error in installation of gcc on ubuntu Ubuntu 12.04

Question

I want to install gcc on a ubuntu machine but got the following errors:

   t@lab45:~# apt-get install build-essential
    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:
     build-essential : Depends: libc6-dev but it is not going to be installed or                        
                                libc-dev 
                       Depends: gcc (>= 4:4.4.3) but it is not going to be installed           
                       Depends: g++ (>= 4:4.4.3) but it is not going to be installed
                       Depends: make but it is not going to be installed
                       Depends: dpkg-dev (>= 1.13.5) but it is not going to be installed
     linux-image-generic-pae : Depends: linux-image-3.2.0-37-generic-pae but it is not going to be installed
    E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

the problem is similar to Install gcc on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS but the solutions there are not workable.

how to deal with this? thanks!

Solution

You should make sure that you have the main archive activated in your sources.list file and that no packages are on-hold.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get clean
grep -P 'main&precise-updates' /etc/apt/sources.list
## Here should return something like deb http://ubuntu.mirror.cambrium.nl/ubuntu/ precise-updates main
echo $(dpkg --get-selections | grep hold | awk '{print $1}') install | sudo dpkg --set-selections
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get --fix-missing install build-essentials

With this, your installation should be flawless.

Comments

[green]

did you try sudo apt-get -f install?

[Sat93]

Try installing GCC using 'Synaptic Package Manager'. If you are using 12.10, then you will first need to install it from the software center.

[user138126]

I'm remotely operating on the ubuntu machine

[rdsoze]

first run this .. apt-get install libc6-dev=2.15-0ubuntu10+openvz0 libc-dev-bin=2.15-0ubuntu10+openvz0 .. then it shall work

[David Foerster]

@rdsoze: How do you know, OP is on an OpenVZ system?

[rdsoze]

my bad .. i don't ..

[vArDo]

@rdsoze: I had the same problem on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS under OpenVZ, and command from your comment solved my issue.

[rdsoze]

doesnt work for me ..