apt-get update not Working due to unmet dependencies

Question

Whenever I try installing using apt-get install command I am getting errors like these

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:
 ubuntu-release-upgrader-core : Depends: python3-distupgrade (= 1:16.04.14) but 1:16.04.12 is to be installed
 ubuntu-release-upgrader-gtk : Depends: python3-distupgrade (= 1:16.04.14) but 1:16.04.12 is to be installed
 wine : Depends: wine1.6 but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

After giving the apt-get -f install commands I get this.

Preparing to unpack .../python3-distupgrade_1%3a16.04.14_all.deb ...
/var/lib/dpkg/info/python3-distupgrade.prerm: 6: /var/lib/dpkg/info/python3-distupgrade.prerm: py3clean: not found
dpkg: warning: subprocess old pre-removal script returned error exit status 127
dpkg: trying script from the new package instead ...
/var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/prerm: 6: /var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/prerm: py3clean: not found
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/python3-distupgrade_1%3a16.04.14_all.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess new pre-removal script returned error exit status 127
/var/lib/dpkg/info/python3-distupgrade.postinst: 6: /var/lib/dpkg/info/python3-distupgrade.postinst: py3compile: not found
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 127
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/python3-distupgrade_1%3a16.04.14_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Is there any way to fix this?

I tried running the command but I am still getting this error

$ sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite /var/cache/apt/archives/python3-distupgrade_1%3a16.04.14_all.deb

[sudo] password for user: 
(Reading database ... 178880 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../python3-distupgrade_1%3a16.04.14_all.deb ...
/var/lib/dpkg/info/python3-distupgrade.prerm: 6: /var/lib/dpkg/info/python3-distupgrade.prerm: py3clean: not found
dpkg: warning: subprocess old pre-removal script returned error exit status 127
dpkg: trying script from the new package instead ...
/var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/prerm: 6: /var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/prerm: py3clean: not found
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/python3-distupgrade_1%3a16.04.14_all.deb (--install):
 subprocess new pre-removal script returned error exit status 127
/var/lib/dpkg/info/python3-distupgrade.postinst: 6: /var/lib/dpkg/info/python3-distupgrade.postinst: py3compile: not found
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 127
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/python3-distupgrade_1%3a16.04.14_all.deb

I tried the apt-get -f command also

user@user-Inspiron-3543:~$ sudo apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  python3-distupgrade
The following packages will be upgraded:
  python3-distupgrade
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 242 not upgraded.
17 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/104 kB of archives.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y
(Reading database ... 178880 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../python3-distupgrade_1%3a16.04.14_all.deb ...
/var/lib/dpkg/info/python3-distupgrade.prerm: 6: /var/lib/dpkg/info/python3-distupgrade.prerm: py3clean: not found
dpkg: warning: subprocess old pre-removal script returned error exit status 127
dpkg: trying script from the new package instead ...
/var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/prerm: 6: /var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/prerm: py3clean: not found
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/python3-distupgrade_1%3a16.04.14_all.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess new pre-removal script returned error exit status 127
/var/lib/dpkg/info/python3-distupgrade.postinst: 6: /var/lib/dpkg/info/python3-distupgrade.postinst: py3compile: not found
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 127
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/python3-distupgrade_1%3a16.04.14_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Still finding the same error.

