Bdtyktl

I did an upgrade for 14.04-->15.10 with the software update tool. I logged back in and tried to upgrade/update. I'm met with error messages about unmet dependencies have to do with TeXlive which are preventing me from do any apt-get operations.

I get this response every time I try to do something with apt-get:

 user@XPS13:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade

    [sudo] password for user: 

Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree       

Reading state information... Done

You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these.

The following packages have unmet dependencies:

 asymptote : Depends: texlive-latex-base but it is not installed

             Depends: texlive-base-bin

 context : Depends: texlive-binaries but it is not installed

           Recommends: fonts-freefont but it is not installable

 dvipng : Depends: texlive-base-bin

 feynmf : Depends: texlive-latex-base but it is not installed

          Depends: texlive-font-utils but it is not installed

          Depends: texlive-extra-utils but it is not installed

 fragmaster : Depends: texlive-base-bin

              Depends: texlive-latex-base but it is not installed

              Depends: texlive-extra-utils but it is not installed

              Depends: texlive-font-utils but it is not installed

 latex-beamer : Depends: texlive-latex-base but it is not installed

 latex-cjk-common : Depends: texlive-latex-base but it is not installed

                    Depends: texlive-font-utils (>= 2007.dfsg.2-1) but it is not installed

 latex-cjk-thai : Depends: texlive-latex-base but it is not installed

                  Depends: texlive-lang-other (>= 2013.20130523-1) but it is not installed

 latexmk : Depends: texlive-latex-base but it is not installed

 luatex : Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2014) but it is not installed

 musixtex : Depends: texlive-binaries but it is not installed

 pmx : Depends: texlive-latex-base but it is not installed

 prosper : Depends: texlive-latex-base but it is not installed

 tex4ht : Depends: texlive-base-bin

 tex4ht-common : Depends: texlive-base-bin

 texlive-base : Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed

 texlive-fonts-extra-doc : Depends: texlive-base (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed

                           Depends: tex-common (>= 6) but 4.04 is installed

 texlive-fonts-recommended-doc : Depends: tex-common (>= 6) but 4.04 is installed

                                 Depends: texlive-base (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed

 texlive-full : Depends: texlive-lang-spanish (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-music (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-2 is installed

                Depends: texlive-lang-arabic (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-lang-english (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-metapost-doc (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed

                Depends: texlive-bibtex-extra (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-latex-extra (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-2 is installed

                Depends: texlive-xetex (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed

                Depends: texlive-latex-base (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-lang-french (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-science-doc (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-2 is installed

                Depends: texlive-latex-recommended (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed

                Depends: texlive-lang-polish (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-latex-recommended-doc (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed

                Depends: texlive-lang-german (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-fonts-recommended (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-math-extra (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-2 is installed

                Depends: texlive-games (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-extra-utils (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-font-utils (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-latex-base-doc (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed

                Depends: texlive-publishers-doc (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-2 is installed

                Depends: texlive-pstricks (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-2 is installed

                Depends: texlive-latex-extra-doc (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-2 is installed

                Depends: texlive-lang-indic (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-lang-cyrillic (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-lang-czechslovak (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-lang-other (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-lang-greek (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-fonts-extra (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-lang-korean (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-omega (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed

                Depends: texlive-pictures-doc (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed

                Depends: texlive-lang-african (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: prerex but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-lang-portuguese (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-formats-extra (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-science (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-2 is installed

                Depends: texlive-pictures (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed

                Depends: texlive-lang-cjk (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-humanities (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-plain-extra (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-2 is installed

                Depends: texlive-metapost (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed

                Depends: texlive-lang-italian (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-publishers (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-2 is installed

                Depends: texlive-lang-chinese (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-generic-recommended (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-generic-extra (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-base (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed

                Depends: texlive-lang-japanese (>= 2015) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-luatex (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed

                Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2015.20150524) but it is not installed

                Depends: texlive-pstricks-doc (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-2 is installed

                Depends: texlive-lang-european (>= 2015) but it is not installed

 texlive-humanities-doc : Depends: texlive-base (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed

                          Depends: tex-common (>= 6) but 4.04 is installed

 texlive-latex-extra : Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed

 texlive-latex-recommended : Depends: texlive-latex-base (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed

                             Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed

 texlive-luatex : Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed

 texlive-math-extra : Depends: texlive-latex-base (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed

                      Depends: texlive-fonts-recommended (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed

                      Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed

 texlive-metapost : Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed

 texlive-music : Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed

                 Depends: texlive-latex-base (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed

 texlive-omega : Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed

                 Depends: texlive-latex-base (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed

 texlive-pictures : Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed

 texlive-pstricks : Depends: texlive-generic-recommended (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed

                    Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed

                    Recommends: texlive-font-utils but it is not installed

                    Recommends: texlive-extra-utils but it is not installed

 texlive-publishers : Depends: texlive-latex-base (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed

 texlive-science : Depends: texlive-latex-base (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed

                   Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed

 texlive-xetex : Depends: texlive-latex-base (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed

                 Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed

 tipa : Depends: texlive-latex-base but it is not installed

        Depends: texlive-base-bin

E: Unmet dependencies. Try using -f.

user@XPS13:~$ 

running apt-get -f install downloaded the missing packages, but then returned an error, and the issue persists:

Fetched 1,526 MB in 10min 34s (2,404 kB/s)                                     

Extracting templates from packages: 100%

Preconfiguring packages ...

(Reading database ... 654588 files and directories currently installed.)

Preparing to unpack .../texlive-latex-base-doc_2015.20150625-1ubuntu1_all.deb ...

Unpacking texlive-latex-base-doc (2015.20150625-1ubuntu1) over (2013.20140215-1) ...

dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/texlive-latex-base-doc_2015.20150625-1ubuntu1_all.deb (--unpack):

 trying to overwrite '/usr/share/doc/texlive-doc/latex/url/url.tex.gz', which is also in package texlive-latex-recommended-doc 2013.20140215-1

dpkg-deb: error: subprocess paste was killed by signal (Broken pipe)

Errors were encountered while processing:

 /var/cache/apt/archives/texlive-latex-base-doc_2015.20150625-1ubuntu1_all.deb

E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I found a thread on another forum where someone had the exact same issue after a version upgrade but there is no solution.

https://superuser.com/questions/489681/package-problems-after-upgrade

Doing apt-get purge of the texlive packages just returns the same error about missing dependencies.

Another thread with an identical issue:

dpkg-deb: error: subprocess paste was killed by signal (Broken pipe) after installing Ubuntu 15.10

Update:

I manually removed every one of the offending packages one by one using dpkg --purge --force-all. apt-get works now as far as I can tell. Hopefully when I reinstall texlive all will be well.

I fixed the problem in a bit simpler way, just

sudo dpkg --force-all --purge texlive-latex-base-doc

After this, I was able to complete the update successfully.

I had a similar problem. In my case I had to run

sudo dpkg --purge --force-all texlive-xetex

sudo dpkg --purge --force-all texlive-math-extra

as mentioned by @mysonbort. These two packages where somehow creating conflicts. After removing them a

sudo apt-get -f install

worked smoothly.

I had the exact same problem upgrading from 14.04 to 15.10. Following the OP's train of thought, I was able to solve this by running:

sudo apt-get purge texlive* context dvipng feynmf fragmasater latex* luatex musixtex pmx propser tex4ht* tipa

plus a few other dependencies that would emerge as I iterated on the apt-get purge command. After purging all the dependencies related to tex, I was able to run dist-upgrade without any errors and then cleanly install texlive-full again. Not pretty perhaps but effective.