"gnome" package is uninstallable

[Michael B. Trausch]

Up-to-date, fresh installation of Jaunty. Attempt to install the "gnome" metapackage yields:

mbt@zest:~$ sudo apt-get install gnome
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:
  gnome: Depends: gnome-desktop-environment (= 1:2.22.2~4ubuntu5) but it is not going to be installed
         Depends: serpentine but it is not going to be installed
E: Broken packages
mbt@zest:~$ sudo apt-get install serpentine
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:
  serpentine: Depends: python-4suite-xml but it is not going to be installed
E: Broken packages
mbt@zest:~$ sudo apt-get install python-4suite-xml
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:
  python-4suite-xml: Depends: python (< 2.6) but 2.6.1-0ubuntu3 is to be installed
E: Broken packages
mbt@zest:~$

[Michael B. Trausch (mtrausch)]

On Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:57:00 -0000
Pedro Villavicencio <email address hidden> wrote:

> ** Changed in: meta-gnome2 (Ubuntu)
> Importance: Undecided => Low
>
> ** Summary changed:
>
> - "gnome" package is uninstallable (again)
> + "gnome" package is uninstallable
>

Any reason for making this low priority? If the meta-pkg is broken,
there are two solutions, each of which should be high priority:

  * fix the meta
  * drop the meta

And the "(again)"? Nice editing. But this isn't the first time that
it has been broken, and it's really getting old...

 --- Mike

[kardan (kardan)]

$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu lucid-security main restricted universe multiverse

Steps
1) # apt-get install gnome

Expected
1) gnome is installed without any issues

Actual Result:

# apt-get install gnome
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:
  gnome: Depends: swfdec-mozilla but it is not going to be installed
E: Broken packages

# apt-get install swfdec-mozilla
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg libswfdec-0.8-0
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg libswfdec-0.8-0 swfdec-mozilla
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/594kB of archives.
After this operation, 1,765kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
Selecting previously deselected package gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg.
(Reading database ... 211487 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg (from .../gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg_0.10.10-1_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libswfdec-0.8-0.
Unpacking libswfdec-0.8-0 (from .../libswfdec-0.8-0_0.8.4-1build1_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package swfdec-mozilla.
Unpacking swfdec-mozilla (from .../swfdec-mozilla_0.8.2-1ubuntu2_i386.deb) ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme ...
Setting up gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg (0.10.10-1) ...
Setting up libswfdec-0.8-0 (0.8.4-1build1) ...

Setting up swfdec-mozilla (0.8.2-1ubuntu2) ...
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/swfdec-mozilla/libswfdecmozilla.so to provide /usr/lib/iceape/plugins/flashplugin-alternative.so (iceape-flashplugin) in auto mode.
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/swfdec-mozilla/libswfdecmozilla.so to provide /usr/lib/iceweasel/plugins/flashplugin-alternative.so (iceweasel-flashplugin) in auto mode.
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/swfdec-mozilla/libswfdecmozilla.so to provide /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/flashplugin-alternative.so (mozilla-flashplugin) in auto mode.
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/swfdec-mozilla/libswfdecmozilla.so to provide /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/flashplugin-alternative.so (firefox-flashplugin) in auto mode.
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/swfdec-mozilla/libswfdecmozilla.so to provide /usr/lib/xulrunner/plugins/flashplugin-alternative.so (xulrunner-flashplugin) in auto mode.
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/swfdec-mozilla/libswfdecmozilla.so to provide /usr/lib/midbrowser/plugins/flashplugin-alternative.so (midbrowser-flashplugin) in auto mode.
update-alternatives: using /...