apt-get update not Working due to unmet dependencies

Question

Whenever I try installing using apt-get install command I am getting errors like these

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 ubuntu-release-upgrader-core : Depends: python3-distupgrade (= 1:16.04.14) but 1:16.04.12 is to be installed
 ubuntu-release-upgrader-gtk : Depends: python3-distupgrade (= 1:16.04.14) but 1:16.04.12 is to be installed
 wine : Depends: wine1.6 but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

After giving the apt-get -f install commands I get this.

Preparing to unpack .../python3-distupgrade_1%3a16.04.14_all.deb ...
/var/lib/dpkg/info/python3-distupgrade.prerm: 6: /var/lib/dpkg/info/python3-distupgrade.prerm: py3clean: not found
dpkg: warning: subprocess old pre-removal script returned error exit status 127
dpkg: trying script from the new package instead ...
/var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/prerm: 6: /var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/prerm: py3clean: not found
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/python3-distupgrade_1%3a16.04.14_all.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess new pre-removal script returned error exit status 127
/var/lib/dpkg/info/python3-distupgrade.postinst: 6: /var/lib/dpkg/info/python3-distupgrade.postinst: py3compile: not found
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 127
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/python3-distupgrade_1%3a16.04.14_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Is there any way to fix this?

---

I tried running the command but I am still getting this error

$ sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite /var/cache/apt/archives/python3-distupgrade_1%3a16.04.14_all.deb

[sudo] password for user: 
(Reading database ... 178880 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../python3-distupgrade_1%3a16.04.14_all.deb ...
/var/lib/dpkg/info/python3-distupgrade.prerm: 6: /var/lib/dpkg/info/python3-distupgrade.prerm: py3clean: not found
dpkg: warning: subprocess old pre-removal script returned error exit status 127
dpkg: trying script from the new package instead ...
/var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/prerm: 6: /var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/prerm: py3clean: not found
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/python3-distupgrade_1%3a16.04.14_all.deb (--install):
 subprocess new pre-removal script returned error exit status 127
/var/lib/dpkg/info/python3-distupgrade.postinst: 6: /var/lib/dpkg/info/python3-distupgrade.postinst: py3compile: not found
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 127
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/python3-distupgrade_1%3a16.04.14_all.deb

I tried the apt-get -f command also

user@user-Inspiron-3543:~$ sudo apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  python3-distupgrade
The following packages will be upgraded:
  python3-distupgrade
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 242 not upgraded.
17 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/104 kB of archives.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y
(Reading database ... 178880 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../python3-distupgrade_1%3a16.04.14_all.deb ...
/var/lib/dpkg/info/python3-distupgrade.prerm: 6: /var/lib/dpkg/info/python3-distupgrade.prerm: py3clean: not found
dpkg: warning: subprocess old pre-removal script returned error exit status 127
dpkg: trying script from the new package instead ...
/var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/prerm: 6: /var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/prerm: py3clean: not found
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/python3-distupgrade_1%3a16.04.14_all.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess new pre-removal script returned error exit status 127
/var/lib/dpkg/info/python3-distupgrade.postinst: 6: /var/lib/dpkg/info/python3-distupgrade.postinst: py3compile: not found
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 127
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/python3-distupgrade_1%3a16.04.14_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Still finding the same error.

