Apt giving error --fix-broken not working

[Robert Heller]

At Fri, 26 Apr 2024 15:02:56 -0400 "Ubuntu user technical support,? not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:

> 
> >
> >
> >
> > You might try
> >
> > $ sudo apt install --reinstall perl-base
> >
> > and cross your fingers.
> >
> > --
> > Keith
> >
> >
> > Same thing
> 
> apt install --reinstall perl-base
> Reading package lists... Done
> Building dependency tree... Done
> Reading state information... Done
> You might want to run 'apt --fix-broken install' to correct these.
> The following packages have unmet dependencies:
>  libc6-dbg : Depends: libc6 (= 2.38-1ubuntu6.2) but 2.38-1ubuntu6.1 is to
> be installed
>  libc6-dev : Depends: libc6 (= 2.38-1ubuntu6.2) but 2.38-1ubuntu6.1 is to
> be installed
> E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt --fix-broken install' with no packages (or
> specify a solution).


Did you try some sort of hand-hacked dist upgrade (eg hand edited 
/etc/apt/sources.list)?  The only time I've this *persistent* problem (one 
that apt update didn't cure) was when I updated Beagle Bones and older RPis -- 
these system don't have the 'do-release-upgrade' command, so one just edits 
/etc/apt/sources.list and goes from there.  This works, except for glitches 
like the above (I would NOT recomend it for Ubuntu though).  The cure for your 
*specific* problem with a lib...-dev (and -dbg) would be to purge those 
packages and later re-install them:

apt purge libc6-dbg libc6-dev
apt full-upgrade
apt install libc6-dbg libc6-dev

Note: if other lib...-dev and lib...-dbg packages are complained about, purge
them and re-install later -- this might need to be iteratively repeated. I
suspect something is depending on the specific lib versions and there is a
hard connection between libc6 and libc6-dev (and -dbg), and this is causing a
conflict somehow. You system can easily live without the -dev and -dbg
packages, so purging them won't actually break anything, unless you are
running a program build in the background, in which case, don't do that (eg
run a program build and do a system software update at the same time).

The only real cure for this sort of problem is to purge the complained about
packages and re-install them later. Normally, apt takes care of this
"depenency hell", but sometimes it can't. *Usually* this happens when the end
user does something bad (hand installs something from a different release) OR
some third-party software supplier creates a "broken" .deb file (did you
install something not in the repo?).


> 
> 
> Jerry
> 

-- 
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