CAn't Update with apt-get

[AlexKillometer]

I receive error messages when I try to update with apt-get. Incidental problems that may be related include inability to launch a terminal window. I do all my commands from ALT+CTRL+F5, which launches a second login instance.

Please review below attempts:
Upgrading with Apt-get displays error setting locale, exits looking for ldconfig
I cannot generate locales, command not found
installing just locales exits at message of having held broken packages.

****UPDATES****
Apt-get states there are broken packages or unmet dependencies after attempting to install new packages, but attempting to fix the broken packages with DPKG not APT-GET show any actual broken of held packages.

Used cammands that returned no problem packages:
sudo apt-get update --fix-missing
sudo apt-get install -f
sudo dpkg –configure -a

Please direct me where to look at next.


Error:

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sudo apt-get upgrade
(Removed list of packages downloaded from sourcelists)

perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
	LANGUAGE = (unset),
	LC_ALL = (unset),
	LANG = "en_US.UTF-8"
    are supported and installed on your system.
perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").

Can't exec "locale": No such file or directory at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/Encoding.pm line 16.
Use of uninitialized value $Debconf::Encoding::charmap in scalar chomp at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/Encoding.pm line 17.

Extracting templates from packages: 100%
Preconfiguring packages ...
dpkg: warning: 'ldconfig' not found in PATH or not executable
dpkg: error: 1 expected program not found in PATH or not executable
Note: root's PATH should usually contain /usr/local/sbin, /usr/sbin and /sbin
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)

So I tried to install locales

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apt-get install locales
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:
 locales : Depends: debconf (>= 0.5) but it is not going to be installed or
                    debconf-2.0
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

I tried to generate Locale and then reconfigure

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sudo locale-gen
-bash: locale-gen: command not found

dpkg-reconfigure locales
perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
	LANGUAGE = (unset),
	LC_ALL = (unset),
	LANG = "en_US.UTF-8"
    are supported and installed on your system.
perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
Can't exec "locale": No such file or directory at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/Encoding.pm line 16.
Use of uninitialized value $Debconf::Encoding::charmap in scalar chomp at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/Encoding.pm line 17.
/usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure: locales is broken or not fully installed

I read that this fixes broken packages so i tried it to no effect

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sudo apt install -f
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 252 not upgraded.

/etc/default/locale contents

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LANG="en_US.UTF-8"

locale.gen contents show en_US.UTF-8 uncommented

Source list:

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deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free 
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ stretch non-free contrib main 

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main contrib non-free 
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main contrib non-free 

deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security/ stretch/updates main contrib non-free 
deb-src http://security.debian.org/debian-security/ stretch/updates non-free contrib main 

[sickpig]

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dpkg: warning: 'ldconfig' not found in PATH or not executable

seems path related. See if you can

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su -

to fix it.
also you can comment out the deb-src in your sources.list if you are not downloading src files to build packages.

[Deb-fan]

Have to start abiding by a 5 or so post per day limit here. Am letting gnu/Linux forum addiction rear it's ugly, ugly head !!!! Noooooooo !

Cannot open a terminal, you have to switch to another tty to run commands ? Errrr, you've clearly got bigger issues than locales (looks normal to me)or inablility to upgrade the OS. Am going to assume this somehow (at least in part)stems from Debian lacking nonfree software support out-of-box. Have you tried any Debian "based" which do include that, if so which ? A couple I'm fond of for whichever reasons, Mx gnu/Linux and Bunsenlabs gnu/Linux.

Other random junk, don't use apt-get anymore, command now is simply apt ie: "sudo apt install, upgrade etc" If you aren't using a REALLY dated version of apt anyway. So apt-get and apt-cache are things of the past and people may as well use the newer/better syntax. Many times, esp if a gnu/Nix OS hasn't been upgraded in a long time would encourage people to start using this newerish command "sudo apt full-upgrade", the differences between what it does vs simple upgrade are readily available knowledge to be found on the webz, man pages "man apt" ... whatever.