---

The error which I found was

dpkg: error processing package update-notifier-common (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 127
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libgnomevfs2-common:
 libgnomevfs2-common depends on gconf2 (>= 2.28.1-2); however:
  Package gconf2 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package libgnomevfs2-common (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of terminator:
 terminator depends on gconf2; however:
  Package gconf2 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package terminator (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of ttf-mscorefonts-installer:
 ttf-mscorefonts-installer depends on update-notifier-common (>= 0.119ubuntu2); however:
  Package update-notifier-common is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package ttf-mscorefonts-installer (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libgnomevfs2-0:amd64:
 libgnomevfs2-0:amd64 depends on libgnomevfs2-common (= 1:2.24.4-6.1ubuntu1); however:
  Package libgnomevfs2-common is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package libgnomevfs2-0:amd64 (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libgnome2-common:
 libgnome2-common depends on gconf2 (>= 2.28.1-2); however:
  Package gconf2 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package libgnome2-common (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libgnomeui-0:amd64:
 libgnomeui-0:amd64 depends on libgnomevfs2-0 (>= 1:2.17.90); however:
  Package libgnomevfs2-0:amd64 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package libgnomeui-0:amd64 (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of python-gnome2:
 python-gnome2 depends on libgnomeui-0 (>= 2.22.0); however:
  Package libgnomeui-0:amd64 is not configured yet.
 python-gnome2 depends on libgnomevfs2-0 (>= 1:2.17.90); however:
  Package libgnomevfs2-0:amd64 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package python-gnome2 (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libgnome-2-0:amd64:
 libgnome-2-0:amd64 depends on libgnomevfs2-0 (>= 1:2.17.90); however:
  Package libgnomevfs2-0:amd64 is not configured yet.
 libgnome-2-0:amd64 depends on libgnome2-common (= 2.32.1-5ubuntu1); however:
  Package libgnome2-common is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package libgnome-2-0:amd64 (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libgnome2-0:amd64:
 libgnome2-0:amd64 depends on libgnome-2-0 (= 2.32.1-5ubuntu1); however:
  Package libgnome-2-0:amd64 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package libgnome2-0:amd64 (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libgnome2-bin:
 libgnome2-bin depends on libgnome-2-0; however:
  Package libgnome-2-0:amd64 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package libgnome2-bin (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libbonoboui2-0:amd64:
 libbonoboui2-0:amd64 depends on libgnome2-0 (>= 2.17.3); however:
  Package libgnome2-0:amd64 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package libbonoboui2-0:amd64 (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 gconf2
 update-notifier-common
 libgnomevfs2-common
 terminator
 ttf-mscorefonts-installer
 libgnomevfs2-0:amd64
 libgnome2-common
 libgnomeui-0:amd64
 python-gnome2
 libgnome-2-0:amd64
 libgnome2-0:amd64
 libgnome2-bin
 libbonoboui2-0:amd64

After purging and reinstalling the first two packaged the error is coming

Solution 1

It seems that python installation is broken .. Try reinstalling python3-minimal

sudo apt-get install --reinstall python3-minimal

Now you can run sudo apt-get install --fix-broken again and then apt-get update .. if this fails let us know.

Solution 2

I too experienced this problem - in my case on Raspbian when upgrading from wheezy to jessie. The python3-minimal package was left in a bad state, with prerm and postinst hook scripts for debconf failing when calling the py3clean and py3compile commands.

Indeed py3clean was broken as seen when running the command directly:

-bash: /usr/bin/py3clean: /usr/bin/python3: bad interpreter: No such file or directory

Attempting to reinstall the python3-minimal package resulted in an error:

$ sudo apt-get install --reinstall python3-minimal
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 idle3 : Depends: idle-python3.4 but it is not going to be installed
 python3 : Depends: python3.4 (>= 3.4.2-0) but it is not going to be installed
           Depends: libpython3-stdlib (= 3.4.2-2) but it is not going to be installed
           Depends: dh-python but it is not going to be installed
 python3-minimal : Depends: python3.4-minimal (>= 3.4.2-0) but it is not going to be installed
 python3-numpy : Depends: python3.4 but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

The suggested apt-get -f install command remained broken.

Ultimately I worked around the problem by commenting out the py3clean-related lines from /var/lib/dpkg/info/debconf.prerm which looked something like:

if which py3clean >/dev/null 2>&1; then
       py3clean -p debconf 
fi

I then had to comment out the py3compile lines from /var/lib/dpkg/info/debconf.postinst:

if which py3compile >/dev/null 2>&1; then
       py3compile -p debconf 
fi

That allowed me to successfully run

sudo apt-get -f install

At this point I was able to reinstall the package cleanly, which also handily removed the above script customisations which were no longer needed.

sudo apt-get install --reinstall debconf

Comments

[AJAY MENON]

I tried running the command and I got this

[storm]

I've edited the answer ..

[AJAY MENON]

The same error happens again whenever I try to install or update something this error shows up

[AJAY MENON]

I don't know this is relevent or not my terminal is also not working I am not able to get it through the shortcut commands or from the menu

[AJAY MENON]

I have also purged the update-notifier-common and also the libomevfs2-common and also reinstalled it because of this error I will post the error down

[flo]

@AJAYMENON Welcone to AskUbuntu. :) Please only use the answer function to post actual answers to question. You can edit your question to add more information. I've moved the content of your answers into the question for you.

[J. Starnes]

The most important part of a good answer is clear communication. In its current form your answer doesn't clearly communicate; what should be done, or why theses instructions may work.