was a disappointing exercise. here's the output from update "3 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them."

so cool, I don't care what the packages are, just upgrade them so after I type in apt upgrade I see this in the terminal

Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree        Reading
state information... Done You might want to run 'apt --fix-broken
install' to correct these. The following packages have unmet
dependencies:  linux-image-generic : Depends:
linux-modules-extra-5.3.0-45-generic but it is not installed E: Unmet
dependencies. Try 'apt --fix-broken install' with no packages (or
specify a solution).

This was unexpected so I did run apt --fix-broken install and lo !

The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer
required:   chromium-browser-l10n command-not-found-data diffstat
g++-8 gir1.2-mutter-4   intltool-debian libapt-inst2.0 libapt-pkg-perl
libapt-pkg5.0   libarchive-zip-perl libasync-mergepoint-perl
libb-hooks-op-check-perl   libcapture-tiny-perl libcgi-fast-perl
libcgi-pm-perl libclass-accessor-perl   libclass-method-modifiers-perl
libclass-xsaccessor-perl libclone-perl   libcrystalhd3
libdevel-callchecker-perl libdevel-globaldestruction-perl  
libdigest-bubblebabble-perl libdouble-conversion1  
libdynaloader-functions-perl libebook-contacts-1.2-2 libecal-1.2-19  
libemail-valid-perl libexporter-tiny-perl libfcgi-perl  
libfile-find-rule-perl libfuture-perl libgle3 libgnome-desktop-3-17  
libgssdp-1.0-3 libgtkspell3-3-0 libgupnp-1.0-4 libigdgmm5  
libimport-into-perl libio-async-loop-epoll-perl libio-async-perl  
libio-pty-perl libio-string-perl libip4tc0 libip6tc0 libipc-run-perl  
libisl19 libjpeg-turbo-progs libjson-c3 liblinux-epoll-perl  
liblist-compare-perl liblist-moreutils-perl libllvm8 liblouisutdml8  
libmodule-runtime-perl libmoo-perl libmutter-4-0 libmysqlclient20  
libnet-dns-perl libnet-dns-sec-perl libnet-domain-tld-perl
libnet-ip-perl   libnumber-compare-perl libparams-classify-perl
libparse-debianchangelog-perl   libpath-tiny-perl libperlio-gzip-perl
libpoppler85 libreadonly-perl   libref-util-perl libref-util-xs-perl
libreoffice-avmedia-backend-gstreamer   librole-tiny-perl librsync1
libsereal-decoder-perl libsereal-encoder-perl   libsereal-perl
libstdc++-8-dev libstrictures-perl libstruct-dumb-perl  
libsub-exporter-progressive-perl libsub-quote-perl libtagc0  
libtest-fatal-perl libtest-refcount-perl libtext-glob-perl  
libtext-levenshtein-perl libtype-tiny-perl libtype-tiny-xs-perl  
libunicode-utf8-perl libvpx5 libx265-165 libxml-simple-perl  
libyaml-libyaml-perl lintian multiarch-support patchutils
python-fasteners   python-lockfile python-monotonic python-six t1utils
xscreensaver-data   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl
xscreensaver-gl-extra Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them. The
following additional packages will be installed:  
linux-modules-extra-5.3.0-45-generic The following NEW packages will
be installed:   linux-modules-extra-5.3.0-45-generic 0 to upgrade, 1
to newly install, 0 to remove and 3 not to upgrade. 7 not fully
installed or removed. Need to get 0 B/38.3 MB of archives. After this
operation, 188 MB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want

to continue? [Y/n]

Of course I enter "Y" and here's what happened next

(Reading database ... 277005 files and directories currently
installed.) Preparing to unpack
.../linux-modules-extra-5.3.0-45-generic_5.3.0-45.37_amd64.d eb ...
Unpacking linux-modules-extra-5.3.0-45-generic (5.3.0-45.37) ...
dpkg-deb (subprocess): decompressing archive member: lzma error:
compressed data  is corrupt dpkg-deb: error: <decompress> subprocess
returned error exit status 2 dpkg: error processing archive
/var/cache/apt/archives/linux-modules-extra-5.3.0
-45-generic_5.3.0-45.37_amd64.deb (--unpack):  cannot copy extracted data for './lib/modules/5.3.0-45-generic/kernel/drivers/m
edia/dvb-frontends/cx24120.ko' to
'/lib/modules/5.3.0-45-generic/kernel/drivers/
media/dvb-frontends/cx24120.ko.dpkg-new': unexpected end of file or
stream Errors were encountered while processing: 
/var/cache/apt/archives/linux-modules-extra-5.3.0-45-generic_5.3.0-45.37_amd64.
deb E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

So it would seem that I cannot update or upgrade because of some dpkg problem

Any tips or clues ?

