Yesterday I searched for updates since I hadn't seen any alerts for a while, bought up a list and tried to install them. All but one refused to install. They all claimed to need two packages which were not provided by anything KPackageKit had access to. I googled the names at the time and attempted to download and install these two files, but they depended on other things, which depended on other things, which depended on other things etc. Eventually I came across two files that seemed both to depend on each other.

So I gave up for the day and tried again to install the updates today so that I could copy and paste the error message again, which is:

I came across a couple of bug reports. It seems to have started happening a year or two ago for some people. But none of the pages I've come across so far provide any kind of solution or workaround. I don't know if it's related at all, but recently Wine has stopped loading Photoshop which used to load perfectly, and /usr/lib/kde4/plugins/ seems to have completely vanished. I've remade the directory itself but I don't know if anything was inside it. I suspect the missing dependencies might have been but I don't know Linux well enough yet to be sure.

I use Opensuse 11.4. Does anyone have any idea how I might be able to fix this please? Preferably without having to reinstall the operating system as it took me a while to get the Wireless card to work last time around. Thanks.

It may be possible that your package system has had a corruption that might cause this problem. In a terminal run: sudo rpmdb --rebuilddb It will verify and repair your package database if needed. It never hurts to run it once in a while.

If you want a gui for updating, I would use Yast update rather than kpackage manager. If you don't mind using a terminal, I would: zypper refresh, then: zypper verify, to see if the package system sees any problems. If it has problems, you will be given options to repair the system. If there are no problems, then you can: zypper up to check for updates.
If it still complains about missing dependencies, you could then do your search.

Rather than google for packages that would probably lead to more problems, go to: software.opensuse.org

After the page loads, there is a search box at the top of the page. There is a drop-down menu next to it (looks like a wrench). Use the drop-down to select 11.4 and then search for your package. If I remember correctly, 11.4 can use the "one click install" option. You will be downloading a "ymp" file. When you click on it and the download manager asks you what to open it with, choose the default, which should be yast package manager. It will automatically get the correct package architecture for your system. You'll be prompted to add the repository and cautioned about the possible security risks.
Hope this helps.

that right there is the problem

11.4 is a dead version .
It went End Of Life back in Nov. 05, 2012
http://en.opensuse.org/Lifetime

Please stay current and install a supported version
OpenSUSE 12.2 is the current version


there have been no updates since it went EOL
And there never will be any .

I note that later versions of OpenSuse use Apper rather than Packagekit.
Is it possible that Packagekit is terminally broken?

Thanks for the replies. Ran the first suggested command, got no error messages but it's still not updating. I didn't realise the version was already unsupported though. In the past I've seen people mention using older versions after 11.4 came out and they didn't seem to be having problems. But I'll try updating it and see how it goes. I guess that explains why I hadn't had an alert for a while.

11.4 is at the end of support as mentioned, even though it still has packages available from software.opensuse. If your fear of updating is because of your wireless setup, you might be surprised about what the newer versions offer. There is a fair chance that your wireless will work "out of the box", or at least with minimal headaches. There is good support at forums.opensuse.org in case you do have problems.
One thing that I would strongly recommend is to do a fresh install of 12.2 rather than upgrade. Upgrade may not even be possible from 11.4 to 12.2. The reason for a fresh install is that many of the "config" files in your home directory may cause problems with newer versions of the same packages. I would just backup all your docs, etc., and then start fresh. I apologize if I got a little bit "off subject". Best of luck.