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I have just upgraded my Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop from Ubuntu 12.04 to 13.04. Unfortunately the top bar now has a little red circle with a minus sign in it. When I click it, it opens a box with the following message in it:

An error occurred, please run Package Manager from the right-click from the right click window or apt-get in a terminal to see what is wrong. The error message was: 'Unknown Error:''(E:The package google-chrome-stable needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.)'This usually means that you have >installed packages with unmet dependencies

I don't have a lot of experience using ubuntu, or linux in general, and I don't know what this means. It sounded to me like some kind of google chrome error. I had downloaded and installed google chrome only a few minutes before. I ran apt-get in the terminal but it didn't do anything, and I had no idea what run the Package Manager from the right click window meant. Google chrome and the geany ide are the only sofware I have installed since installing linux. The computer seems to be running perfectly fine. Do you have any suggestions on what I should do?

The results from: sudo apt-get -f install are:

E: The package google-chrome-stable needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.

James
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3 Answers3

12

It seems that google-chrome-stable have broke your system for some reason. Try this: Open your terminal window

Ctrl+Alt+T

Then right there type commands (after each command type enter and respond yes to questions)

sudo apt-get remove google-chrome-stable

Then update the system via

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Let apt-get run and if there is any error post as comment here and I will help (or anyone available)

If the Commands fails you can try these ones: Update Packages

sudo apt-get update

clean the downloaded packages (where there might be broken ones)

sudo apt-get clean

Remove unneeded packages (careful! If it might list something that is needed but its dependency or such have been removed and left it orphan)

sudo apt-get autoremove

Reconfigure all packages

sudo dpkg --configure -a

Fix broken packages

sudo apt-get install -f
Stefano Mtangoo
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  • When I ran sudo apt-get remove google-chrome-stable, I got the same error message as when I ran studo apt-get -f install. Thanks! – James May 27 '13 at 19:36
  • Just right now. It removes the said package. I have updated the answer – Stefano Mtangoo May 27 '13 at 19:37
  • do you have synaptic installed? – Stefano Mtangoo May 27 '13 at 19:39
  • As far as I know I don't have synaptic installed. I searched for it and it did not pull anything up. – James May 27 '13 at 19:42
  • I just ran sudo apt-get remove google-chrome-stable again, and then ran audo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade. The last four lines of the process were: Errors were encountered while processing: google-chrome-stable E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1). But the little red circle on the top bar is gone now. Is every thing fine? – James May 27 '13 at 19:45
  • No its not! I have added some other instruction. Try that! – Stefano Mtangoo May 27 '13 at 19:46
  • I ran all of those commands. The little red circle with a minus sign in it is still not on the top bar, but after I ran the last command, I got this message; Errors were encountered while processing: google-chrome-stable E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) I got something similar on several of the other commands. Do you think it might be a good idea to reinstall Ubuntu before I now before I begin putting files and stuff on it? – James May 27 '13 at 19:53
  • So google chrome does not want? Well let me think and search. I'll be back in a minute! – Stefano Mtangoo May 27 '13 at 19:56
  • try re installing the package sudo apt-get install google-chrome-stable --reinstall – Stefano Mtangoo May 27 '13 at 20:00
  • I didn't see any obvious error messages when I ran sudo apt-get install google-chrome-stable --reinstall. – James May 27 '13 at 20:05
  • Then do a package reconfigure an see if all is well sudo dpkg --configure -a – Stefano Mtangoo May 27 '13 at 20:12
  • I just ran sudo dpkg --configure -a. It did not input any text to the screen, but there were no error messages. – James May 27 '13 at 20:15
  • final test: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade – Stefano Mtangoo May 27 '13 at 20:23
  • I ran that, and didn't notice any errors. The last three lines were: The following packages have been kept back: linux-generic linux-headers-generic linux-image-generic 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded. – James May 27 '13 at 20:25
  • Enjoy your Linux. You can upgrade those in Synaptic but have no effect. So upvote my post and accept it if I have been helpful! – Stefano Mtangoo May 27 '13 at 20:29
  • for me it was because i added a repo from ppa. removing the repo fixed it. sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:username/ppaname – GeneCode Feb 22 '21 at 07:10
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Removing the packages list and updating solved the issue for me

Open the terminal: Ctrl+Alt+T

Remove the package list:

sudo rm -vf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

  • -v, --verbose explain what is being done

  • -f, --force ignore nonexistent files and arguments, never prompt

Update the packages:

sudo apt-get update
Deepak Mahakale
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2

Fixing the problem with Software Center

When I encountered the same problem (not sure which application caused the problem), running Software Center gave me the option to repair dependencies (in fact it forced me to do so because it would be 'unable to install other software until the problem was fixed'). It worked without problems, and the error sign in the notification area disappeared.

ajo
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  • For me I had to flip the metered network switch to on in Ubuntu and then flip it off in nm-connection-editor – Ray Foss Jul 21 '21 at 18:44