"Depends: ia32-libs-multiarch but it is not installable" - Solution

Question

I noticed this on 12.10 trying to get the Android SDK working. For 64 bit versions, it is required to install:

sudo apt-get install ia32-libs

However, under 64bit 12.10, I got the following error:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 ia32-libs : Depends: ia32-libs-multiarch but it is not installable

And

> apt-get install ia32-libs-multiarch
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package ia32-libs-multiarch is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

E: Package 'ia32-libs-multiarch' has no installation candidate

Solution

I found the solution here comment #27,

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install ia32-libs

Then the 32 bit libraries install fine (for me anyway!). Hope this helps somebody !

Comments

[Mike]

This solution is now obsolete: Package ia32-libs is not available, but is referred to by another package. This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or is only available from another source However the following packages replace it: lib32z1 lib32ncurses5 lib32bz2-1.0

[Ahmad Hindash]

dpkg: error: unknown option --add-architecture

[eel ghEEz]

sudo apt-file -a i386 update; sudo apt-file update; for f in $(< libs.txt) ; do test -f "/lib/i386-linux-gnu/$f" || test -f "/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/$f" || { echo -n "$f: " ; ps=($(apt-file -a i386 -x search "/$f\$" | sed -e 's/([^:]*): .*/\1/g')); echo "${ps[@]}" ; } ; done # Copy and paste desired package names from the output of the above script into the libs variable below. libs=(foo bar baz) ; sudo apt-get install "${libs[@]/%/:i386}"

[Matt]

@bancer -- you need to upgrade dpkg: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install --only-upgrade dpkg

[redbmk]

Still doesn't work for me... maybe it's changed yet again since your answer