Help with dependencies. Can not install vlc [solved]

Operating Systems & Open Source Linux
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1

So I have been using debian for some time now, and have had many problems with package dependencies and some way or another I managed to solve them but this time I do not know how.

Basically today I opened synaptic and marked all upgrades and applied the changes, after that I rebooted and was getting a error when starting the GUI and it would not start, managed to salvage that but noticed some packages were missing and the gnome desktop environment had some strange changes that don't seem right, but that might be from the upgrades.

The strangest package missing was vlc when I tried to install it, it had unmet dependencies. The dependencies form a chain and lead to one that requires me to uninstall gnome.

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
vlc : Depends: vlc-nox (= 2.2.0~rc2-2+deb8u1) but it is not going to be installed
Recommends: vlc-plugin-notify (= 2.2.0~rc2-2+deb8u1) but it is not going to be installed
Recommends: vlc-plugin-samba (= 2.2.0~rc2-2+deb8u1) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

This was my fault because when I applied the upgrade changes I did not read the affected packages.

Any idea on how to install vlc without breaking my gnome desktop environment?
Appreciate the help.

PS:
The package that needs to have gnome removed is the following:

sudo apt-get install libtag1-vanilla [22:35:00]
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
gconf-editor python-gnomekeyring
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
banshee byzanz cheese empathy gnome gnome-contacts gnome-control-center gnome-core gnome-gmail gnome-media gnome-sound-recorder gnome-sushi gnome-video-effects goobox gstreamer0.10-plugins-good
gstreamer1.0-plugins-good libcheese-gtk25 libcheese8 libfarstream-0.1-0 libfarstream-0.2-2 libkarma0 libpurple-bin libpurple0 libtag1v5 libtag1v5-vanilla libtagc0 libtelepathy-farstream3
rhythmbox rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder rhythmbox-plugins rygel-playbin telepathy-haze totem totem-plugins
The following NEW packages will be installed:
libtag1-vanilla
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 34 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 294 kB of archives.
After this operation, 60.3 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

2

Hello there:)

I've had this problem before. This is what I usually do. There are two possible solutions that I know about. If they didn't work, I would know more:)

I would first go to synaptic and hit the edit tab and "fix broken packages" will appear. That will more than likely work.

If not, go to the terminal and type this command:

sudo apt-get -f install

3

This is the output of synaptic "fix broken packages"

E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
E: Error, pkgProblemResolver::Resolve generated breaks, this may be caused by held packages.
E: Unable to correct dependencies
E: Error, pkgProblemResolver::Resolve generated breaks, this may be caused by held packages.
E: Unable to correct dependencies

I am afraid that sudo apt-get -f install will break my system, is there a chance?
I have tried "sudo aptitude install" and all the possible fixes offered seemed overcomplicated.

4

Do

apt-mark showhold

to see what packages are being held

then

sudo apt-mark unhold <package name>

to remove them, then you should be good to go to update apt and install VLC.

5

It basically means fix. It probably isn't any different from what you did in Synaptic. I would try what Goalkeeper said to do.

6

apt-mark showhold outputs nothing.
Does the vlc package need to be marked in some way?

7

That is odd because the output says:

Gimmie a minute.

EDIT:

Try installing the package with aptitude rather then APT.

sudo aptitude install vlc

If you do not want to use aptitude, you could give unhold another try with another command:

dpkg --get-selections | grep hold

8

Using aptitude this is the output, nothing is installed http://pastebin.com/XpGivTER

The second command outputs nothing.

I am considering a full reinstall of debian.

9

sudo apt-get purge vlc-data

then

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install vlc

Got from Ubuntu forums

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2257194

10

The problem is not with the package vlc-data, it's a dependencies problem.

I already had tried removing all vlc related packages and still am not able to install vlc.

11

After chatting with a guy on the debian irc, finally found out I am running a mixed system I must have added repository from the stretch distribution and installed something that messed up the dependency chain.

I have added the stretch repositories and upgraded my system to the stretch distribution.

Thanks for all your help :)

12

That was literally going to be the next thing that I was going to say ;p.

Glad you go it resolved.

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