dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-headers-generic

Question

I ran out of inodes during an update which I think resulted in unmet dependencies. The system recommended I issue 'apt-get -f install' to fix. However I could not issue the command because of lack of inodes.

It turned out that there were many older versions of linux-headers and linux-image. I manually deleted:

$ sudo rm -rf /usr/src/linux-headers-3.2.0-65*

and was able to issue 'apt-get -f install' but I now I get the following errors:

$ sudo apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
linux-headers-3.2.0-118-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-83-generic linux-image-3.2.0-94-generic linux-image-3.2.0-89-generic
linux-headers-3.2.0-99-generic linux-image-3.2.0-121-generic linux-image-3.2.0-116-generic unattended-upgrades
linux-headers-3.2.0-110-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-70-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-65-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-91-generic
linux-headers-3.2.0-86-generic linux-image-3.2.0-97-generic python-pycurl     linux-image-3.2.0-119-generic
linux-headers-3.2.0-113-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-70 linux-headers-3.2.0-65 linux-headers-3.2.0-72 linux-headers-3.2.0-68
linux-headers-3.2.0-74 linux-headers-3.2.0-69 linux-headers-3.2.0-80 linux-headers-3.2.0-75 linux-headers-3.2.0-76
linux-headers-3.2.0-82 linux-headers-3.2.0-77 linux-headers-3.2.0-83 linux-headers-3.2.0-84 linux-headers-3.2.0-79
linux-headers-3.2.0-90 linux-headers-3.2.0-85 linux-headers-3.2.0-91 linux-headers-3.2.0-86 linux-headers-3.2.0-92
linux-headers-3.2.0-87 linux-headers-3.2.0-93 linux-headers-3.2.0-88 linux-headers-3.2.0-94 linux-headers-3.2.0-89
linux-headers-3.2.0-95 linux-headers-3.2.0-96 linux-headers-3.2.0-97 linux-headers-3.2.0-98 linux-headers-3.2.0-99
linux-headers-3.2.0-68-generic linux-image-3.2.0-84-generic python-cheetah linux-headers-3.2.0-94-generic
linux-headers-3.2.0-89-generic linux-image-3.2.0-111-generic linux-image-3.2.0-106-generic python-software-properties
linux-headers-3.2.0-121-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-116-generic python-oauth linux-headers-3.2.0-76-generic
linux-image-3.2.0-92-generic linux-image-3.2.0-87-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-97-generic linux-image-3.2.0-109-generic
linux-headers-3.2.0-119-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-84-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-79-generic linux-image-3.2.0-101-generic
linux-image-3.2.0-95-generic python-paramiko linux-headers-3.2.0-111-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-106-generic
linux-headers-3.2.0-92-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-87-generic linux-image-3.2.0-104-generic linux-image-3.2.0-98-generic
linux-headers-3.2.0-109-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-74-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-69-generic linux-image-3.2.0-90-generic
linux-image-3.2.0-85-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-95-generic linux-image-3.2.0-107-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-101-generic
python-boto linux-headers-3.2.0-82-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-77-generic   python-configobj linux-image-3.2.0-93-generic
linux-image-3.2.0-88-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-98-generic linux-image-3.2.0-120-generic linux-image-3.2.0-115-generic
linux-headers-3.2.0-104-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-90-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-85-generic linux-image-3.2.0-102-generic
python-m2crypto linux-image-3.2.0-96-generic linux-image-3.2.0-118-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-107-generic
linux-headers-3.2.0-72-generic euca2ools linux-image-3.2.0-83-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-93-generic
linux-headers-3.2.0-88-generic linux-image-3.2.0-110-generic linux-image-3.2.0-99-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-101
linux-headers-3.2.0-102 linux-headers-3.2.0-104 linux-headers-3.2.0-110 linux-headers-3.2.0-111 linux-headers-3.2.0-106
linux-headers-3.2.0-107 linux-headers-3.2.0-113 linux-headers-3.2.0-109 linux-headers-3.2.0-120 linux-headers-3.2.0-115
linux-headers-3.2.0-121 linux-headers-3.2.0-116 linux-headers-3.2.0-118 linux-headers-3.2.0-119
linux-headers-3.2.0-120-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-115-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-80-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-75-generic
python-crypto linux-image-3.2.0-91-generic linux-image-3.2.0-86-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-96-generic
linux-image-3.2.0-113-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-102-generic
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following extra packages will be installed:
linux-generic linux-headers-generic
The following packages will be upgraded:
linux-generic linux-headers-generic
2 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 26 not upgraded.
2 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 4,282 B of archives.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 http://mirror.rackspace.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates/main linux-generic amd64 3.2.0.124.139 [1,718 B]
Get:2 http://mirror.rackspace.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates/main linux-headers-generic amd64 3.2.0.124.139 [2,564 B]
Fetched 4,282 B in 0s (180 kB/s)            
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-headers-generic:
  linux-headers-generic depends on linux-headers-3.2.0-123-generic; however:
Package linux-headers-3.2.0-123-generic is not installed.
dpkg: error processing linux-headers-generic (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure.
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-generic:
linux-generic depends on linux-image-generic (= 3.2.0.123.138); however:
Version of linux-image-generic on system is 3.2.0.124.139.
 linux-generic depends on linux-headers-generic (= 3.2.0.123.138); however:
  Package linux-headers-generic is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing linux-generic (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure.
Errors were encountered while processing:
 linux-headers-generic
 linux-generic
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

My guess is that 3.2.0.123 somehow got corrupted while I was making space in disk and needs to get re-installed. However I'm no expert and don't want to make the problem worse.

Can someone help me sort this out? Thanks in advance, Jose Ambros-Ingerson

Solution

I was able to fix the above by removing and re-installing linux headers and images. Specifically:

$ sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq linux-headers-generic
$ sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq linux-generic
$ sudo apt-get -f install
$ sudo apt-get install linux-image-generic

This last installed the headers as well.

I'm not sure if this is the best way to solve my problem. But it did. Thanks to all of you who read my post.

Comments

[jarno]

I do not see how installing linux-image-generic would install headers.