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you have held broken packages

I am no expert, but know enough to use Debian 10 Buster as my daily driver for not-work using bspwm and polybar. I can just about use nvim. I can't diagnose and solve real issues though.

The network crapping out defeated my last week. I reinstalled before realising it was the LAN port borking (it worked fine under W10 under my dual boot).

I have had a happy (genuinely!) week getting everything 'just-so' again having backed up my home directory. But I now have a problem that will make me reinstall in the natural way of things, but I want to learn more so here we are.

I am getting weird apt issues. eg.

Code:

me@debian:~$ sudo apt install qt5-default

Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree      

Reading state information... Done

Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have

requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable

distribution that some required packages have not yet been created

or been moved out of Incoming.

The following information may help to resolve the situation:



The following packages have unmet dependencies:

 qt5-default : Depends: qtbase5-dev but it is not going to be installed

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

me@debian:~$ sudo apt install qtbase5-dev

Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree      

Reading state information... Done

Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have

requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable

distribution that some required packages have not yet been created

or been moved out of Incoming.

The following information may help to resolve the situation:



The following packages have unmet dependencies:

 qtbase5-dev : Depends: libgl1-mesa-dev but it is not going to be installed or

                        libgl-dev

              Depends: libglu1-mesa-dev but it is not going to be installed or

                        libglu-dev

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

I initially had the same issue with qt4 - but managed to solve it by finding the one base package the other depend on. This then broke qt5. I need qt5 to compile something I was using before this problem.

What may have caused it:
I did edit my sources.list to add contrib non-free
I did accidentally add a sid source to my sources.list
I have removed both changes.

What I have tried... Lots. I manually went through this script too:

Code:

#!/bin/bash

sudo cp -arf /var/lib/dpkg /var/lib/dpkg.backup

sudo cp /var/lib/dpkg/status-old /var/lib/dpkg/status

sudo cp /var/lib/dpkg/available-old /var/lib/dpkg/available

sudo rm -rf /var/lib/dpkg/updates/*

sudo rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists

sudo mkdir /var/lib/apt/lists

sudo mkdir /var/lib/apt/lists/partial

sudo apt-get clean

sudo apt-get update

sudo dpkg --clear-avail

sudo dpkg --configure -a

sudo apt-get install -f

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

I have tried adding the missing dependencies to my install, but eventually run up against this, which is beyond me.

Code:

me@debian:~$ sudo apt install qt5-default qtbase5-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libglvnd-dev

Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree      

Reading state information... Done

Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have

requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable

distribution that some required packages have not yet been created

or been moved out of Incoming.

The following information may help to resolve the situation:



The following packages have unmet dependencies:

 libgl1-mesa-dev : Depends: libx11-xcb-dev but it is not going to be installed

 libglvnd-dev : Depends: libglvnd0 (= 1.1.0-1) but 1.3.1-1 is to be installed

                Depends: libegl1 (= 1.1.0-1) but 1.3.1-1 is to be installed

                Depends: libgles1 (= 1.1.0-1) but it is not going to be installed

                Depends: libgles2 (= 1.1.0-1) but 1.3.1-1 is to be installed

                Depends: libgl1 (= 1.1.0-1) but 1.3.1-1 is to be installed

                Depends: libglx0 (= 1.1.0-1) but 1.3.1-1 is to be installed

                Depends: libopengl0 (= 1.1.0-1) but it is not going to be installed

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

I am at a loss and will reinstall eventually, is there any guru out there who can save me?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas#555 (Post 6121344)

What I have tried... Lots.

Seems you haven't tried dpkg -C yet. Won't fix anything by itself, but may give you useful hints.

Code:

sudo dpkg -C

Did nothing. Just went to the next line.

The same problem persists.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas#555 (Post 6121344)

libglvnd-dev : Depends: libglvnd0 (= 1.1.0-1) but 1.3.1-1 is to be installed

Are you sure you disabled all sid repositories? 1.1.0 is the version in Buster, 1.3.1 in Bullseye/sid.

This is my current /etc/apt/sources.list

Code:

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster main                                  

deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster main                              

                                                                                

deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates main              

deb-src http://security.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates main          

                                                                                

# buster-updates, previously known as 'volatile'                                

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster-updates main                          

deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster-updates main

in /etc/apt/sources.list.d there is one file which is the microsoft source for Teams (I know - don't ask). I had forgotten to look in that directory. Not sure where else to look though for stray entries. I commented out the Teams entry, did an apt update but the same problem persists.

So we have a smoking gun... Where else can I look for sources?

If sid is not in sources.list then the packages in question are already downloaded from sid and sit in /var/cache/apt/archives waiting to be installed.

Code:

~$sudo ls /var/cache/apt/archives

lock  partial

~$ sudo ls /var/cache/apt/archives/partial/

~$

Two questions.

1. Have you by chance installed something like apt-cacher-ng?
2. Can you install aptitude?

Code:

apt search apt-cacher-ng

Sorting... Done

Full Text Search... Done

apt-cacher-ng/stable 3.2.1-1 amd64

  caching proxy server for software repositories



auto-apt-proxy/stable 11 all

  automatic detector of common APT proxy settings

So I don't think it is installed.