Do you have a root user ? If so what happens when you try upgrading under that acct or use "sudo su -", "sudo -i" or whichever, then try to upgrade(nevermind, see OOPS below), try and see. Mostly just curious. Is the system even online ? Try "ping -c 3 www.google.com" see if you can even ping anything. Upgrade would also be sort of difficult on a system which isn't even online. Would/could also post some hardware specs for people to review.

Looks like the output for "sudo apt install -f" is saying there's nothing for it to fix and your sources.list to me looks totally normal. OOPS, there's your trouble, looks normal for Stretch, Debian 9, that's now oldstable, no doubt the respositories you're trying to install pkgs from don't even exist anymore, thus yeah, apt's having trouble downloading and installing stuff from them. Someone has to have/show care when monkey'ing around with software respositories. How repositories are named in sources.list. Why are you trying to install Stretch, with Buster, Debian 10 being latest Debian stable ?

[AlexKillometer]

Code: Select all

dpkg: warning: 'ldconfig' not found in PATH or not executable

seems path related. See if you can

Code: Select all

su -

to fix it.
also you can comment out the deb-src in your sources.list if you are not downloading src files to build packages.

using "su -" created a password prompt for the super user. I assume your looking for what elevated privileges do to commands. It looks like I don't remember my password for the su.

[AlexKillometer]

Have to start abiding by a 5 or so post per day limit here. Am letting gnu/Linux forum addiction rear it's ugly, ugly head !!!! Noooooooo !

Cannot open a terminal, you have to switch to another tty to run commands ? Errrr, you've clearly got bigger issues than locales (looks normal to me)or inablility to upgrade the OS. Am going to assume this somehow (at least in part)stems from Debian lacking nonfree software support out-of-box. Have you tried any Debian "based" which do include that, if so which ? A couple I'm fond of for whichever reasons, Mx gnu/Linux and Bunsenlabs gnu/Linux.

Other random junk, don't use apt-get anymore, command now is simply apt ie: "sudo apt install, upgrade etc" If you aren't using a REALLY dated version of apt anyway. So apt-get and apt-cache are things of the past and people may as well use the newer/better syntax. Many times, esp if a gnu/Nix OS hasn't been upgraded in a long time would encourage people to start using this newerish command "sudo apt full-upgrade", the differences between what it does vs simple upgrade are readily available knowledge to be found on the webz, man pages "man apt" ... whatever.

Do you have a root user ? If so what happens when you try upgrading under that acct or use "sudo -su", "sudo -i" or whichever, then try to upgrade(nevermind, see OOPS below), try and see. Mostly just curious. Is the system even online ? Try "ping -c 3 http://www.google.com" see if you can even ping anything. Upgrade would also be sort of difficult on a system which isn't even online. Would/could also post some hardware specs for people to review.

Looks like the output for "sudo apt install -f" is saying there's nothing for it to fix and your sources.list to me looks totally normal. OOPS, there's your trouble, looks normal for Stretch, Debian 9, that's now oldstable, no doubt the respositories you're trying to install pkgs from don't even exist anymore, thus yeah, apt's having trouble downloading and installing stuff from them. Someone has to have/show care when monkey'ing around with software respositories. How repositories are named in sources.list. Why are you trying to install Stretch, with Buster, Debian 10 being latest Debian stable ?

Hi You sound like you are trying to help, but I have no idea what you are asking me to do. Your comments are kinda all over the place.

[sickpig]

using "su -" created a password prompt for the super user. I assume your looking for what elevated privileges do to commands. It looks like I don't remember my password for the su.

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=146740 see if you can reset using that.

[Deb-fan]

Install current Debian stable, Debian 10, named Buster, not Debian 9, aka: Stretch.

[cuckooflew]

https://www.debian.org/releases/stretch/

Debian 9 has been superseded by Debian 10 ("buster"). Security updates have been discontinued as of July 6th, 2020.

