Cannot install software-properties-common=0.96.20.13 on Ubuntu 16.04 anymore

[cesar.nataren]

When I try to install the software-properties-common package on Ubuntu 16 (just updated recently, see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/software-properties/+bug/2058035/comments/6).

What's a work around for this?

I get the following error:

apt-get install software-properties-common
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:
software-properties-common : Depends: python3-software-properties (= 0.96.20.13) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

---

apt-get install python3-software-properties
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:
python3-software-properties : Depends: python3-distro-info (>= 0.14ubuntu0.3) but 0.14ubuntu0.2 is to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

[Chris Guiver (guiverc)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please execute the following command only once, as it will automatically gather debugging information, in a terminal:

apport-collect 2067662

When reporting bugs in the future please use apport by using 'ubuntu-bug' and the name of the package affected. You can learn more about this functionality at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

Please also note

Ubuntu 16.04 (xenial) reached end-of-standard-support on April 29, 2021.

See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

ESM fixes are usually related to security issues.

We appreciate that this bug may be old and you might not be interested in discussing it anymore. But if you are then please upgrade to the latest Ubuntu version and re-test. If you then find the bug is still present in the newer Ubuntu version, please add a comment here telling us which new version it is in.

[John Littleton (jelittleton)]

An explanation would be helpful in order to understand, for future reference, why software updates are issued for a release, Ubuntu 16.04 (xenial) ESM, that is no longer supported.

The Maintainer of this upgrade package is a subscriber to this bug report.

[cfoch (cfoch)]

This bug is affecting our systems, too.

[cfoch (cfoch)]

Workaround found so far: `apt install -y python3-software-properties=0.96.20 software-properties-common=0.96.20`

[John Littleton (jelittleton)]

Attempting a forced install of python3-software-properties=0.96.20, software-properties-common=0.96.20 also removes critical (necessary?) files: software-properties-gtk and ubuntu-desktop. It also suggests autoremoving multiple other critical apps and support files.

Since this update is not ESM (security) related (that I know of), I chose to 'pin/lock' the existing installed versions of these upgrade files (python3-software-properties, software-properties-common, software-properties-gtk) and will live with the installed versions until upgrading to Ubuntu Unity 22.04.

[Fabien Viale (fabviale)]

I was not able to run `apt install -y python3-software-properties=0.96.20 software-properties-common=0.96.20` on my ubuntu 16.04 image:

Step 25/100 : RUN apt install -y python3-software-properties=0.96.20 software-properties-common=0.96.2
 ---> Running in 97effe8e6c38

WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface. Use with caution in scripts.

Reading package lists...
Building dependency tree...
Reading state information...
E: Version '0.96.2' for 'software-properties-common' was not found
The command '/bin/sh -c apt install -y python3-software-properties=0.96.20 software-properties-common=0.96.2' returned a non-zero code: 100

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

This was a result of an unfortunate out-of-order release of SRUs to xenial-updates. distro-info 0.14ubuntu0.3 was present in xenial-proposed waiting for release, but there was nothing in our process which ensured they would be released in order.

As distro-info has also passed its SRU verification, I have released it now. You should see software-properties-common installable within a few hours as this propagates to mirrors.