Ubuntu Server Install OpenVPN - "broken packages"

Question

I'm trying to install OpenVPN on my Ubuntu Server 18.04.3 LTS. I'm just getting started with Linux altogether and don't have a lot of experience yet. Most of what I achieved with that server happened by following tutorials I found somewhere, so I'm not very surprised it tells me I have "broken packages" now.

While trying to install OpenVPN, I am receiving this:

thegeni@nas:~$ sudo apt-get install openvpn
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:
 openvpn : Depends: initscripts (>= 2.88dsf-13.3) but it is not installable
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

I have searched for some answers elsewhere, but all the solutions I have found so far seem to be problem-specific and didn't really help me. Anything I can do to fix this except starting over with a fresh install?

Thanks for helping me out here!

EDIT 1:

sudo apt update output:

thegeni@nas:~$ sudo apt update
Hit:1 http://ppa.launchpad.net/certbot/certbot/ubuntu bionic InRelease
Hit:2 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security InRelease
Hit:3 http://repo.ombi.turd.me/stable jessie InRelease
Hit:4 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease
Hit:5 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates InRelease
Hit:6 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-backports InRelease
Hit:7 http://build.openvpn.net/debian/openvpn/stable xenial InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
All packages are up to date.
W: Target Packages (main/binary-amd64/Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:2
W: Target Packages (main/binary-i386/Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:2
W: Target Packages (main/binary-all/Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:2
W: Target Translations (main/i18n/Translation-en) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:2
W: Target Translations (main/i18n/Translation-de) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:2
W: Target CNF (main/cnf/Commands-amd64) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:2
W: Target CNF (main/cnf/Commands-all) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:2
W: Target Packages (main/binary-amd64/Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:3
W: Target Packages (main/binary-i386/Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:3
W: Target Packages (main/binary-all/Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:3
W: Target Translations (main/i18n/Translation-en) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:3
W: Target Translations (main/i18n/Translation-de) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:3
W: Target CNF (main/cnf/Commands-amd64) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:3
W: Target CNF (main/cnf/Commands-all) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:3
W: Target Packages (main/binary-amd64/Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:2
W: Target Packages (main/binary-i386/Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:2
W: Target Packages (main/binary-all/Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:2
W: Target Translations (main/i18n/Translation-en) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:2
W: Target Translations (main/i18n/Translation-de) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:2
W: Target CNF (main/cnf/Commands-amd64) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:2
W: Target CNF (main/cnf/Commands-all) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:2
W: Target Packages (main/binary-amd64/Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:3
W: Target Packages (main/binary-i386/Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:3
W: Target Packages (main/binary-all/Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:3
W: Target Translations (main/i18n/Translation-en) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:3
W: Target Translations (main/i18n/Translation-de) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:3
W: Target CNF (main/cnf/Commands-amd64) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:3
W: Target CNF (main/cnf/Commands-all) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list:3

Okay, all those W: messages are new...

Answer 1

Apparently you're trying to install openvpn provided from OpenVPN repository, which happens to be made for Ubuntu 16.04 or xenial.

http://build.openvpn.net/debian/openvpn/stable xenial

The packages included initscripts as their dependencies, thus when you perform the installation on 18.04 its simply won't work because initscripts does not exist on 18.04.

Removing the repository should be enough to get rid of the error, also don't forget to reinstall the damaged openvpn installation.

sudo apt remove openvpn
sudo add-apt-repository --remove "deb http://build.openvpn.net/debian/openvpn/stable xenial main"
sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install openvpn