However, stretch benefits from Long Term Support (LTS) until the end of June 2022. The LTS is limited to i386, amd64, armel, armhf and arm64. All other architectures are no longer supported in stretch. For more information, please refer to the LTS section of the Debian Wiki.

The packages are still available but have probably been moved to "archives" Off hand I am not sure what change needs to be made in your sources.list to access them, maybe someone else can tell you , I tried searching for better info, but did not find anything,

If sudo is working, you can use sudo to change or set the root password,

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sudo passwd root 

Yes, you might want to consider installing Debian Stable (Buster), but you should still be able to upgrade to it, as well.

[Deb-fan]

See stuff like ...

https://wiki.debian.org/SourcesList

And ...

https://wiki.debian.org/DebianOldStable

If remember Stretch is supported until 2022? Are sure to be times when using oldstable is valid, I still prefer using a Stretch install vs the Buster install on my crusty old laptop, no valid or overriding reason though. Absent some valid reason think people should use Buster and without a good reason should also follow the advised best practice of doing a fresh Buster install rather than trying to upgrade Stretch to it/Buster.

[AlexKillometer]

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dpkg: warning: 'ldconfig' not found in PATH or not executable

seems path related. See if you can

Code: Select all

su -

to fix it.
also you can comment out the deb-src in your sources.list if you are not downloading src files to build packages.

using "su -" created a password prompt for the super user. I assume your looking for what elevated privileges do to commands. It looks like I don't remember my password for the su.

I received a Token Manipulation Error when attempting to change the password with passwd. I saw there are a few ways to try from this link, so I will see if those help.
https://www.tecmint.com/fix-passwd-auth ... -in-linux/

** another users suggestion of sudo passwd root allowed th SU pasword to change. this new level of access did not change the outcome for the apt-get upgrade command

[AlexKillometer]

https://www.debian.org/releases/stretch/

Debian 9 has been superseded by Debian 10 ("buster"). Security updates have been discontinued as of July 6th, 2020.

However, stretch benefits from Long Term Support (LTS) until the end of June 2022. The LTS is limited to i386, amd64, armel, armhf and arm64. All other architectures are no longer supported in stretch. For more information, please refer to the LTS section of the Debian Wiki.

The packages are still available but have probably been moved to "archives" Off hand I am not sure what change needs to be made in your sources.list to access them, maybe someone else can tell you , I tried searching for better info, but did not find anything,

If sudo is working, you can use sudo to change or set the root password,

Code: Select all

sudo passwd root 

Yes, you might want to consider installing Debian Stable (Buster), but you should still be able to upgrade to it, as well.

Hi Cucko, "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" was a favorite during my formative years, btw.

I was able to enable SU access with this suggestion, however it did not change the result of my commands. I can always try to upgrade to Debian 10, but the problem is not the local reception of packages. I have already downloaded all available updates from my current sourcelist. I cannot install them, however. Is there some method of applying updates for Debian 10 that could create a different outcome?

[cuckooflew]

Since Debian Stretch has moved to LTS (Long Term Support), you need to modify/edit your /etc/apt/source.list as shown in the link below:
https://wiki.debian.org/LTS/Using

The current LTS version is Debian 9 stretch and will be supported from 2020-07-06 to 2022-06-30. To receive security updates, your /etc/apt/sources.list should look like this one:

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deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free

deb http://security.debian.org/ stretch/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ stretch/updates main contrib non-free 

----snip, but please do read the entire wiki page, there is more details.-----

That package may have "unsupported" dependencies, and this is why your error message is saying:

---partial--Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have requested an impossible situation

From the same,link I posted above:

Check for unsupported packages

Not all packages of the Debian archive are supported by LTS. To check whether you have unsupported packages installed on your machine, please install the debian-security-support package (use the version in stretch, unstable will not work as expected). A check for new unsupported packages is run every time packages are installed. You can also run the 'check-support-status' utility manually to get a list of all unsupported packages installed on your system.

AlexKillometer>> Is there some method of applying updates for Debian 10 that could create a different outcome?

