Home / ubuntu / Questions / 1012522
Accepted
Figgis1965
Asked: 2018-03-07 12:53:00 +0800 CST

I cant seem to install any packages on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

  • 772

I originally installed the LAMP package on installation of the server. Took me ages to get the web server to work and then I found that PHP hadnt been installed as part of the package, which is odd as it should have been. I also tried to install SSH server so I could log in using Putty. Any time I try to install anything I get the following:-

jim@Unseen:~$ sudo apt-get -f install php libapache2-mod-php php-mcrypt php-mysq
l                                                                               
Reading package lists... Done                                                   
Building dependency tree                                                        
Reading state information... Done                                               
libapache2-mod-php is already the newest version (1:7.0+35ubuntu6.1).           
php-mysql is already the newest version (1:7.0+35ubuntu6.1).                    
The following additional packages will be installed:                            
  libmcrypt4 php7.0 php7.0-mcrypt                                               
Suggested packages:                                                             
  libmcrypt-dev mcrypt                                                          
The following NEW packages will be installed                                    
  libmcrypt4 php php-mcrypt php7.0 php7.0-mcrypt                                
0 to upgrade, 5 to newly install, 0 to remove and 0 not to upgrade.             
Need to get 0 B/83.5 kB of archives.                                            
After this operation, 326 kB of additional disk space will be used.             
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y                                                
E: Waited for /usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt || true but it wasn't there     
E: Failure running script /usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt || true

I've tried apt-get clean. I've tried the standard apt-get. I've run apt-get update. Nothing I try seems to work. Can anyone suggest anything to help me please. I am new to ubuntu and getting very frustrated with it. Thanks in advance

Edit:

I tried the fix suggested on a similar post that refers to 14.0* although my server is 16.04.4:-

sudo sh -c "echo 'DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs {"/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt || true";};' >> /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/70debconf"

This did not work and reported that 70debconf did not exist.

Edit 2

I corrected the command string as suggested to:-

sudo sh -c "echo 'DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs {\"/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconf
igure --apt || true\";};' >> /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/70debconf"

It returned a prompt with no messages so I presume it worked

I then ran the following:-

sudo apt-get install openssh-server

And returned exactly the same as before:-

Reading package lists... Done                                                   
Building dependency tree                                                        
Reading state information... Done                                               
The following additional packages will be installed:                            
  ncurses-term openssh-sftp-server python3-requests python3-urllib3             
  ssh-import-id                                                                 
Suggested packages:                                                             
  ssh-askpass rssh molly-guard monkeysphere python3-ndg-httpsclient             
  python3-openssl python3-pyasn1                                                
The following NEW packages will be installed                                    
  ncurses-term openssh-server openssh-sftp-server python3-requests              
  python3-urllib3 ssh-import-id                                                 
0 to upgrade, 6 to newly install, 0 to remove and 0 not to upgrade.             
Need to get 0 B/746 kB of archives.                                             
After this operation, 5,652 kB of additional disk space will be used.           
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y                                                
Preconfiguring packages ...                                                     
E: Waited for /usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt || true but it wasn't there     
E: Failure running script /usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt || true

Edit 3

A thought occurred to me after some terrific help. Before these problem started I installed Webmin as a quick way to remotely access the server from my desktop. I tried to to install Openssh-server through webmin and to my surprise it worked. So the conclusion looks like webmin has somehow interfered with the native functions on the server. I'm sure this shouldn't happen and wonder if I should report it.

apt

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    There's a problem with initial answer, the inner set of double quotes need to be escaped

    sudo sh -c "echo 'DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs {\"/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt || true\";};' >> /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/70debconf"

    I can confirm that /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/70debconf exists on both my Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 17.10 boxes. The contents of this file on my Ubuntu 16.04 box are

    // Pre-configure all packages with debconf before they are installed.
// If you don't like it, comment it out.
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs {"/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt || true";};
    • 0