The error which I found was

dpkg: error processing package update-notifier-common (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 127
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libgnomevfs2-common:
 libgnomevfs2-common depends on gconf2 (>= 2.28.1-2); however:
  Package gconf2 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package libgnomevfs2-common (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of terminator:
 terminator depends on gconf2; however:
  Package gconf2 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package terminator (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of ttf-mscorefonts-installer:
 ttf-mscorefonts-installer depends on update-notifier-common (>= 0.119ubuntu2); however:
  Package update-notifier-common is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package ttf-mscorefonts-installer (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libgnomevfs2-0:amd64:
 libgnomevfs2-0:amd64 depends on libgnomevfs2-common (= 1:2.24.4-6.1ubuntu1); however:
  Package libgnomevfs2-common is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package libgnomevfs2-0:amd64 (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libgnome2-common:
 libgnome2-common depends on gconf2 (>= 2.28.1-2); however:
  Package gconf2 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package libgnome2-common (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libgnomeui-0:amd64:
 libgnomeui-0:amd64 depends on libgnomevfs2-0 (>= 1:2.17.90); however:
  Package libgnomevfs2-0:amd64 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package libgnomeui-0:amd64 (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of python-gnome2:
 python-gnome2 depends on libgnomeui-0 (>= 2.22.0); however:
  Package libgnomeui-0:amd64 is not configured yet.
 python-gnome2 depends on libgnomevfs2-0 (>= 1:2.17.90); however:
  Package libgnomevfs2-0:amd64 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package python-gnome2 (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libgnome-2-0:amd64:
 libgnome-2-0:amd64 depends on libgnomevfs2-0 (>= 1:2.17.90); however:
  Package libgnomevfs2-0:amd64 is not configured yet.
 libgnome-2-0:amd64 depends on libgnome2-common (= 2.32.1-5ubuntu1); however:
  Package libgnome2-common is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package libgnome-2-0:amd64 (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libgnome2-0:amd64:
 libgnome2-0:amd64 depends on libgnome-2-0 (= 2.32.1-5ubuntu1); however:
  Package libgnome-2-0:amd64 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package libgnome2-0:amd64 (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libgnome2-bin:
 libgnome2-bin depends on libgnome-2-0; however:
  Package libgnome-2-0:amd64 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package libgnome2-bin (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libbonoboui2-0:amd64:
 libbonoboui2-0:amd64 depends on libgnome2-0 (>= 2.17.3); however:
  Package libgnome2-0:amd64 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package libbonoboui2-0:amd64 (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 gconf2
 update-notifier-common
 libgnomevfs2-common
 terminator
 ttf-mscorefonts-installer
 libgnomevfs2-0:amd64
 libgnome2-common
 libgnomeui-0:amd64
 python-gnome2
 libgnome-2-0:amd64
 libgnome2-0:amd64
 libgnome2-bin
 libbonoboui2-0:amd64

After purging and reinstalling the first two packaged the error is coming

storm · Answer 1 · 2016-06-12T19:49:21.383

14

It seems that python installation is broken .. Try reinstalling python3-minimal

sudo apt-get install --reinstall python3-minimal

Now you can run sudo apt-get install --fix-broken again and then apt-get update .. if this fails let us know.

edited Jun 12 '16 at 19:49

answered Jun 12 '16 at 18:20

storm

5,013

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 22 '17 at 06:24

I too experienced this problem - in my case on Raspbian when upgrading from wheezy to jessie. The python3-minimal package was left in a bad state, with prerm and postinst hook scripts for debconf failing when calling the py3clean and py3compile commands.

Indeed py3clean was broken as seen when running the command directly:

-bash: /usr/bin/py3clean: /usr/bin/python3: bad interpreter: No such file or directory

Attempting to reinstall the python3-minimal package resulted in an error:

$ sudo apt-get install --reinstall python3-minimal
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:
 idle3 : Depends: idle-python3.4 but it is not going to be installed
 python3 : Depends: python3.4 (>= 3.4.2-0) but it is not going to be installed
           Depends: libpython3-stdlib (= 3.4.2-2) but it is not going to be installed
           Depends: dh-python but it is not going to be installed
 python3-minimal : Depends: python3.4-minimal (>= 3.4.2-0) but it is not going to be installed
 python3-numpy : Depends: python3.4 but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

The suggested apt-get -f install command remained broken.

Ultimately I worked around the problem by commenting out the py3clean-related lines from /var/lib/dpkg/info/debconf.prerm which looked something like:

if which py3clean >/dev/null 2>&1; then
       py3clean -p debconf 
fi

I then had to comment out the py3compile lines from /var/lib/dpkg/info/debconf.postinst:

if which py3compile >/dev/null 2>&1; then
       py3compile -p debconf 
fi

That allowed me to successfully run

sudo apt-get -f install

At this point I was able to reinstall the package cleanly, which also handily removed the above script customisations which were no longer needed.

sudo apt-get install --reinstall debconf

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 26 '19 at 18:47

I have same issue with ubuntu 16.04 after I set default python interpreter from python3 to python2 like:

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python python /usr/bin/python3 1

I set it back to python2 and run sudo apt -f install and this fixed problem

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 14 '17 at 18:07

0

still ::

/var/lib/dpkg/info/debconf.prerm: 24: /var/lib/dpkg/info/debconf.prerm: py3clean: not found

dummy /usr/local/bin/py3clean containing ::

#!/bin/sh

echo "py3clean dummy"

then sudo apt-get -f install works

answered Dec 14 '17 at 18:07

user771649

1

apt-get update not Working due to unmet dependencies

4 Answers4

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