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Ubuntu 20.04 recent update has completely broken LibreOffice, I have tried every thing I have found on the forums to get rid of broken packages to no avail.

"Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages."

Please help!

I work from home and I really need to use LibreOffice. Thank you.

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:
 libreoffice : Depends: libreoffice-base but it is not going to be installed
               Depends: libreoffice-calc but it is not going to be installed
               Depends: libreoffice-core (= 1:7.3.0~rc3-0ubuntu0.20.04.1~lo1) but it is not going to be installed
               Depends: libreoffice-draw but it is not going to be installed
               Depends: libreoffice-impress but it is not going to be installed
               Depends: libreoffice-math but it is not going to be installed
               Depends: libreoffice-report-builder-bin but it is not going to be installed
               Depends: libreoffice-writer but it is not going to be installed
               Depends: python3-uno (>= 4.4.0~beta2) but it is not going to be installed
               Recommends: libreoffice-gnome but it is not going to be installed or
                           libreoffice-plasma but it is not going to be installed
               Recommends: libreoffice-nlpsolver but it is not going to be installed
               Recommends: libreoffice-report-builder but it is not going to be installed
               Recommends: libreoffice-script-provider-bsh but it is not going to be installed
               Recommends: libreoffice-script-provider-js but it is not going to be installed
               Recommends: libreoffice-script-provider-python but it is not going to be installed
               Recommends: libreoffice-sdbc-mysql but it is not going to be installed
               Recommends: libreoffice-sdbc-postgresql but it is not going to be installed
               Recommends: libreoffice-wiki-publisher but it is not going to be installed
               Recommends: libreoffice-java-common (>= 1:7.3.0~rc3~) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Here is the output from apt policy libreoffice

Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 1:7.3.0~rc3-0ubuntu0.20.04.1~lo1
  Version table:
     1:7.3.0~rc3-0ubuntu0.20.04.1~lo1 500
        500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/libreoffice/ppa/ubuntu focal/main amd64 Packages
     1:7.1.7-0ubuntu0.21.04.1~bpo20.04.1 100
        100 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports/universe amd64 Packages
     1:6.4.7-0ubuntu0.20.04.2 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/universe amd64 Packages
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security/universe amd64 Packages
     1:6.4.2-0ubuntu3 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/universe amd64 Packages

Most recent erros after ppa-purge:

sudo apt-get install libreoffice
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:
 libreoffice : Depends: libreoffice-base but it is not going to be installed
               Depends: libreoffice-calc but it is not installable
               Depends: libreoffice-core (= 1:6.4.7-0ubuntu0.20.04.2) but it is not installable
               Depends: libreoffice-draw but it is not installable
               Depends: libreoffice-impress but it is not installable
               Depends: libreoffice-math but it is not installable
               Depends: libreoffice-report-builder-bin but it is not going to be installed
               Depends: libreoffice-writer but it is not installable
               Depends: python3-uno (>= 4.4.0~beta2) but it is not installable
               Recommends: libreoffice-gnome but it is not installable or
                           libreoffice-plasma but it is not going to be installed
               Recommends: libreoffice-nlpsolver but it is not installable
               Recommends: libreoffice-report-builder but it is not going to be installed
               Recommends: libreoffice-script-provider-bsh but it is not going to be installed
               Recommends: libreoffice-script-provider-js but it is not going to be installed
               Recommends: libreoffice-script-provider-python but it is not going to be installed
               Recommends: libreoffice-sdbc-mysql but it is not going to be installed
               Recommends: libreoffice-sdbc-postgresql but it is not going to be installed
               Recommends: libreoffice-wiki-publisher but it is not going to be installed
               Recommends: libreoffice-java-common (>= 1:6.4.7~) but it is not installable
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Output from apt update sudo apt update

