I transitioned from Kubuntu to Netrunner a few months back, and although I mostly prefer Netrunner’s config/settings and default applications, I vastly prefer KMail for email over Thunderbird.
I had been using KMail with no issues until yesterday, when I did a “sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade,” and KMail disappeared from my installed applications.
Here’s what happens when I try to reinstall kmail using apt-get install:
[code]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:
kmail : Depends: libincidenceeditorsng4 (= 4:4.13.0-0ubuntu1~ubuntu13.10~ppa1) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libkdepim4 (= 4:4.13.0-0ubuntu1~ubuntu13.10~ppa1) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libksieveui4 (= 4:4.13.0-0ubuntu1~ubuntu13.10~ppa1) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libmailcommon4 (= 4:4.13.0-0ubuntu1~ubuntu13.10~ppa1) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libmailimporter4 (= 4:4.13.0-0ubuntu1~ubuntu13.10~ppa1) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libmessagecomposer4 (= 4:4.13.0-0ubuntu1~ubuntu13.10~ppa1) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libmessagecore4 (= 4:4.13.0-0ubuntu1~ubuntu13.10~ppa1) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libmessagelist4 (= 4:4.13.0-0ubuntu1~ubuntu13.10~ppa1) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libmessageviewer4 (= 4:4.13.0-0ubuntu1~ubuntu13.10~ppa1) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libpimcommon4 (= 4:4.13.0-0ubuntu1~ubuntu13.10~ppa1) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libtemplateparser4 (= 4:4.13.0-0ubuntu1~ubuntu13.10~ppa1) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
[/code]
Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this? I’m at a loss, and I’m really frustrated.
It seems you have PPA enabled for Kubuntu Backports which causes a conflict with a package. I am not sure what package it is though (as it cannot be told by the output you posted. It could be one of the packages listed there or a dependency or subdependency of it)
The only thing you could try to narrow it down to the conflicting package(s) is adding those packages listed to the sudo apt-get install and hope that it brings an more usable error message (or even directly the conflict).
In general I would not recommend updating/upgrading without taking a look at what packages are marked for installation/update and which are be meant to be removed. (all package managers and update managers should show them)
Also I personally would be careful in using the kubuntu backports ppa especially if there are also other ppas used.
If you want a newer bugfixed KDE version I would recommend using the saucy-updates package repository which updates the normal KDE SC 4.11.2 to 4.11.5 the newest of the 4.11.x series.
I assume that there is no easy way to “downgrade” all packages after removing the offending PPAs? Each dependency seems to have more broken dependencies, layers and layers of issues.
[hr]
Would using something like ppa-purge be effective?
I had the same errors occur after the recent update. And yes, I’ve had the backports enabled for quite some time. This time however it hosed my system pretty good. Anything connected to kdepim messed up. Lesson learned for me once again. I ended up doing a reinstall and preserving my home partition so not so bad. I’d advise anybody with backports activated to hold off.
I have run NetrunnerOS for a while and have always had kubuntu backports ppa enabled as my way to keep kde up to date with the monthly KDE updates with out problems. I always thought that it was safe given Netrunner is based off of Kubuntu with only branding and fonts, themeing extra different. This should not cause the kmail problems we are seeing.