Can't perform update

[sdim]

Hi, everyone.
After installing Mint KDE 10 and going to the recommended updates to install them, I get this error message:

Could not apply changes
Fix broken packages first

Does anyone know what can be done here?
Many thanks.

[linuxviolin]

Try in a terminal:

Code: Select all

sudo dpkg --configure -a

[sdim]

Thanks for the answer.
I ran that, and then tried to refresh and install the updates via the Update Manager. Nothing changed. I get the same message.

[Inkit]

Hi sdim,
Try applying the level 1 &2 updates first. after that don't choose all the level 3 updates but go down in batches of 10 or so. It may take some time, but if you have a halfway decent broadband, will not take you more than 15 to 20 min and you will not get this error.

[linmint777]

do it from the terminal securely with:

sudo aptitude safe-upgrade
or
sudo apt-get upgrade
If an error occurs, post it to appear on the terminal in order to better assist you.

[Joe Field]

Hi,

I had the same problem this weekend and found two ways to overcome this situation.

1. Open the update manager and then open the text terminal. In the terminal type sudo install followed by the package name from the update manager, press enter and enter root password. This will then install the updated package with all it's dependences. Obviously, this is very time consuming.
2. A better method, although still time consuming, is to close the update manager. Then open Synaptic package manager. With the highlight bar on ALL scroll down the package list in the top right panel. All packages that were installed when you first installed the OS are shown with a green square next to them. Where there is an updated version to be installed there is a gold star in the green square. Right-click on the package name and choose the option to mark it for upgrade. When you have marked all the items with stars, click on the Apply button and Synaptic will download and install all the updates. When finished, close Synaptic and open update manager, if you see any items still there it is only because you missed them the first time. Just keep going until all are cleared.

This is a long exercise but, at the end, all packages have been updated and, more importantly, the error message disappears. I have installed updates since and no longer get the message.

Good luck, Joe

[sdim]

Thank you all for the answers.
I will see what I can do with each one of them.

[sdim]

I did it one by one and they installed OK.
I don't know what the issue was, but now it's OK.
Many thanks for the help, everyone.

[luisgf]

That happened to me a while ago (which is why I can't be more specific ) but what I did was use Synaptic to find out which packages were broken. It turned out to be that they were not properly downloaded at the time of the update, so I manually deleted them from the APT cache (/var/cache/apt/archives), and the next time I ran the update, it re-downloaded them and everything worked fine.

[sdim]

Many thanks, lulsgf.
I'll keep that in mind.