Where I'm at; I've just fixed Ubuntu 14.04 via fresh install and recovery. At this point, I've installed python 2.7.10 from source on Ubuntu 14.04. I set it to be the primary python program during install. So far it works as expected after fixing a few bugs and jury-rigging some stuff with respect to files sourced on login. I just tried to clean my filesystem, and apt is complaining.
$ sudo apt-get autoremove
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
apt-xapian-index : Depends: python:any (>= 2.7.1-0ubuntu2)
caribou : Depends: python:any (>= 2.7.1-0ubuntu2)
duplicity : Depends: python:any (>= 2.7.1-0ubuntu2)
gconf2 : Depends: python:any
gimp : Depends: python:any (>= 2.7.1-0ubuntu2)
mintstick : Depends: python:any (>= 2.7.1-0ubuntu2)
mintupdate : Depends: python:any (>= 2.7.5-5~)
nemo-emblems : Depends: python:any (>= 2.7~)
Depends: python:any (< 2.8)
...
E: Unmet dependencies. Try using -f
So I tried.
sudo apt-get install -f
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
libpython2.7 libpython2.7-minimal libpython2.7-stdlib libsmbclient
libutempter0 python2.7 python2.7-minimal samba-common samba-dsdb-modules
samba-libs samba-vfs-modules smbclient xterm
Suggested packages:
python2.7-doc heimdal-clients xfonts-cyrillic
The following packages will be REMOVED:
apt-xapian-index apturl apturl-common caribou cinnamon cinnamon-bluetooth
cinnamon-control-center cinnamon-desktop-data cinnamon-screensaver
cinnamon-session cinnamon-settings-daemon duplicity gconf2 gdebi gedit gimp
...
The following NEW packages will be installed:
libutempter0 xterm
The following packages will be upgraded:
libpython2.7 libpython2.7-minimal libpython2.7-stdlib libsmbclient python2.7
python2.7-minimal samba-common samba-dsdb-modules samba-libs
samba-vfs-modules smbclient
WARNING: The following essential packages will be removed.
This should NOT be done unless you know exactly what you are doing!
mintsources python-gtk2 (due to mintsources) python-glade2 (due to
mintsources) python-pycurl (due to mintsources)
11 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 152 to remove and 168 not upgraded.
Need to get 10.2 MB of archives.
After this operation, 203 MB disk space will be freed.
You are about to do something potentially harmful.
To continue type in the phrase 'Yes, do as I say!'
?] Abort.
So I couldn't fix my broken packages because it looks like apt will remove many things that I like, such as cinnamon and gnome-terminal. The common theme among the unmet dependencies is that they require python >=2.7.1. I have python 2.7.6 from the repositories and python 2.7.10 from source. How can I fix my broken packages and meet my unmet dependencies while not breaking my desktop environment?