You could probably still upgrade to Debian 10, but you should not try mixing Debian 10 , with Debian 9, see: https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian

If you're trying to install software that isn't available in the current Debian Stable release, it's not a good idea to add repositories for other Debian releases. The problems might not happen right away, but the next time you install updates.

There might be a way to use the Debian 10 updates, but that is much more advanced then what I can help you with, that is to say I have never tried doing something like that, but it seems like I have seen posts where other have tried,
I think in most cases it resulted in a broken system, ...So your best option really is to try to do a full upgrade, there is detailed instructions here:
https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/ ... ading.html
Some of the details may not apply to you, it appears complicated , etc, but really isn't that bad, the first time though is more difficult, you really need to read the instructions carefully, and if there is any part you are not sure about, ask here before trying it. Many users think it is just easier to do a fresh install, and in some cases it is,
Either way, you need to be sure to make a good back up /copy of all the important data , that you need to save,.....that could be a entirely new topic if you need help with how to make a backup,etc, but if you do need help with that , please do start a new topic for that.
Sorry I am not really able to help more, someone else might know of a way to get the package or packages you need from Debian 10, but I think you could just make your backup and do the upgrade faster,...

[Deb-fan]

Nope of course no insight into why Op is opting to use a Stretch install(badly broken apparently, cant open a terminal, errr wth?)

[stevepusser]

Ummm...that suggested sources.list for Stretch shows no changes, which is correct. You won't need to change it until it reaches EOl in a couple years. It was Debian 8 "Jessie" that recently hit EOL and needed changes to the addresses.

OP, just save your data if you have any, and install Debian 10 as suggested many times.

I also have a feeling you broke your system by doing things that you haven't told us, perhaps by trying to install incompatible debs with dpkg instead of apt, or adding incompatible repos.

[AlexKillometer]

Ummm...that suggested sources.list for Stretch shows no changes, which is correct. You won't need to change it until it reaches EOl in a couple years. It was Debian 8 "Jessie" that recently hit EOL and needed changes to the addresses.

OP, just save your data if you have any, and install Debian 10 as suggested many times.

I also have a feeling you broke your system by doing things that you haven't told us, perhaps by trying to install incompatible debs with dpkg instead of apt, or adding incompatible repos.

Hey Steve, I'm not sure what you were trying to do, interjecting to repeat advice that, in your own words, were "suggested many times". This was not helpful. Continuing on, as you did, worried about the things I "havent'y told [you]" is a curious way of dismissing my problems, and avoids offering a better solution. I had already decided to retry installing debian 10 as in a fresh new system before your comments. It didn't seem to occur to you that I HAD already explored this option, and that my decision to post here COULD have been to weigh the costs in time of both. I don't visit these forums much, but if your posts contain any constructive advice on other subjects, I would be glad to learn from them. Thank you.

[AlexKillometer]

Since Debian Stretch has moved to LTS (Long Term Support), you need to modify/edit your /etc/apt/source.list as shown in the link below:
https://wiki.debian.org/LTS/Using

The current LTS version is Debian 9 stretch and will be supported from 2020-07-06 to 2022-06-30. To receive security updates, your /etc/apt/sources.list should look like this one:

Code: Select all

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free

deb http://security.debian.org/ stretch/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ stretch/updates main contrib non-free 

----snip, but please do read the entire wiki page, there is more details.-----

That package may have "unsupported" dependencies, and this is why your error message is saying:

---partial--Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have requested an impossible situation

From the same,link I posted above:

Check for unsupported packages

Not all packages of the Debian archive are supported by LTS. To check whether you have unsupported packages installed on your machine, please install the debian-security-support package (use the version in stretch, unstable will not work as expected). A check for new unsupported packages is run every time packages are installed. You can also run the 'check-support-status' utility manually to get a list of all unsupported packages installed on your system.

AlexKillometer>> Is there some method of applying updates for Debian 10 that could create a different outcome?

