MintUpdate - very strange [Solved]

[Kaye]

Hey everyone,

Today, after installing a package, I used apt autoremove to free up some space. Now, however, I have 699 recommended updates from MintInstall, but when I try to install them, it tells me "Could not apply changes! Fix broken packages first." Also, whenever I start MintUpdate, my notification area goes blank. Anyone know of how I can clear this up? I'm not even sure if I need any of the recommended packages, they're all level 3.

Thanks,
Kaye

[Husse]

This is a similar problem
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=22669
Is that the exact error message? I don't quite recognise it
There are two standard things to do to fix broken packages

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sudo dpkg --configure -a

and delete the *.bin files in /var/cache/apt/
and

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apt install -f

I have to discuss this with Clem as there might be a bug hidden somewhere

[Kaye]

I tried the fixes you suggested, unfortunately my problem remains. The message I posted earlier is the exact error message. Also, the problem with the icons in the notification area resolved itself last night.. I guess it was just coincidental that the two happened at the same time. Any other way I can get this to work? Is it likely that I even need these packages?

[Husse]

699 packages that sounds very much like an error you probably have them
We will come back to you - there's perhaps something going on with mintUpdate

[distoaddict]

Try Synaptic Package manager and see if there is very much difference.

[Kaye]

I was looking at the Package Manager this morning, but I really don't know what I should be looking for.. What would let me know that something is wrong?

Will this mean that I can't install any updates until it's resolved?

Also, this may be of use. I just ran apt update to see if anything would happen and I got this output at the end:

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Reading package lists... Done
W: GPG error: http://http.us.debian.org sid Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY A70DAF536070D3A1
W: GPG error: http://ppa.launchpad.net intrepid Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 60D11217247D1CFF
W: GPG error: http://ppa.launchpad.net intrepid Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 7D2C7A23BF810CD5
W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems

Running apt-get update doesn't do anything. Are those the broken packages or something along that line?

[Kaye]

Solved!

It turns out that, by editing my /etc/apt/sources.list to install a different version of AWN, I somehow corrupted a package. I suspect that the apt autoremove somehow removed the pubkey that was mentioned in the error I just posted. By removing those lines from the sources.list, I'm now down to 4 updates, which I'm hoping are the normal ones that I'm supposed to have.. They've installed correctly so I think everything is ok!

Thanks for the help

[Fred]

Kaye,

Apt looks for a pgp key for every repo in the list. This is a securiety thing. That is the way it verifies that the repo is actually what it says it is and came from the source it claims to have come from.

When you do an apt-get update, which is what synaptic is actually doing, you will get an error on any repo that won't verify or doesn't have a key on your keyring. Apparently you somehow removed some/all the keys so that is most likely why the errors popped up.

You can ignore the errors and still use those repos but you now can't verify their authenticity without reloading the pgp keys for them.

I hope this helps you understand what is happening here.

Fred