194

After upgrading from 10.04 to 12.04 I am trying to install different packages. For instance ia32-libs and skype (4.0).

When trying to install these, I am getting the 'Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages' error message.

Output of commands:

sudo apt-get install -f
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

After running this:

sudo dpkg --configure -a
foo@foo:~$ sudo apt-get install -f
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
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211

That particular error message may indicate that you have held packages, but it may also indicate a different problem.

You can get a list of actual held packages with:

dpkg --get-selections | grep hold

If there are none, or none look related, then it's probably something else. Check carefully the output of the command you were trying when you got the error message, as there may be other clues in the full output from that command, aside from the error message.

Another method of troubleshooting may be to use aptitude rather than apt-get to try to install your package:

sudo aptitude install <packagename>

Aptitude will give up less easily, and will attempt to find solutions which may involve modifying other packages. It may give you more explanation of the problem and options for fixing it.

Occasionally aptitude will be too eager to remove or downgrade large numbers of packages to satisfy your request, in which case retrying with -f changes its priorities and helps it come up with solutions that involve removing/downgrading fewer packages even if it means not all changes you requested can go ahead:

sudo aptitude -f install <packagename>
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  • 5
    Any idea how to unhold a package? :-) – Eugene van der Merwe Apr 17 '13 at 14:24
  • 6
    That is a separate question. – thomasrutter Apr 20 '13 at 13:58
  • 53
    Aptitude was more helpful to me than apt-get, thanks for the hint. – szx Oct 27 '13 at 15:20
  • 8
    One thing to note is that aptitude may make it easier to do more damage to your system. For example, if apt-get fails to install something because of conflicting dependencies it will give up. However, aptitude might offer to go ahead, but uninstall a whole bunch of other packages in order to satisfy those conflicts - or even downgrade packages. You simply have to be aware of what it's suggesting and proceed only if it is a good idea. – thomasrutter Mar 12 '14 at 3:23
  • 4
    The "on hold" packages has nothing to do with the message, just that the conflict was avoided by holding them down (not installing, upgrading, downgrading, or removing). – Braiam Aug 23 '14 at 2:50
27

That happened to me too. All I did was sudo apt-get update and that fixed my issue. Good luck.

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8

I ran into a similar scenario regarding missing dependencies. In my case I was trying to install curl on ubuntu saucy salamander 13.10...

The error stated that the dependency required an earlier version of the curl3 library.

I was able to degrade to the earlier version by trying to install curl using aptitude.

When it noted the missing dependency, and the reason (required an earlier version of the library file), it gave me several options in how to respond... y//n/q

Y would have aborted the install, N would look for another option, and Q would simply quit and do nothing more, leaving a broken package.

I selected N, and it gave me the option to downgrade the library file to an earlier version. So that's what I did, and curl finished installing with no more errors.

  • I may look into upgrading the library file again after the install, but hey, so far so good.
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8

I had a similar scenario in a fresh install of 14.04, with no files listed in dpkg --get-selections | grep hold, and no joy after sudo apt-get update.

What did fix it for me was a simple 

sudo apt-get autoremove

When I tried to reinstall the failing package it worked fine. Yay!

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4

Had the same problem, I ran that package check command from the other answer (dpkg --get-selections | grep hold) and saw 

tomcat7                                         deinstall
tomcat7-common                                  install

so I used "apt-get remove tomcat7-common"

Then I could install Tomcat 6 (I was removing Tomcat 7 and installing Tomcat 6 as you do).

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  • The "on hold" packages has nothing to do with the message, just that the conflict was avoided by holding them down (not installing, upgrading, downgrading, or removing) – Braiam Aug 23 '14 at 2:51
  • add the flag purge: apt-get remove --purge packet – Sergio Abreu Jan 5 '17 at 11:22
1

These are some fast and easy ways to fix the you have held broken packages error.

  • Open your sources.list file in /etc/apt/sources.list and check that there aren't any software sources for a different Ubuntu release than the Ubuntu release that you are currently using. If you find any incorrect release lines in sources.list, open the sources.list file with sudoedit /etc/apt/sources.list, comment out the incorrect lines in sources.list by preceding them with a # character, save the sources.list file, and run sudo apt update to update the list of available software packages.

  • Select the Fix Broken Packages option in Synaptic package manager. Run the following commands to install Synaptic. 

    sudo apt update  
sudo apt upgrade   
sudo apt install synaptic

    Open Synaptic and in Synaptic select Edit -> Fix Broken Packages and then repeat Edit -> Fix Broken Packages a second time.

  • If you get this error message:

    Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution)

    Run the following commands:

    sudo apt update  
sudo apt upgrade   
sudo apt-get -f install

  • Manually remove a broken package.

    1. Find your package in /var/lib/dpkg/info 

      ls -l /var/lib/dpkg/info | grep <package>

    2. Move the package folder to another location.

      cd /tmp && sudo mkdir new-package-location  
sudo mv /var/lib/dpkg/info/<package>.* /tmp/new-package-location/

    3. Run the following command:

      sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq <package>
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0

For me, none of the above worked because my system wasn't updated. I did

Home Key > Software Updater > Install

and updated my system; afterwards, I could install my package normally with apt.

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protected by Braiam Aug 23 '14 at 3:05

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