You could probably still upgrade to Debian 10, but you should not try mixing Debian 10 , with Debian 9, see: https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian

If you're trying to install software that isn't available in the current Debian Stable release, it's not a good idea to add repositories for other Debian releases. The problems might not happen right away, but the next time you install updates.

There might be a way to use the Debian 10 updates, but that is much more advanced then what I can help you with, that is to say I have never tried doing something like that, but it seems like I have seen posts where other have tried,
I think in most cases it resulted in a broken system, ...So your best option really is to try to do a full upgrade, there is detailed instructions here:
https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/ ... ading.html
Some of the details may not apply to you, it appears complicated , etc, but really isn't that bad, the first time though is more difficult, you really need to read the instructions carefully, and if there is any part you are not sure about, ask here before trying it. Many users think it is just easier to do a fresh install, and in some cases it is,
Either way, you need to be sure to make a good back up /copy of all the important data , that you need to save,.....that could be a entirely new topic if you need help with how to make a backup,etc, but if you do need help with that , please do start a new topic for that.
Sorry I am not really able to help more, someone else might know of a way to get the package or packages you need from Debian 10, but I think you could just make your backup and do the upgrade faster,...

Thats OK, I learned a few things from your responses. I really liked the links you put in here. I've taken some time to try and read documentation available on this site, but I find it not very intuitive to learn from, and often get lost. I was especially glad to see the Debian 10 Source Lists. Even though the advice given was to not mix them, I had been searching for what they were in the first place, thinking that maybe The process would just be like installing a Debian ISO from a USB on a empty system; out with the bad, in with the good. I will have to try installing from a USB Bootable drive using only the programs I already have installed, since I can't update anything. THis was not sucessfull the first few times, but back to the drawing board, as they say.

[seaken64]

@AlexKillometer - I am curious to see if you can get this solved. I am also trying to learn more about Debian. I do not wish to poke at you but I cannot understand exactly what you are asking and why you have taken offense in a of couple cases. Here is my "take" on this topic in hopes that I can help you get it sorted out. I think there is a solution but the framing of the question is not clear enough.

Incidental problems that may be related include inability to launch a terminal window. I do all my commands from ALT+CTRL+F5, which launches a second login instance.

I think that you are trying to say that you can't launch a virtual terminal so instead use ALT-CTRL-F5 to open a separate console and enter commands in that console session. Why can't you open a virtual terminal? How long has it been since you were successful in opening a virtual terminal? Have you tried alternate terminals instead of the default?

sudo apt-get upgrade
(Removed list of packages downloaded from sourcelists)

Why remove the list? That could be valuable information for troubleshooting. The post also seems to be chopped up and does not appear to reflect the actual terminal read out from the apt-get command in it's entirety. Not easy to troubleshoot from this.

The error is coming from Perl, not directly from apt-get. Then it proceeds to tell the user what to look for to make corrections.

The error from "install locales" also tells the user where to look for the problem. The same for "locale-gen". The same messages are repeated.

"apt install -f" does not fix what is broken, so the solution is elsewhere.

The source list shown looks appropriate for Debian 9. But given that other lists have been truncated how can we know for sure that the sources list does not contain something else?

What is the language and locale files that are supposed to be installed?

Was a search done on some of these terms?

Using Google/DuckDuckgo/Startpage… enter the terms as displayed in the console:
"Can't exec "locale": No such file or directory at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/Encoding.pm line 16."
"Use of uninitialized value $Debconf::Encoding::charmap in scalar chomp at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/Encoding.pm line 17."
"dpkg: warning: 'ldconfig' not found in PATH or not executable"

using "su -" created a password prompt for the super user. I assume your looking for what elevated privileges do to commands. It looks like I don't remember my password for the su.

Yes, running the commands as root sometimes yields different results. Not remembering your passwords would indicate a system that has not been used for awhile. When was the last time you attempted an "upgrade"? Have you ever run "dist-upgrade" as root? When was the last time you installed a new package?

