Unable to access System Settings or install software after upgrading from Ubuntu 14.04 to Ubuntu 16.04

Question

I have recently upgraded Ubuntu 14.04 to Ubuntu 16.04.

I am unable to access System Settings and thus time and date settings, bluetooth settings, etc.

I tried installing ubuntu-desktop

and it gave me the following errors:

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:
 ubuntu-desktop : Depends: checkbox-gui but it is not going to be installed
                  Depends: unity-control-center but it is not going to be installed
                  Recommends: cheese but it is not going to be installed
                  Recommends: gedit but it is not going to be installed
                  Recommends: libreoffice-calc but it is not going to be installed
                  Recommends: libreoffice-gnome but it is not going to be installed
                  Recommends: libreoffice-impress but it is not going to be installed
                  Recommends: libreoffice-math but it is not going to be installed
                  Recommends: libreoffice-ogltrans but it is not going to be installed
                  Recommends: libreoffice-pdfimport but it is not going to be installed
                  Recommends: libreoffice-writer but it is not going to be installed
                  Recommends: rhythmbox but it is not going to be installed
                  Recommends: totem but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

I also tried installing unity-control-center

and got this error:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 unity-control-center : Depends: libcheese-gtk25 (>= 3.18.0) but it is not going to be installed
                        Depends: libcheese8 (>= 3.18.0) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

When I tried installing through Synaptic it gave this error:

Could not apply changes!
Fix broken packages first.

The Results of deborphan are:

gstreamer0.10-alsa:amd64
libqgispython2.18.4:amd64
libmwaw-0.3-3:amd64
libxp6:amd64
libnetcdf11:amd64
libopenjp2-7:amd64
libqgisgrass6-2.18.7:amd64
libcmis-0.5-5v5:amd64
libqgis-app2.18.11:amd64
libqgispython2.18.7:amd64
libhal1-flash:amd64
linux-signed-generic-lts-xenial:amd64
libgles2-mesa-lts-xenial:amd64
xserver-xorg-input-all-lts-xenial:amd64
libodfgen-0.1-1:amd64
libqgis-app2.18.4:amd64
xserver-xorg-lts-xenial:amd64
libqgisgrass6-2.18.4:amd64
liborcus-0.10-0v5:amd64
libgeos-3.5.0:amd64
libmspub-0.1-1:amd64
libexttextcat-2.0-0:amd64
xserver-xorg-core-lts-xenial:amd64
linux-generic-lts-xenial:amd64
libgl1-mesa-dri-lts-xenial:i386
compiz-plugins-extra:all
libabw-0.1-1v5:amd64
gnomine:all
libqgis-app2.18.7:amd64
libe-book-0.1-1:amd64
libjansson4:amd64
gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3:amd64
libprocps3:amd64
libgles1-mesa-lts-xenial:amd64
myspell-en-gb:all
libpagemaker-0.0-0:amd64
linux-generic-lts-wily:amd64
libegl1-mesa-lts-xenial:amd64
libcgal11v5:amd64
libneon27-gnutls:amd64
gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse:amd64
libdapclient6v5:amd64
libboost-serialization1.58.0:amd64
bluez-utils:all
libclucene-contribs1v5:amd64
activity-log-manager-control-center:all
libwayland-egl1-mesa-lts-xenial:amd64
grilo-plugins-0.2-base:amd64
libcoin80v5:amd64
libkmlengine1:amd64
libllvm3.4:amd64
libllvm3.4:i386
libqgis-networkanalysis2.18.7:amd64
libproxy1-plugin-gsettings:amd64
libeot0:amd64
gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad:amd64
libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-xenial:i386
libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-xenial:amd64
libapt-inst1.5:amd64
libmythes-1.2-0:amd64
libproxy1-plugin-networkmanager:amd64
libtimezonemap1:amd64
libetonyek-0.1-1:amd64
libarmadillo6:amd64
libxatracker2-lts-xenial:amd64
linux-signed-generic-lts-wily:amd64
libopenthreads20:amd64
lib32z1:amd64
myspell-en-za:all
libwps-0.4-4:amd64
libreadline5:amd64
overlay-scrollbar-gtk2:amd64
libqgisgrass6-2.18.11:amd64
libgnome-bluetooth11:amd64
libxnvctrl0:amd64
libplymouth2:amd64
libmpdec2:amd64
libxine2:amd64
lib32gcc1:amd64
libfreehand-0.1-1:amd64
libqgis-networkanalysis2.18.4:amd64
libdmapsharing-3.0-2:amd64