Check if you are using third party repositories. If so disable them, since they are a common source of problems.
Furthermore run the following command in a Terminal: apt-get install -f
Transaction failed: The package system is broken
 The following packages have unmet dependencies:

linux-image-generic: Depends: linux-modules-extra-5.3.0-45-generic but it is not installed

I have no 3rd party repositories

1. What a mess indeed !

   sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop --fix-missing [sudo] password for ****: Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree
   Reading state information... Done ubuntu-desktop is already the newest version (1.440.1). You might want to run 'apt --fix-broken install' to correct these. The following packages have unmet dependencies: linux-image-generic : Depends: linux-modules-extra-5.3.0-45-generic but it is not going to be installed E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt --fix-broken install' with no packages (or specify a solution)

.

2. sudo apt install linux-modules-extra-5.3.0-45-generic

and we're back to

Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required: chromium-browser-l10n command-not-found-data diffstat g++-8 gir1.2-mutter-4
intltool-debian libapt-inst2.0 libapt-pkg-perl libapt-pkg5.0
libarchive-zip-perl libasync-mergepoint-perl libb-hooks-op-check-perl libcapture-tiny-perl libcgi-fast-perl libcgi-pm-perl libclass-accessor-perl libclass-method-modifiers-perl libclass-xsaccessor-perl libclone-perl libcrystalhd3 libdevel-callchecker-perl libdevel-globaldestruction-perl
libdigest-bubblebabble-perl libdouble-conversion1
libdynaloader-functions-perl libebook-contacts-1.2-2 libecal-1.2-19
libemail-valid-perl libexporter-tiny-perl libfcgi-perl
libfile-find-rule-perl libfuture-perl libgle3 libgnome-desktop-3-17
libgssdp-1.0-3 libgtkspell3-3-0 libgupnp-1.0-4 libigdgmm5
libimport-into-perl libio-async-loop-epoll-perl libio-async-perl
libio-pty-perl libio-string-perl libip4tc0 libip6tc0 libipc-run-perl
libisl19 libjpeg-turbo-progs libjson-c3 liblinux-epoll-perl
liblist-compare-perl liblist-moreutils-perl libllvm8 liblouisutdml8
libmodule-runtime-perl libmoo-perl libmutter-4-0 libmysqlclient20
libnet-dns-perl libnet-dns-sec-perl libnet-domain-tld-perl libnet-ip-perl libnumber-compare-perl libparams-classify-perl libparse-debianchangelog-perl libpath-tiny-perl libperlio-gzip-perl libpoppler85 libreadonly-perl libref-util-perl libref-util-xs-perl libreoffice-avmedia-backend-gstreamer librole-tiny-perl librsync1 libsereal-decoder-perl libsereal-encoder-perl libsereal-perl libstdc++-8-dev libstrictures-perl libstruct-dumb-perl
libsub-exporter-progressive-perl libsub-quote-perl libtagc0
libtest-fatal-perl libtest-refcount-perl libtext-glob-perl
libtext-levenshtein-perl libtype-tiny-perl libtype-tiny-xs-perl
libunicode-utf8-perl libvpx5 libx265-165 libxml-simple-perl
libyaml-libyaml-perl lintian multiarch-support patchutils python-fasteners python-lockfile python-monotonic python-six t1utils xscreensaver-data xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them. The following NEW packages will be installed:
linux-modules-extra-5.3.0-45-generic 0 to upgrade, 1 to newly install, 0 to remove and 3 not to upgrade. 7 not fully installed or removed. Need to get 0 B/38.3 MB of archives. After this operation, 188 MB of additional disk space will be used. (Reading database ... 277005 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../linux-modules-extra-5.3.0-45-generic_5.3.0-45.37_amd64.d eb ... Unpacking linux-modules-extra-5.3.0-45-generic (5.3.0-45.37) ... dpkg-deb (subprocess): decompressing archive member: lzma error: compressed data is corrupt dpkg-deb: error: subprocess returned error exit status 2 dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/linux-modules-extra-5.3.0 -45-generic_5.3.0-45.37_amd64.deb (--unpack): cannot copy extracted data for './lib/modules/5.3.0-45-generic/kernel/drivers/m edia/dvb-frontends/cx24120.ko' to '/lib/modules/5.3.0-45-generic/kernel/drivers/ media/dvb-frontends/cx24120.ko.dpkg-new': unexpected end of file or stream Errors were encountered while processing: /var/cache/apt/archives/linux-modules-extra-5.3.0-45-generic_5.3.0-45.37_amd64. deb E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Answer 1

Ugh... What a mess! Here's a fix: If you're on kubuntu for example, try sudo apt install kubuntu-desktop --fix-missing and if you're on ubuntu try sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop --fix-missing and so on. When that doesn't work, try sudo apt install linux-modules-extra-5.3.0-45-generic. If none of that works, tell me what error you get.

Answer 2

Your module linux-modules-extra is not available any more from Eoan. This means the kernel needs to be set up from scratch. I propose two solutions:

1. Back up all the data and do a fresh installation. This build the kernel with the module available and is the faster solution.
2. Dig in the deep and find the device affected. Usually is a network device. I had a similar issue with a railteck wi-fi modem in the past. If you choose the second way you need a lot of time.