Yes, I can (and just did) install aptitude.

Code:

sudo aptitude install qt5-default

The following NEW packages will be installed:

  libdouble-conversion1{a} libdrm-dev{a} libgl1-mesa-dev{a} libgles1{ab} libglu1-mesa{a} libglu1-mesa-dev{a} libglvnd-core-dev{a} libglvnd-dev{ab} libopengl0{ab} libpcre2-16-0{a} libqt5concurrent5{a} 

  libqt5core5a{a} libqt5dbus5{a} libqt5gui5{a} libqt5network5{a} libqt5opengl5{a} libqt5opengl5-dev{a} libqt5printsupport5{a} libqt5sql5{a} libqt5sql5-sqlite{a} libqt5svg5{a} libqt5test5{a} 

  libqt5widgets5{a} libqt5xml5{a} libvulkan-dev{a} libvulkan1{a} libx11-xcb-dev{ab} libxcb-dri2-0-dev{a} libxcb-dri3-dev{a} libxcb-glx0-dev{a} libxcb-present-dev{a} libxcb-render-util0{a} 

  libxcb-sync-dev{a} libxdamage-dev{a} libxfixes-dev{a} libxshmfence-dev{a} libxxf86vm-dev{a} mesa-common-dev{a} qt5-default qt5-gtk-platformtheme{a} qt5-qmake{a} qt5-qmake-bin{a} qtbase5-dev{a} 

  qtbase5-dev-tools{a} qttranslations5-l10n{a} x11proto-damage-dev{a} x11proto-fixes-dev{a} x11proto-xf86vidmode-dev{a} 

0 packages upgraded, 48 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

Need to get 16.6 MB of archives. After unpacking 82.0 MB will be used.

The following packages have unmet dependencies:

 libx11-xcb-dev : Depends: libx11-xcb1 (= 2:1.6.7-1) but 2:1.6.9-2 is installed

 libopengl0 : Depends: libglvnd0 (= 1.1.0-1) but 1.3.1-1 is installed

 libgles1 : Depends: libglvnd0 (= 1.1.0-1) but 1.3.1-1 is installed

 libglvnd-dev : Depends: libglvnd0 (= 1.1.0-1) but 1.3.1-1 is installed

                Depends: libegl1 (= 1.1.0-1) but 1.3.1-1 is installed

                Depends: libgles2 (= 1.1.0-1) but 1.3.1-1 is installed

                Depends: libgl1 (= 1.1.0-1) but 1.3.1-1 is installed

                Depends: libglx0 (= 1.1.0-1) but 1.3.1-1 is installed

The following actions will resolve these dependencies:



    Keep the following packages at their current version:

1)    libgl1-mesa-dev [Not Installed]                    

2)    libgles1 [Not Installed]                          

3)    libglu1-mesa-dev [Not Installed]                  

4)    libglvnd-dev [Not Installed]                      

5)    libopengl0 [Not Installed]                        

6)    libqt5opengl5-dev [Not Installed]                  

7)    libx11-xcb-dev [Not Installed]                    

8)    qt5-default [Not Installed]                        

9)    qtbase5-dev [Not Installed]                        







Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?]

Interesting! What to press... Going for n for now.

How do I downgrade stuff? I am guessing I did an apt upgrade whilst the rogue sid was in place.

Code:

sudo apt install libx11-xcb1=2:1.6.7-1

I think the issue was my installing kitty terminal - I think that is why I put the rogue entry in. I clicked n and was offered thusly:

Code:

Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] n

The following actions will resolve these dependencies:



    Remove the following packages:                              

1)    kitty [0.17.3-1 (now)]                                    



    Downgrade the following packages:                          

2)    gstreamer1.0-gl [1.16.2-4 (now) -> 1.14.4-2 (stable)]    

3)    libegl1 [1.3.1-1 (now) -> 1.1.0-1 (stable)]              

4)    libgl1 [1.3.1-1 (now) -> 1.1.0-1 (stable)]                

5)    libgles2 [1.3.1-1 (now) -> 1.1.0-1 (stable)]              

6)    libglvnd0 [1.3.1-1 (now) -> 1.1.0-1 (stable)]            

7)    libglx0 [1.3.1-1 (now) -> 1.1.0-1 (stable)]              

8)    libgstreamer-gl1.0-0 [1.16.2-4 (now) -> 1.14.4-2 (stable)]

9)    libx11-xcb1 [2:1.6.9-2 (now) -> 2:1.6.7-1 (stable)]      







Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?]

Going for Y (but not in kitty terminal)

Yes, that should work.

So I now need to work out how to do a batch downgrade. @shruggy - thank you so much.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shruggy (Post 6121360)

Code:

apt install libx11-xcb1=2:1.6.7-1

I am guessing there is a way to list all the packages that are versions beyond what is buster and then to downgrade them.

An easier way is to use aptitude to fix it each time... Think I will go for the latter.

Cheers!