CUPS cannot be installed

Question

Today I ran an upgrade and I lost all printing.

Now I am trying to reinstall hplip and no luck at all I get the message the CUPS is missing I attempt to install CUPS and get this:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
cups : Depends: libcups2 (= 2.1.3-4) but 2.1.3-4ubuntu0.2 is to be installed
    Depends: cups-core-drivers (>= 2.1.3-4)
    Depends: cups-daemon (>= 2.1.3-4)

Any ideas on how to fix this mess

I am using Ubuntu 16.04

It looks like you installed a non-Ubuntu package. Where did you get the package from? — tudor -Reinstate Monica-, Apr 07 '17 at 04:18
Possible duplicate of How to remove the "unmet dependencies error" about cups while installing a package? — mook765, Apr 07 '17 at 06:33
Please take a look at http://askubuntu.com/questions/897348/how-to-remove-the-unmet-dependencies-error-about-cups-while-installing-a-packa/898059#898059 — mook765, Apr 07 '17 at 06:35

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 07 '17 at 04:19

2

It looks like you've installed non-Ubuntu packages. Ubuntu packages have the word "ubuntu" in the version. You need remove the non-conflicting packages to return your system to the Ubuntu versions.

Firstly uninstall libcups2:

sudo apt-get remove libcups2 cups-core-drivers cups-daemon

Then tell apt to fix it:

sudo apt-get -f install

Then make sure everything else is in line:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

If there are other non-Ubuntu packages that conflict, you'll get a similar warning. If that happens, just repeat the process removing the conflicting packages and running apt-get -f install.

As for installing hplip, that's another question.

answered Apr 07 '17 at 04:19

tudor -Reinstate Monica-

7,288

this completrely blew up my install, removed EVERYTHING, not only cups. DO NOT FOLLOW THIS UNLESS YOU ARE READY TO REINSTALL UBUNTU. Thanks for nothing – tony gil Apr 13 '20 at 23:48
this is THE absolutely most irresponsible answer that i have EVER encountered on SO and it does not belong here without a MAJOR DISCLAIMER – tony gil Apr 14 '20 at 00:01
@tony-gil Erm. I've also done this more than a dozen times with success. I doubt that was what caused your reinstallation issue. If your system has been damaged then I think it's more likely you uninstalled something else and ignored the big warnings that Ubuntu shows you before you uninstall core components. CUPS is not a core component which is why this is safe and throws no warnings. – tudor -Reinstate Monica- Apr 15 '20 at 00:36

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 07 '17 at 05:43

and as some background, this thread was running on the Mint forum; (mint uses ubuntu); https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=242497&start=40

about nine posts down on this page is what worked but tudor has given you very careful instructions to follow;

CUPS cannot be installed

2 Answers2