Ubuntu – Problem installing build-essential. Broken packages error

software installationubuntu-mate

I just ran a fresh installation of Ubuntu Mate 15.10 on my laptop and currently I need to install "build-essential". I ran:

sudo apt-get install build-essential

and got this error:

daniel@daniel-VGN-NR230FE:~$ sudo apt-get install build-essential 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
build-essential : Depends: libc6-dev but it is not going to be installed or
                        libc-dev
               Depends: g++ (>= 4:5.2) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

I don't know if it has anything to do with this, but during the installation, I skipped some packages, since installing then would take forever (300 min or so).

Before doing the build-essential thing, I installed all the updates available via Software Updater and the incomplete language packs, but then again, got this error.

Best Answer

I would start by verifying if you distro's main sources are enabled, If it's 15.10 your code name should be wily.

  1. Open your sources file:

    $sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

  2. Look for the following lines and uncomment them, save the file:

    ###### Ubuntu Main Repos
    deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ wily main
    deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ wily main

    ###### Ubuntu Update Repos
    deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ wily-security main
    deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ wily-updates main
    deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ wily-security main
    deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ wily-updates main

  3. Update sources & retry installation:

    $sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install build-essential

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