upgrade solves other issues?

[John R. Sowden]

On 04/08/2014 12:45 AM, Colin Law wrote:
> On 7 April 2014 21:11, John R. Sowden <jsowden at americansentry.net> wrote:
>> I am having a problem whereby gcc and other low level programs cannot be
>> upgraded (even by root).  I have written about this before with varying
>> responses.  I do not want to (unless I _have_ to) remove Ubuntu from my
>> computer and "reinstall the operating system", as Microsoft says.  I will
>> not know what programs I have added, written, etc. over the years that will
>> be lost.  Will upgrading to 14.04 solve this issue?
>
> That rather depends on what the problem you currently have is.  Remind
> us of the problem and someone may be able to answer.
>
> Colin
>
>>
>> Also what directories will be left alone?
>>
>> John
It started when I was noticing when I did Ubuntu updates, there were 
base updates (binutils) that I was unable to select.  After a while of 
no luck, I gave up (computer was working ok).

Then I tried to install Pure Basic.  It would not install.  It creates 
assembler code (i think), then compiles it into an executable.  This 
would not work because it uses gcc or an associated computer.  I went on 
this list and this is the last message (most complete) that I got in 
response to various executions I ran:


On 03/15/2014 05:26 AM, Liam Proven wrote:
 > On 14 March 2014 23:20, John R. Sowden <jsowden at americansentry.net> 
wrote:
 >> It seems that my problem has to do with "held" files (from synaptic) 
but I
 >> cannot determine which files are "held" so I can delete them.
 >
 > I Am aware that Synaptic was my own suggestion - but if you try
 > from the shell with apt-get, then you can fairly easily copy-and-paste
 > the errors here...
 >
I went to the site you suggested.  It seems that others have had the 
same issue, but it has not
been resolved.  It seems that this is where the Ubuntu staff should step 
in.  I appreciate your stepping
back into the confusion.  I am almost ready for the microsoft "reinstall 
the operating system" solution.

below is a synaptic error message after trying to "fix broken packages"

E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
E: Error, pkgProblemResolver::Resolve generated breaks, this may be 
caused by held packages.

E: Unable to correct dependencies
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

E: Error, pkgProblemResolver::Resolve generated breaks, this may be 
caused by held packages.

Below is an apt-get error message after running apt-get build-essential:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
  build-essential : Depends: gcc (>= 4:4.4.3) but it is not going to be 
installed
                    Depends: g++ (>= 4:4.4.3) but it is not going to be 
installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

It seems that the program knows what messages are "held" but is not 
showing them,
nor is it showing the command to see them (often done).

If I try to delete gcc, it want to delete a lot of libraries that are 
associated with gcc, and therefore,
without those libraries, about 100 valid programs will be deleted 
because if dependencies.

It seems like there is a old version of gcc on the computer which is 
causing this chain of events.
I tried to manually remove gcc, but could not (as root, I did not have 
permission).

By the way, for several months, whenever an upgrade came along, the 
Ubuntu base section
had binutils, and assembler listed but were unchecked.  It would not 
allow me to check them.

I am also getting hundreds of errors on boot each day, ever since I 
turned on the display of the
initial programs.  The errors reference "fd 7" and bad directory or file 
name.  The normal execution
of the system does not seem to be effected (libreoffice, thunderbird, 
firefox, printing)
============================================

tia, John