Hello people,I am a new user of Linux Mint 18 Sarah.Have been using without any major issues for the past 3 months.
But from a month around,whenever I used to install updates,I would get an error window saying you have broken packages,which is:

You have 958 broken packages on your system!

Use the "Broken" filter to locate them.

I tried fixing the broken packages in the Synaptic Package Manager,reading various solutions listed in the forums,but there would be an error again.Today,I tried to update using terminal using the command: sudo apt-get update.This is what I got:

Ign:1 http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable InRelease
Hit:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial InRelease
Hit:3 http://ppa.launchpad.net/atareao/atareao/ubuntu xenial InRelease
Get:4 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security InRelease [102 kB]
Ign:5 http://packages.linuxmint.com sarah InRelease
Hit:6 http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu xenial InRelease
Hit:7 http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable Release
Get:9 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates InRelease [102 kB]
Hit:10 http://ppa.launchpad.net/atareao/telegram/ubuntu xenial InRelease
Get:11 http://packages.linuxmint.com sarah Release [24.1 kB]
Hit:12 http://ppa.launchpad.net/noobslab/apps/ubuntu xenial InRelease
Hit:14 http://ppa.launchpad.net/quiterss/quiterss/ubuntu xenial InRelease
Get:15 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-backports InRelease [102 kB]
Fetched 331 kB in 37s (8,736 B/s)
Reading package lists... Error!
E: Read error - read (5: Input/output error)
W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems
E: The package cache file is corrupted

Are you running that as root?

Differences between Update Manager, Synaptic, and `apt-get upgrade` said xenopeek:
"Upgrading through Synaptic has been disabled on Linux Mint. To the best of my recollection this was done because there is a rare but severe bug in Synaptic that can effectively cause uninstallation of the user's operating system. The list of available package upgrades and changelogs can be viewed in it though, but it can't access the changelogs from all standard Linux Mint repositories."

I've heard that using synaptic and apt on Mint is been known to trash systems. I don't use synaptic.

I don't know about no 958 packages, but if you check via the Update Manager (as recommended) I'd like to hear what
that interface says. I trust xenopeek's technical expertise enough. He certainly knows what he's talking about.

The above article was written after the release of LM 18.

Good luck.

What specifically did you try? The more detail you provide, the easier it is for others to help you.

Have you tried this command, as root?

If not, try it and post the output here, being sure to enclose it in "code" tags, which become available when you click the "Go Advanced" button at the bottom of the compose post windows.

Remove all those PPAs from your software sources.?

I trust xenopeek.

kinns91,

As advised by Niely on LMF, I think you would be much quicker backing up all your personal data from your home folder, plus any bookmarks, email profile folders (not applicable to web mail) etc to an external drive and then reinstalling Linux Mint.

A fresh installation takes very little time in any case.

The major issue at this point is not how to fix the problem of broken packages, but what were the actions that caused the broken packages in the first place. Like the previous poster recommended, backing up your data, and reinstalling the OS would be the be the best approach IMO at this point.

All this being said, the OS still may be repairable with the following steps. But do so at your own risk.

1) Get rid of all those PPA's. While you may think they are nifty programs, they do you little good if that is what is trashing your system.

2) Make sure Synaptic, Update Manager, Software Manager are closed so Aptitude can get an exclusive lock on the process.

3) Run the following commands in a terminal window in the sequence as I have them outlined.

Run the first command and wait for it to finish.
Next run this command and wait for it to complete.
And finally run the last command which clears out the broken packages.
Good luck to you on your journey to learning and using Linux.

What I do know is that Synaptic on Linux Mint is patched to remove the package upgrade functionality from it, because of the bug that is in Synaptic's upgrade logic that can cause your entire operating system to be uninstalled by it if you use it to upgrade your system.[1]
In a word, don't use it.

Re-install.