tasksel: apt-get failed (100)

Question

I was installing Xfec desktop environment in the Debian 8 OS. I logged in as root and command tasksel in the shell. Among the other chooses, I selected the Xfce

At the time the installation is few seconds left, I get the message tasksel: apt-get failed (100).

I did an sudo apt-get update but the issue seems stayed as it is after the next try. What to do now?

Solution 1

1.Check your /etc/resolv.conf.

This means checking your DNS settings for visiting website correctly. You can Google Public DNS address on internet :)

2.Check your /etc/apt/sources.list

This means checking your "Ubuntu Update Servers" list for using "apt-update" command.

3.Run apt-get update && apt-get install vim(or whatever the app is) for testing to see if it works.

4.Reboot and try it again...

Thanks for guys who given any suggestions :)

Solution 2

This just happened to me. In my case the problem was caused by an previously interrupted package transaction. The solution was to run:

dpkg --configure -a

After that, tasksel worked as expected.

(short quick answer, just in case it helps someone out!)

Solution 3

I had this problem and both answers above helped me, I restarted it a couple of times and final time this worked

sudo apt-get update 
dpkg --configure -a

and finally

sudo tasksel

Solution 4

I had the same problem - the error code given by tasksel (100) is rather non-descriptive; I found out the actual reason why it failed in my case when running the tasksel command from the cli:

apt-get install kde-plasma-desktop

Gives the following error message:

0 upgraded, 904 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 680 MB of archives.
After this operation, 2,279 MB of additional disk space will be used.
E: You don't have enough free space in /var/cache/apt/archives/.

After extending the root partition, the command completes without problems.

Solution 5

Try this:

sudo apt-get purge
sudo apt-get update
sudo tasksel

View more solutions

Comments

[Admin]

It's probably a good idea to check logs in /var/log to see why apt-get failed.

[cl-r]

This answer isn't very useful to inexperienced Linux users... a little more background on what to "check" would be helpful.

[Arefe]

@Dave After over half a year of using Linux, I agree that the answer requires to be comprehensive.

[tvdo]

As an addendum, if you get an error about missing dependencies you might need to run a apt install -f afterwards.

[perennial_noob]

Since, this is the accepted answer and no answer seems to have the combination of explanation and remedies, I want to add a comment to request explanation as well. For me, apt-get update worked, not dpkg --configure -a

[davejoem]

this worked for me, but i also agree that skipping straight to the third option just coz of not knowing what to look for isn't ideal for an answer

[borizzzzz]

This saved me after accidentally killing tasksel in the middle of installing and removing software. Thank you!