I got this error when upgrading from 16.04 to 18.04

Question

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... failed.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 dh-python : Depends: python3-distutils but it is not installed
 libnautilus-extension1a : Depends: libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.51.2) but 2.48.2-0ubuntu4.3 is installed
 onboard : Depends: onboard-common (< 1.4.1-2ubuntu1.1) but it is not installed
           Depends: onboard-common (>= 1.4.1-2ubuntu1) but it is not installed
           Depends: python3 (>= 3.6~) but 3.5.1-3 is installed
           Depends: libhunspell-1.6-0 but it is not installed
           Recommends: onboard-data (>= 1.4.1-2ubuntu1) but 1.2.0-0ubuntu5 is installed
 python-apt : Depends: libapt-inst2.0 (>= 1.6.5~) but 1.2.32 is installed
              Depends: libapt-pkg5.0 (>= 1.6.5~) but 1.2.32 is installed
 python3-apt : Depends: python3 (>= 3.6~) but 3.5.1-3 is installed
               Depends: libapt-inst2.0 (>= 1.6.5~) but 1.2.32 is installed
               Depends: libapt-pkg5.0 (>= 1.6.5~) but 1.2.32 is installed
 python3-cairo : Depends: python3 (>= 3.6~) but 3.5.1-3 is installed
 python3-dbus.mainloop.qt : Depends: python3 (>= 3.6~) but 3.5.1-3 is installed
 python3-gdbm : Depends: python3 (>= 3.6.6-1~) but 3.5.1-3 is installed
                Depends: libgdbm5 (>= 1.14) but it is not installed
 python3-pyqt4 : Depends: python3 (>= 3.6~) but 3.5.1-3 is installed
 python3-reportlab-accel : Depends: python3 (>= 3.6~) but 3.5.1-3 is installed
 python3-sip : Depends: python3 (>= 3.6~) but 3.5.1-3 is installed
 rhythmbox : Depends: rhythmbox-data (= 3.3-1ubuntu7) but 3.4.2-4ubuntu1 is installed
 ubuntu-session : Depends: gnome-settings-daemon (>= 3.23.3) but 3.18.2-0ubuntu3.1 is installed
                  Depends: gnome-shell (>= 3.24.3-0ubuntu2) but 3.18.5-0ubuntu0.3 is installed
                  Depends: gnome-session-bin (>= 3.28.1-0ubuntu3) but 3.18.1.2-1ubuntu1.16.04.2 is installed
                  Depends: gnome-session-common (= 3.28.1-0ubuntu3) but 3.18.1.2-1ubuntu1.16.04.2 is installed
                  Depends: xwayland
                  Recommends: gnome-themes-extra but it is not installed
 unity : Depends: libgnome-desktop-3-17 (>= 3.17.92) but it is not installed
         Depends: libgtk-3-0 (>= 3.19.12) but 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3 is installed
         Depends: libsigc++-2.0-0v5 (>= 2.8.0) but 2.6.2-1 is installed
         Depends: libunity-core-6.0-9 (= 7.5.0+18.04.20190304-0ubuntu1) but 7.4.5+16.04.20190312-0ubuntu1 is installed
         Depends: libunity-protocol-private0 (>= 7.1.4+18.04.20180209.1) but 7.1.4+16.04.20180209.1-0ubuntu1 is installed
         Depends: gsettings-ubuntu-schemas (>= 0.0.7+17.10.20170922) but 0.0.5+16.04.20160307-0ubuntu1 is installed
         Recommends: hud but it is not installed
         Recommends: unity-session but it is not installed
 unity-settings-daemon : Depends: libfcitx-gclient1 (>= 1:4.2.9.5) but it is not installed
                         Depends: libgnome-desktop-3-17 (>= 3.17.92) but it is not installed
                         Depends: gsettings-ubuntu-schemas (>= 0.0.7+17.10.20170922) but 0.0.5+16.04.20160307-0ubuntu1 is installed
E: Error, pkgProblemResolver::Resolve generated breaks, this may be caused by held packages.
E: Unable to correct dependencies

hi there, the format and presentation of this question is extremely frowned upon at askubuntu.com I haven't done so personally, but this question, in it's present state is very likely to be flagged as poor-quality/unclear and downvoted untill it is closed. I'll explain why : you used the title as part of the post while the title is supposed to be the keyword goldmine that allows this post to surface in google results for other people with your issue. in the body of your question it gets worse : there is no text, instead you pasted your log and didn't even format it as code for ledgibility. — tatsu, Jul 26 '19 at 13:41
If you do actually care about receiving aid from the people here and genuinely wish to fix this, howerver, you can. You may edit your post and as you do so follow these rules : change the title to something that is your best effort at macking your question show up for people who would have your issue who are googling, (be clear, be specific, don't include unrelated info). Then in the body of the question be sure to format all copy paste logs/code with this button {}. also include an actual question and lastly describe yout situation as much as possible. describe it as if talking to a newbie. — tatsu, Jul 26 '19 at 13:48
Please edit your question to include the complete output of sudo apt update. Correctly formatted so we can read it, please. — user535733, Jul 26 '19 at 14:14
@Yateendra Consider to run sudo apt-get update followed by sudo apt-get dist-upgrade to get new package lists and install new dependencies. — N0rbert, Jul 26 '19 at 16:30
@Yateendra start with the Fix of dependencies : sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -f install Then go to the upgrade process albeit you should consider doing a fresh new install of 18.04 instead of version upgrade from 16.04 — cmak.fr, Jul 27 '19 at 04:38
grep -r deb /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d Please edit your question for that. — nobody, Jul 27 '19 at 14:49
This question is off topic as non-reproducible because it has been abandoned by the author. — karel, May 30 '20 at 00:40

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 30 '19 at 11:05

I received the same error testing 16.04 to 18.04 upgrade yesterday. This is a relatively vanilla installation of Ubuntu 16.04.6 LTS. A summary appears at the end:

Errors were encountered while processing:
 unity-settings-daemon
 rhythmbox-plugin-zeitgeist
 unity
 gnome-icon-theme
 ubuntu-session
 hud
 libnautilus-extension1a:amd64
 python3-gdbm:amd64
 python3-reportlab-accel:amd64
 python3-cairo:amd64
 dh-python
 nautilus
 onboard
 python3-renderpm:amd64
 totem-plugins
 unity-tweak-tool

Upgrade complete

The solution is to run sudo apt install -f TWICE. The first time fixes some errors, the second time fixes the rest of them.

Possibly related this morning I fixed an error I noticed during the upgrade and ran the answer here on the live 16.04.6 system:

how I can fix "AppStream cache update completed, but some metadata was ignored due to errors."?"

Note: There are other issues so I'll likely run the upgrade again on a clone using this script:

Bash script to backkup/clone Ubuntu to another partition

I encourage everyone to run the upgrade on a Ubuntu clone to work out all the bugs.

I got this error when upgrading from 16.04 to 18.04

1 Answers1