3

I'm sure this is a duplicate candidate, but I have looked at the answer for 64bit 12.10, but it doesn't seem to work for my 13.10 installation.

I have enabled 32bit architecture, ie.

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt-get update

I have added the canonical repository (and confirmed in "Software Sources" that it seems to be there).

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.canonical.com/ $(lsb_release -sc) partner"

I have tried cleaning the dependency tree up:

sudo apt-get clear
sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo apt-get -f install
sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt-get -f install
sudo apt-get -u dist-upgrade

And as far as I understand from the instructions linked above, no problems are reported. If I then try to install Skype:

nsa@quadrupod:~$ sudo apt-get install skype
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies.
 skype : Depends: skype-bin
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Not overly surprising, so I try installing skype-bin, as indeed is suggested and found to work in some answers:

nsa@quadrupod:~$ sudo apt-get install skype-bin
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies.
 skype-bin:i386 : Depends: libasound2:i386 (>= 1.0.23)
                  Depends: libc6:i386 (>= 2.7) but it is not going to be installed
                  Depends: libgcc1:i386 (>= 1:4.1.1) but it is not going to be installed
                  Depends: libqt4-dbus:i386 (>= 4:4.5.3) but it is not going to be installed
                  Depends: libqt4-network:i386 (>= 4:4.8.0) but it is not going to be installed
                  Depends: libqt4-xml:i386 (>= 4:4.5.3) but it is not going to be installed
                  Depends: libqtcore4:i386 (>= 4:4.7.0~beta1) but it is not going to be installed
                  Depends: libqtgui4:i386 (>= 4:4.8.0) but it is not going to be installed
                  Depends: libqtwebkit4:i386 (>= 2.2~2011week36) but it is not going to be installed
                  Depends: libstdc++6:i386 (>= 4.6) but it is not going to be installed
                  Depends: libx11-6:i386 but it is not going to be installed
                  Depends: libxext6:i386 but it is not going to be installed
                  Depends: libxss1:i386 but it is not going to be installed
                  Depends: libxv1:i386 but it is not going to be installed
                  Depends: libssl1.0.0:i386 but it is not going to be installed
                  Depends: libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 but it is not going to be installed
                  Recommends: sni-qt:i386 but it is not going to be installed
                  Recommends: libasound2-plugins:i386 but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

OK, so I try to look up what these held/broken packages might be, according to this link and this link from here:

apt-mark showhold

returns nothing.

dpkg --get-selections | grep hold

and

dpkg -l | grep ^h

also returns nothing. So what is held?

I tried the suggestion here of using synaptic. It claims to fix broken packages, however to install Skype it wants to uninstall most of the system, including gnome-control-center, gnome-system-monitor, gnome-user-guide, the file lens, the clock (indicator-datetime), apt-utils, lib32gc1, (which is one of the dependencies apt-get thinks Skype needs amongst others on a long list. I don't see any obvious replacements on the much shorter list of what it thinks needs installing.

I also tried

sudo aptitude install skype.

with a similar result, it gives a list of stuff to uninstall that is so long it exceeds the normal terminal buffer and I had to pipe it to a file to read it. As above it includes things that do not sound wise to remove, including

73)     gnome-bluetooth                                                         
74)     gnome-calculator                                                        
75)     gnome-contacts                                                          
76)     gnome-control-center                                                    
77)     gnome-control-center-datetime                                           
78)     gnome-control-center-signon                                             
79)     gnome-control-center-unity                                              
80)     gnome-disk-utility                                                      
81)     gnome-font-viewer                                                       
82)     gnome-icon-theme                                                        
83)     gnome-icon-theme-symbolic                                               
84)     gnome-keyring                                                           
85)     gnome-mahjongg                                                          
86)     gnome-mines                                                             
87)     gnome-orca                                                              
88)     gnome-power-manager                                                     
89)     gnome-screensaver                                                       
90)     gnome-screenshot                                                        
91)     gnome-session                                                           
92)     gnome-session-bin                                                       
93)     gnome-session-canberra                                                  
94)     gnome-settings-daemon                                                   
95)     gnome-sudoku                                                            
96)     gnome-system-log                                                        
97)     gnome-system-monitor                                                    
98)     gnome-terminal                                                          
99)     gnome-user-guide                                                        
100     gnome-user-share

and also wants to uninstall over 400 other packages. I would have thought I needed these..? Now it isn´t a long time since I installed ubuntu, but before I start over, has anybody got any ideas? Does it somehow think it should replace all 64bit stuff?

0

1 Answer 1

-1

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-install-skype-in-ubuntu-12-04precise.html

install as written in description

You can install this for a 12.04 LTS version on your 13.10 ( as written in the link ) and it will work just fine (it works for me and I also have Ubuntu 13.10).

Unfortunately, you will experience a problem with Skype which is a long known "bug".

Each time you will try to activate the video call, the whole program will crash. But if you will use Skype for chatting / phone (headset;microphone) call, you will have nothing to worry about.

If you still persist on video calls via Skype the best solution for you would be installing Windows in Virtualbox ( you can find it in Ubuntu software center ). Therefore you will be able to communicate with video call if you install Skype inside Windows ( installed on your Virtualbox ).

2
  • He's done that. It didn't work. I think installing a Virtual Windows just to run Skype is a little over the top.
    – Basscal
    Jan 19, 2014 at 21:17
  • Thanks, unfortunately I couldn't get that to work. I can live without video.
    – nsandersen
    Jan 19, 2014 at 23:51

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .