How to resolve the error : 'Package gcc-8 has no installation candidate' ? I'm trying to install it by sudo-apt install gcc-8

Question

I am trying to install OpenFace toolkit on my system using Ubuntu 20.04 Terminal. The installation requires gcc/g++ version 8 for installation. I checked the current gcc version on my system, and it shows that the installed version is gcc-11. Is there a way of replacing the gcc-11 version with gcc-8, or of downloading the gcc-8 package, and then installing it? help would be appreciated, thanks.

If you need to run legacy software, the recommended approach is to use containers or VM's with an older OS (to isolated vulnerabilities and minimize impact of dependency issues). — Artur Meinild, Jul 20 '22 at 13:30
Also, the files for OpenFace toolkit are at least 3 years old. Again, if you install unmaintained software, be prepared to do a little legwork yourself if you want to run it on a current system. — Artur Meinild, Jul 20 '22 at 13:34
@ArturMeinild i tried pretty much everything i could, but am not getting anywhere. Also, I am not from computer/software background so you can assume i'm a total newbie in terms of Ubuntu/Linux, neither do I want to dig too deep in the field. So it would be a huge help if you can point to exactly what should I do. Thanks! — UTSAV PANDYA, Jul 21 '22 at 05:56
@karel thanks for the suggestion, but I already tried it and it still gives the same problem. I think the issue is not that my package isn't updating--its the opposite: it is getting updated to the newest version which isn't supported by the software that i'm trying to install. — UTSAV PANDYA, Jul 21 '22 at 06:00
In that case I can answer your question. All you need to do is to run this one-line command: sudo apt update && sudo apt remove gcc-11 && sudo apt install gcc-8 If you comment that the command worked, I'll post it as an answer to this question. — karel, Jul 21 '22 at 06:22
@karel it didn't work. Only half of it worked, as in the gcc-11 was removed successfully but the version gcc-8 didn't install, throwing the same error as before: "Package 'gcc-8' has no installation candidate". I also looked up the total packages included in the gcc for my current ubuntu version(22.04), and appearantly there are all the versions included starting from gcc-4 to gcc-11, EXCEPT for the version gcc-8. anything else that I should do? Thanks. — UTSAV PANDYA, Jul 21 '22 at 07:17
@karel Thanks. The error regarding gcc-8 has resolved and gcc-8 has been installed but another error for g++-8 has appeared. By running the similar commands will I be able to download and install g++-8 too? If so, what changes should I make? Thanks for the help so far. — UTSAV PANDYA, Jul 21 '22 at 08:07
@karel https://askubuntu.com/questions/1419726/how-to-solve-package-g-8-has-no-installation-candidate-error-on-ubuntu-22 here is the separate question for g++-8, please post the solution for g++-8 on the same. The error is the same except for the gcc-8 package and g++-8. Thanks. — UTSAV PANDYA, Jul 21 '22 at 09:11

karel · Accepted Answer · 2022-12-30T15:54:27.553

The gcc-8 package has been discontinued in the Ubuntu 22.04 and later default repositories, but it is still available in the Ubuntu 20.04 default repositories. To install the gcc-8 package from Ubuntu 20.04 in Ubuntu 22.04 run the following commands:

sudo apt update
wget http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/g/gcc-8/gcc-8_8.4.0-3ubuntu2_amd64.deb
wget http://mirrors.edge.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/g/gcc-8/gcc-8-base_8.4.0-3ubuntu2_amd64.deb
wget http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/g/gcc-8/libgcc-8-dev_8.4.0-3ubuntu2_amd64.deb
wget http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/g/gcc-8/cpp-8_8.4.0-3ubuntu2_amd64.deb
wget http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/g/gcc-8/libmpx2_8.4.0-3ubuntu2_amd64.deb
wget http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/i/isl/libisl22_0.22.1-1_amd64.deb
sudo apt install ./libisl22_0.22.1-1_amd64.deb ./libmpx2_8.4.0-3ubuntu2_amd64.deb ./cpp-8_8.4.0-3ubuntu2_amd64.deb ./libgcc-8-dev_8.4.0-3ubuntu2_amd64.deb ./gcc-8-base_8.4.0-3ubuntu2_amd64.deb ./gcc-8_8.4.0-3ubuntu2_amd64.deb

Original answer (now obsolete):

The gcc-8 package has been discontinued in the Ubuntu 22.04 and later default repositories. To install the gcc-8 package from Ubuntu 21.10 in Ubuntu 22.04 run the following commands:

sudo apt update
sudo apt remove gcc-11 # optional
wget http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/g/gcc-8/gcc-8_8.5.0-0ubuntu4_amd64.deb
wget http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/g/gcc-8/gcc-8-base_8.5.0-0ubuntu4_amd64.deb
wget http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/g/gcc-8/libgcc-8-dev_8.5.0-0ubuntu4_amd64.deb
wget http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/g/gcc-8/cpp-8_8.5.0-0ubuntu4_amd64.deb
wget http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/g/gcc-8/libmpx2_8.5.0-0ubuntu4_amd64.deb
sudo apt install ./libmpx2_8.5.0-0ubuntu4_amd64.deb ./cpp-8_8.5.0-0ubuntu4_amd64.deb ./gcc-8-base_8.5.0-0ubuntu4_amd64.deb ./libgcc-8-dev_8.5.0-0ubuntu4_amd64.deb ./gcc-8_8.5.0-0ubuntu4_amd64.deb

I removed gcc-11 in the above commands because you mentioned in your question that you also wanted to remove it. If you want to keep gcc-11 installed alongside gcc-8 then omit the sudo apt remove gcc-11 command.

Is there something I can do with this? https://linux-packages.com/ubuntu-jammy-jellyfish/package/gcc-8 — Gabriel Staples, Dec 22 '22 at 23:59
Follow-up question I just asked: Trying to install gcc-8 and g++-8 on Ubuntu 22.04 — Gabriel Staples, Dec 23 '22 at 00:07
I updated the source of the gcc-8 package from Ubuntu 21.10 to Ubuntu 20.04 (which is still currently supported) in my answer to your new question. — karel, Dec 23 '22 at 06:13

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 11 '22 at 19:02

Another solution is what Jodeli proposed 'gcc-7' has not installation candidate issue.

In terminal type sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list and add the following at the end of file:

deb [arch=amd64] http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main universe

Then execute:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install gcc-8 g++-8

Also a good practice is using update-alternatives to manage different versions of gcc. For example, if after these steps you have gcc-8 and gcc-11 in you /usr/bin directory, run in terminal:

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-8 10
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-11 20
sudo update-alternatives --config gcc

I'm not sure if it is much better than karel's one since they all can lead to problems with dependencies. I guess editing /etc/apt/sources.list can be more comfortable because one doesn't have to download all packages manually.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 21 '22 at 08:38

0

I think you didn't upgrade your OpenFace version from 2.0.0 to 2.2.0

the script already upgrade 14 months ago.

 ...
 # If we're not on 18.04 
 sudo apt-get -y update
if [[ lsb_release -rs != "18.04" ]]   then

     echo "Adding ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test apt-repository "
     sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test -y
     sudo apt-get -y update 
 fi
sudo apt-get -y install build-essential
 sudo apt-get -y install gcc-8 g++-8 
 ...

Related:

https://github.com/TadasBaltrusaitis/OpenFace

Hope this helps.

answered Jul 21 '22 at 08:38

abu-ahmed al-khatiri

1,739

Thanks for the answer, but I have downloaded and trying to install the latest OpenFace 2.2.0 version. Also, i have installed and updated the repository as well. – UTSAV PANDYA Jul 21 '22 at 09:37
@UTSAVPANDYA great. the result will same when you download it using wget and install it manually or add repository from their script. – abu-ahmed al-khatiri Jul 21 '22 at 09:51

How to resolve the error : 'Package gcc-8 has no installation candidate' ? I'm trying to install it by sudo-apt install gcc-8

3 Answers3

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