Ubuntu
apt package

Ubuntu 8.10 update error

Asked by David Hjelstrom

When I try to update I get an error message that some packages failed to install. I also get this same error when I try to add applications with Add/Remove... Opening the details yields the following:

Preconfiguring Packages
dpkg: parse error in file '/var/lib/dpks/available' near line 18588 package 'libogst resmer 0.10.0':
Depends field, missing package name, or garbage where package name is expected
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)
A package failed to install. Trying to recover.

It doesn't actually appear that it is trying to recover. I am new to Linux so please give me step by step help!
Thank you.

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Ubuntu apt Edit question
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Solved by:
marcobra (Marco Braida)
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Revision history for this message
Matthew Lye (matthew.lye) said : 		#1

Trying to recover means that its trying to rollback your system to before you tried to install, not that its trying to continue anyway.

For this i would recommend trying to do the install through synaptic package manager or terminal if at all possible as terminal gives the best output on failure.

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Bhavani Shankar (bhavi) said : 		#2

To fix broken packages

Open up synaptic

Choose Edit > Fix Broken Packages from the menu.

Choose Apply Marked Changes from the Edit menu or press Ctrl + P.

or from cli

sudo apt-get -f install
sudo apt-get --fix-missing install

Revision history for this message
David Hjelstrom (d-g-hjelstrom) said : 		#3

I tried synaptic, fix broken packages and got the same error message so I tried the cli with the following results:

When I typed in; sudo apt-get -f install
I get:

david@david-desktop:~$ sudo apt-get -f install

Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree

Reading state information... Done

The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:

  linux-headers-2.6.27-7 linux-headers-2.6.27-7-generic

Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.

0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 31 not upgraded.

23 not fully installed or removed.

After this operation, 0B of additional disk space will be used.

dpkg: parse error, in file `/var/lib/dpkg/available' near line 18588 package `libgstreamer0.10-0':

 `Depends' field, missing package name, or garbage where package name expected

E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)

david@david-desktop:~$

Then, when I typed in: sudo apt-get –fix-missing install
I get:

Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree

Reading state information... Done

The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:

  linux-headers-2.6.27-7 linux-headers-2.6.27-7-generic

Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.

0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 31 not upgraded.

23 not fully installed or removed.

After this operation, 0B of additional disk space will be used.

dpkg: parse error, in file `/var/lib/dpkg/available' near line 18588 package `libgstreamer0.10-0':

 `Depends' field, missing package name, or garbage where package name expected

E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)

Revision history for this message
Best marcobra (Marco Braida) (marcobra) said : 		#4

Open a Terminal from the menu Applications → Accessories → Terminal and type:
(if the system ask you a password give your user password, you will not see nothing when you type it, then press enter)

sudo dpkg --clear-avail
sudo dpkg --configure -a

then to update and upgrade and also check pending or missing packages, still using terminal type:

sudo apt-get -f install
sudo apt-get --fix-missing install
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get autoremove

Hope this helps

Revision history for this message
Tom (tom6) said : 		#5

There's always the "Recovery Mode" option when you next boot-up your machine instead of choosing the normal option for booting into Ubuntu choose the one that says "Recovery Mode" at the end. It has a "Fix Broken Packages" type option as well as a clean up option that makes the system work a little bit faster and better, if it's needed.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Revision history for this message
David Hjelstrom (d-g-hjelstrom) said : 		#6

Thanks marcobra, that solved my question.