Last night, I did an apt dist-upgrade to update from 22.04 to 24.04 - but obviously there was something wrong, because I got a number of Python related errors from apt after installing. I noticed because it wouldn't let me install vim. At first, the errors were like:
libpython3.12t64 : Depends: libpython3.12-stdlib (= 3.12.3-1ubuntu0.2) but 3.12.7-1+jammy1 is to be installed
...but after looking around and trying various things, I seem to have made it much worse; as far as I can tell, anything Python related is messed up. I am certain that it's related to various bits in /etc/apt/sources.list.d. Currently, when I try to apt --fix-broken install, I get this error:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... failed.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
network-manager : Depends: netplan.io (>= 0.106~) but it is not installed
python3 : PreDepends: python3-minimal (= 3.12.3-0ubuntu2) but it is not installable
Depends: python3.12 (>= 3.12.3-0~) but it is not installable
rhythmbox-plugins : Depends: python3.12 but it is not installable
ubuntu-release-upgrader-gtk : Depends: update-manager but it is not installed
ubuntu-session : Depends: gnome-shell (>= 3.37.91) but it is not installed
E: Error, pkgProblemResolver::Resolve generated breaks, this may be caused by held packages.
E: Unable to correct dependencies
Unfortunately, looking for answers here and elsewhere gives a jumble of stuff sometimes over a decade old (!).
What I'd like right now is a suggestion for how to declare "bankruptcy" and force reinstallation of the basics; I can recover any additional software later, but it's hard to get a description of what SHOULD be in /etc/apt/sources.list.d to make this happen that isn't dangerously out of date.
Suggestions? I'm hesitant to try more for fear of making it even worse (which I've already done)
EDIT: - Since there seems to be some confusion what "fix" I'm asking for, I think what I need is to remove all non-stock bits from /etc/apt/sources.list.d and somehow use apt to reinstall those packages that come with the system so I can recover. Right now, basically nothing is working. I'm happy to try other stuff, but it would be great if they were tips from this decade.
There is no "reset" option. You'll have to just reinstall your system. There is no "revert" command when you break packages on your system.
You will need to backup the data you want to keep to external media and then reinstall.