** another users suggestion of sudo passwd root allowed th SU pasword to change. this new level of access did not change the outcome for the apt-get upgrade command

So the same result with root. That's good info. I can't help but wonder what would happen if you invoke a "dist-upgrade" instead of "upgrade".

I can always try to upgrade to Debian 10, but the problem is not the local reception of packages. I have already downloaded all available updates from my current sourcelist. I cannot install them, however.

I think there is some confusion of terms. "Update" updates the database of available upgrades for the packages on your system. The packages will be downloaded when you invoke the "upgrade" or "dist-upgrade". Are the packages in fact being downloaded? The "install -f" command previously said there were 252 packages not upgraded. Looks like the "upgrade" is failing to finish the process of upgrading packages.

stevepusser: "OP, just save your data if you have any, and install Debian 10 as suggested many times.
I also have a feeling you broke your system by doing things that you haven't told us, perhaps by trying to install incompatible debs with dpkg instead of apt, or adding incompatible repos.

AlexKillometer: "Hey Steve, I'm not sure what you were trying to do, interjecting to repeat advice that, in your own words, were "suggested many times". This was not helpful. Continuing on, as you did, worried about the things I "havent'y told [you]" is a curious way of dismissing my problems, and avoids offering a better solution.

I don't understand why you took offense at stevepusser's comment. It makes perfect sense. Installing Debian 10 would very likely fix your broken Debian 9. And it is very likely that you have not yet divulged enough information for this forum to help solve the mystery. You have already deleted valuable information that could be useful for troubleshooting. And you have failed to tell us more about your system and it's history. Your entire presence on this forum is in this thread. How can we know what you do not tell us? If you want a better solution you need to share better information.

I had already decided to retry installing debian 10 as in a fresh new system before your comments. It didn't seem to occur to you that I HAD already explored this option, and that my decision to post here COULD have been to weigh the costs in time of both. I don't visit these forums much

How can we know what you had already explored if you don't tell us? You could have told us that you started this topic because you were considering re-installing Debian using version 10 because you are having some trouble upgrading your current version 9. You could have reviewed the announcements and stickeys that remind you how to be prepared by doing certain tasks before you post and then how to properly ask for help. It's not fair for you to get upset at other forum users who are trying to help if you are not being forthcoming to begin with.

maybe The process would just be like installing a Debian ISO from a USB on a empty system; out with the bad, in with the good. I will have to try installing from a USB Bootable drive using only the programs I already have installed, since I can't update anything. THis was not sucessfull the first few times, but back to the drawing board, as they say.

Again, "update" is the wrong term. Please spend some time reading up on updating and upgrading and "full-upgrade" and using "apt" instead of "apt-get" etc. If you do decide to do a fresh install of Debian 10 you will also want to read up on making a proper backup of your system prior to the upgrade. This is what the others are trying to tell you.

Seaken64

[arid]

Give it up OP!

Wipe out all that trash that you screwed up and install Debian 10.

That means WIPE ALL on the partition. New downloaded Debian 10.

Straight install, no personal ideas that you might think about.

After it is up and running then you adjust.

I normally advocate sid to start so you're always ahead of the game rather than
wondering why your screen is covered with cobwebs.

Debian now comes with synaptic out of the box.

Use synaptic, not a terminal, for all updates, upgrades, installs, removals.

It will keep you from doing bad things to your system.

Synaptic also contains all the info on the 61,688 pkgs as of this moment, of course on sid.

You also have all your editable sources in synaptic.

I just did my daily update and there is a problem with python.

Not to worry, just install the other updates and wait for the python fix.

Easy, peasy.

There is a daily build download for sid if you want to go for it...

[sickpig]

I normally advocate sid to start so you're always ahead of the game

ahead or behind? as you are without security updates

"
Please note that security updates for "unstable" distribution are not managed by the security team. Hence, "unstable" does not get security updates in a timely manner. For more information please see the Security Team's FAQ.
"
ref:
https://www.debian.org/releases/sid/