Get:1 file:/var/cuda-repo-ubuntu2004-11-3-local  InRelease
Ign:1 file:/var/cuda-repo-ubuntu2004-11-3-local  InRelease
Get:2 file:/var/cuda-repo-ubuntu2004-11-3-local  Release [564 B]
Get:2 file:/var/cuda-repo-ubuntu2004-11-3-local  Release [564 B]
Hit:4 https://repo.skype.com/deb stable InRelease                              
Hit:5 https://packages.microsoft.com/ubuntu/20.04/prod focal InRelease         
Hit:6 https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable InRelease
Hit:7 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease                         
Hit:8 http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable InRelease                   
Hit:9 http://repository.spotify.com stable InRelease                           
Hit:10 https://cli.github.com/packages stable InRelease                        
Get:11 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates InRelease [114 kB]       
Get:12 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports InRelease [108 kB]     
Get:13 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security InRelease [114 kB]      
Fetched 336 kB in 11s (29,6 kB/s)                                              
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
1 package can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see it.
Error404
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Tony Holdroyd
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    It didn't break it for me. Please edit your question and include the full text of all error messages associated with the problem. Copy and paste the text, not a screenshot. – Organic Marble Feb 04 '22 at 13:05
  • Thank you so much for your rapid response. I have pasted the eror message in my question – Tony Holdroyd Feb 04 '22 at 13:11
  • Does this answer your question? Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages – karel Feb 04 '22 at 13:15
  • It appears that you have installed a different version of libreoffice than the one from the 20.04 repos, is that correct? Please edit your question and include the output of apt policy libreoffice. – Organic Marble Feb 04 '22 at 13:15
  • I would say use ppa-purge to remove that ppa, but I don't know if there are non-backwards-compatible changes that would invalidate your documents. I also don't use backports, it has given me trouble. I will try and look at this in a vm but it will take some time. – Organic Marble Feb 04 '22 at 13:26
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    It seems like you have further and further and further and further and further and further and further and further dependency issues. It's all because of the additional personal package archive you have added. Removing that PPA will fix this issue. – Error404 Feb 04 '22 at 13:34
  • Thank you, I tried ppa-purge for the libreoffice ppa but got this: Warning: Could not find package list for PPA: http://ppa.launchpad.net/libreoffice/ppa ubuntu – Tony Holdroyd Feb 04 '22 at 13:40
  • You have to run sudo ppa-purge ppa:libreoffice/ppa. – Error404 Feb 04 '22 at 13:41
  • I ran hatsuccessfully, but I'm still getting: E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages – Tony Holdroyd Feb 04 '22 at 13:45
  • Full error message please? Edit to your post. – Error404 Feb 04 '22 at 13:46
  • The problem appears to be with the backports repo. On a 20.04 vm I was able to install the version from the ppa, but not the version from backports. – Organic Marble Feb 04 '22 at 13:49
  • The is still something suspicious with your system. Post the output of sudo apt update. – Error404 Feb 04 '22 at 13:49
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    You will have to remove the backports from your sources list. I am, frankly, not sure how to do that. – Organic Marble Feb 04 '22 at 13:49
  • @TonyHoldroyd Please run sudo apt-get update followed by sudo apt-get dist-upgrade . And also sudo apt-get install aptitude, sudo aptitude install libreoffice (add any errors to the question). I can't reproduce your LibO problem, I have just installed 7.3.0 version from PPA with focal-backports enabled on fresh Ubuntu MATE 20.04.3 LTS VM with only one PPA (LibO) added. Also please show full list of your repositories by adding output of grep -r ^deb /etc/apt/ --include=*.list to the question. – N0rbert Feb 04 '22 at 15:27

2 Answers2

1

Partial answer - diagnosis, not fix

In a 20.04 virtual machine I enabled the universe backport repo by adding

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports universe

to /etc/apt/sources.list

This gave an apt policy libreoffice output of

libreoffice:
  Installed: 1:6.4.7-0ubuntu0.20.04.2
  Candidate: 1:6.4.7-0ubuntu0.20.04.2
  Version table:
     1:7.1.7-0ubuntu0.21.04.1~bpo20.04.1 100
        100 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports/universe amd64 Packages
 *** 1:6.4.7-0ubuntu0.20.04.2 500
        500 ssh://st8/media/ST8-Photos/apt-mirror/mirror/us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/universe amd64 Packages
        500 ssh://st8/media/ST8-Photos/apt-mirror/mirror/us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1:6.4.2-0ubuntu3 500
        500 ssh://st8/media/ST8-Photos/apt-mirror/mirror/us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/universe amd64 Packages

Attempting to install libreoffice got me

Selected version '1:7.1.7-0ubuntu0.21.04.1~bpo20.04.1' (Ubuntu:20.04/focal-backports [amd64]) for 'libreoffice'
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:
 libreoffice : Depends: libreoffice-core (= 1:7.1.7-0ubuntu0.21.04.1~bpo20.04.1) but 1:6.4.7-0ubuntu0.20.04.2 is to be installed
               Recommends: libreoffice-java-common (>= 1:7.1.7~) but 1:6.4.7-0ubuntu0.20.04.2 is to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Starting with a fresh virtual machine, I was able to install libreoffice from the ppa given in the question without trouble.

So I believe the problem lies in the backports repository. I am not sure how to remove this from your system, given that you may have other software installed from it.

Organic Marble
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1

The core of the problem is that you are trying to mix deb package from two different sources (PPA and Backports) that both provide the same software.

Don't do that. The packages are incompatible. You --the human-- must decide which source to use, and give the system no choice.

Were it my system, I would purge ALL LibreOffice packages and start fresh.

  1. apt-mark showmanual | grep libreoffice to get the list of libreoffice packages that must be specified for removal.

  2. sudo apt remove package1 package2 package3 packageN to remove those packages.

  3. sudo apt autoremove to remove newly-orphaned dependencies.

Now you can reinstall LibreOffice clean. You have several choices to do so.

  • 6.4.7 from focal-updates
  • 7.1.7 from focal-backports
  • 7.3.0 from PPA
  • 7.2.5 from snap (stable)
  • 7.3.0 from snap (beta)

Pick a single source and stick to it. Disable the other sources. Don't try to mix sources.

If you change sources, be prepared to completely uninstall LibreOffice and reinstall from that new source.

user535733
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