Ubuntu
update-manager package

Can't install anything on Ubuntu

Asked by gazmania

I am a newbie and been using Ubuntu for a couple of months and it works great! Problem is I just installed on my wifes machine and every time I click add/remove I am told I can't install a program I have ticked as it conflicts with other programs. This is a new install and did not happen when I installed Ubuntu on my laptop

Question information

Language:
English Edit question
Status:
Solved
For:
Ubuntu update-manager Edit question
Assignee:
No assignee Edit question
Solved by:
Jim Hutchinson
Solved:
Last query:
Last reply:
Revision history for this message
Jim Hutchinson (jphutch) said : 		#1

Which user is trying to install? If you installed and chose the 1st user, then that user has the priveledges necessary to install. If you set up a second user, your wife for example, that user may not have rights to install depending on how you set that user up.

Or it could be that you have Synaptic or the update manager open. Since those two use the same underlying program as add/remove... you will get an error if you try to use one while another is open.

If neither of those seems the issue, please try and provide a bit more info on what is happening.

Revision history for this message
gazmania (mail2gaz) said : 		#2

Hi Jim and thanks once again for your help. I will be more specific about the prob. I installed Ubuntu on my wifes laptop. I chose a clean install so it wiped off windows. As I have ubuntu already on my machine I know a little how it works, so on the fresh install I clicked add/remove to install some new software.
Every program I ticked gave this exact error:

cannot install (name of program)
This application conflicts with other installed software. To install (the program) the conflicting software must be removed first.

Switch to "synaptic" package manager to resolve this conflict

Revision history for this message
Best Jim Hutchinson (jphutch) said : 		#3

I'm not familiar with that exact message, but it sounds like it means that you already have something installed that the new package is not compatible with. I have seen this with certain video programs (xine and gstreamer for example). There are a few things to try in Synaptic that might help. Make sure that you are logged in as the user you created when installing (just to be sure you can install). Close add/remove and open Synaptic (system - admin). Under the edit menu select "fix broken packages". If nothing happens that's okay. It just means nothing is broken but we want to check that first anyway. Next, try installing one of the applications that you want to add. If there is a program it conflicts with you will see that in addition to the packages to install some are listed to be removed. Double check that you are okay with what it wants to remove. If not, you will not want to install the new one or you will lose the old one. Try going through the list of packages one at a time and see which ones cause the conflict.

Hope that helps.

Revision history for this message
gazmania (mail2gaz) said : 		#4

Thanks again Jim. I searched Google and found this below which solved the problem. I can now install everything. YeY!!!

In synaptic package manager 's bar menu, go to settings>repositories. In the first tab, make sure that main, universe, restricted and multiverse are ticked. Then, click the update butoon down the menu bar. In this way, you get able to download and install tons of programs, like VLC, XMMS, aMSN, Flash and other software that is not included in the "standard" repositories. Then, just type the name of the application you search for (le.g. VLC) in search button or any word(s) that can help your search (e.g. multimedia codecs)

Revision history for this message
Jim Hutchinson (jphutch) said : 		#5

Glad you got it figured out, though strictly speaking enabling more repositories shouldn't have anything to do with the error you were getting. Maybe just using synaptic helped as it will resolve dependencies where add/remove might not.

Revision history for this message
gazmania (mail2gaz) said : 		#6

could it have something to do with enabling universe multiverse etc?

Revision history for this message
gazmania (mail2gaz) said : 		#7

All I know Jim is that after following those instructions I was then able to add/remove. I should mention that after doing that I also immediately had 200 megs of updates to install!

Revision history for this message
Jim Hutchinson (jphutch) said : 		#8

I suspect that using Synaptic allowed the software to resolve the conflicts - that is part of Synaptic's job. Adding repositories really shouldn't make any difference with respect to the

"cannot install (name of program)
This application conflicts with other installed software. To install (the program) the conflicting software must be removed first.

Switch to "synaptic" package manager to resolve this conflict"

error you reported above.

As for the updates when adding new repos, I've seen that too. Not sure why but probably has to do with newer versions in those repos that the "standard" repos. Although that's just a guess. I've never tried to research it.

In any case, you got it working and that's the important thing.

Revision history for this message
Stephanos (stephanosd) said : 		#9

i cant get into synaptics package manager...
it shows this error:
E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.
E: _cache->open() failed, please report.

Revision history for this message
Stephanos (stephanosd) said : 		#10

i cant get into synaptics package manager...
it shows this error:
E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.
E: _cache->open() failed, please report.

Revision history for this message
marcobra (Marco Braida) (marcobra) said : 		#11

@Stephanos

Please don't append a new question on a already answered or marked as solved question.

Please create a separate thread for your new question, or else visitors to this solution page
will get confused.

Please make new question from here: https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+addquestion
you will get better chance to get right answer on a fresh tagged "open" question.
Solved or answered questions are usually not read from answering people.

Thank you

Revision history for this message
marcobra (Marco Braida) (marcobra) said : 		#12

By the way the answer to your question (frequently asked) is in this grouped questions page link

https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-manager

please use the upper left search field to find it