ia32-libs and more are missing sometimes

[Derrick Kinsey]

for instance,
when trying to install adobe flash player using the lewis goddard script
the following output is given:

derrick@laptop:~$ clear &&
> echo 'Installing Flash for Midori' &&
> read -p 'Press Enter to continue, or abort by pressing CTRL+C' nothing &&
> mkdir -p ~/.mozilla/plugins &&
> wget http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/pdc/11.2.202.310/install_flash_player_11_linux.i386.tar.gz &&
> tar -zxvf install_flash_player_11_linux.i386.tar.gz libflashplayer.so &&
> rm install_flash_player_11_linux.i386.tar.gz &&
> if [ $(getconf LONG_BIT) = '64' ]
> then
> mv libflashplayer.so ~/.mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.32.so &&
> sudo apt-get install nspluginwrapper ia32-libs
> else
> mv libflashplayer.so ~/.mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so &&
> sudo apt-get install nspluginwrapper
> fi &&
> nspluginwrapper -a -v -n -i

Installing Flash for Midori
Press Enter to continue, or abort by pressing CTRL+C
--2014-03-31 00:05:26-- http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/pdc/11.2.202.310/install_flash_player_11_linux.i386.tar.gz
Resolving fpdownload.macromedia.com (fpdownload.macromedia.com)... 23.15.82.70
Connecting to fpdownload.macromedia.com (fpdownload.macromedia.com)|23.15.82.70|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 6923724 (6.6M) [application/x-gzip]
Saving to: `install_flash_player_11_linux.i386.tar.gz'

100%[=====================================>] 6,923,724 1.41M/s in 5.0s

2014-03-31 00:05:32 (1.31 MB/s) - `install_flash_player_11_linux.i386.tar.gz' saved [6923724/6923724]

libflashplayer.so
[sudo] password for derrick:
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:
 ia32-libs : Depends: ia32-libs-multiarch
 nspluginwrapper : Depends: nspluginviewer (= 1.4.4-0ubuntu4)
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
derrick@laptop:~$

the only way to fix this generally is by downloading and burning a fresh elementary installation disk/usb
but, could we put this at least as a wishlist?
pretty sure if someone like an senior citizen saw this they would freak out

edit: also, fixing broken dependencies and using sudo apt-get install -f does not fix this problem.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Danielle Foré (danrabbit)]

From Ask Ubuntu:

"The ia32-libs package was a hack to get 32-bit packages installed on a 64-bit installation. Since Ubuntu version 11.10 (Oneiric), Multi Arch has been added. One of the objectives for it is removing the ia32-libs package. Instead, you have to install the 32-bit libraries of a package with:

sudo apt-get install package-name:i386"