Also,apt-get update gives following errors:

W: The repository 'http://ppa.launchpad.net/alex-wv/pulseaudio-equalizer-ppa/ubuntu xenial Release' does not have a Release file.
N: Data from such a repository can't be authenticated and is therefore potentially dangerous to use.
N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.
W: The repository 'http://ppa.launchpad.net/kalakris/okular/ubuntu trusty Release' does not have a Release file.
N: Data from such a repository can't be authenticated and is therefore potentially dangerous to use.
N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.
E: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/alex-wv/pulseaudio-equalizer-ppa/ubuntu/dists/xenial/main/source/Sources  404  Not Found
E: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/kalakris/okular/ubuntu/dists/trusty/main/binary-amd64/Packages  404  Not Found
E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

How can I fix this problem?

AskUbuntu works best if one asks one question per Question. Please break your blob up into separate Questions. — waltinator, Dec 01 '17 at 03:02
It looks like it's all caused by the same problem, therefore not too broad. — karel, Dec 01 '17 at 07:15
@karel I think the problem is with ubuntu-desktop and I am unable to install it. — shaurya airi, Dec 01 '17 at 10:38
No, your problem is messed up software sources and you should check that first of all and not reinstall ubuntu-desktop for the moment. You can't install any package anyway before fixing the software sources. Usually there are no problems with a release upgrade but it can happen. — , Dec 01 '17 at 11:06
There could be a problem with messed up software sources, and I was also wondering if the upgrade to 16.04 resulted in orphaned packages and the orphaned packages that you didn't uninstall caused unmet dependencies. Maybe you can install deborphan with sudo apt deborphan and run it from the terminal and it will at least tell you if there are any orphaned packages. — karel, Dec 01 '17 at 11:51
@karel ,I have added the results of deborphan what do I do with these packages? — shaurya airi, Dec 02 '17 at 20:09

karel · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-02T23:41:51.580

0

Check if you get any errors if you try to uninstall the following packages: linux-signed-generic-lts-wily linux-signed-generic-lts-xenial xserver-xorg-input-all-lts-xenial activity-log-manager-control-center
```
sudo apt remove linux-signed-generic-lts-wily linux-signed-generic-lts-xenial xserver-xorg-input-all-lts-xenial activity-log-manager-control-center  
```
If you get an error message while trying to uninstall a package, don't uninstall the package. Comment about the error message instead. Copy/paste the first few lines of the error message.
Reboot.
```
sudo reboot
```
Update the list of available software and install aptitude.
```
sudo apt update && sudo apt install aptitude   
```
If you can't update the list of available software, then skip updating it for now and run sudo apt update before running the command in Step 5.
Install ubuntu-desktop and reboot.
```
sudo aptitude install -f ubuntu-desktop && sudo reboot 
```
If aptitude can't install a package it often prints an error message that shows the suggested repair. If this happens run the suggested repair and run the sudo aptitude install -f ubuntu-desktop command again.
Upgrade the software with the Software Updater application or alternatively upgrade the software from the terminal with this command:
```
sudo apt upgrade  
```

If you get any error messages, please comment about them.

edited Dec 02 '17 at 23:41

answered Dec 02 '17 at 23:17

karel

114,770

1

I have mentioned the errors after removing the above mentioned packages in the original question – shaurya airi Dec 03 '17 at 07:53
Some of your error messages can be solved by the answers to this question: How can I fix a 404 Error when using a PPA or updating my package lists? and this question: Xenial repository does not have a Release file. Following the answers to these questions should help you a lot and maybe then you can install ubuntu-desktop or maybe not, we'll see, so please comment about the results. – karel Dec 03 '17 at 08:09
Thanks.I got back the System settings ! But it still shows problem with ubuntu-desktop – shaurya airi Dec 03 '17 at 14:38
Comment or add the error message to your question and we'll keep going until the problem is solved. Too many comments automatically opens a private chatroom for this question, so you have in effect the privilege of posting unlimited comments about this question. – karel Dec 03 '17 at 14:42
Appreciate it. But ,I decided to go for a fresh install and its actually much faster than debugging as I also had a few other problem. – shaurya airi Dec 03 '17 at 17:52

Unable to access System Settings or install software after upgrading from Ubuntu 14.04 to Ubuntu 16.04

1 Answers1