Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages

That particular error message may indicate that you have held packages, but it may also indicate a different problem.

You can get a list of actual held packages with:

dpkg --get-selections | grep hold

If there are none, or none look related, then it's probably something else. Check carefully the output of the command you were trying when you got the error message, as there may be other clues in the full output from that command, aside from the error message.

Another method of troubleshooting may be to use aptitude rather than apt-get to try to install your package:

sudo aptitude install <packagename>

Aptitude will give up less easily and will attempt to find solutions that may involve modifying other packages. It may give you more explanation of the problem and options for fixing it.

Occasionally aptitude will be too eager to remove or downgrade large numbers of packages to satisfy your request, in which case retrying with -f changes its priorities and helps it come up with solutions that involve removing/downgrading fewer packages even if it means not all changes you requested can go ahead:

sudo aptitude -f install <packagename>

Edit: this is an old answer, and since it was written a newer APT front end, simply titled apt, has become the preferred command line APT interface for end-users. It is still not the Swiss army knife that aptitude is, but it's a bit more human-oriented than apt-get. I haven't taken the time to investigate how it would help in the above scenario, but it's worth using.

That happened to me too. All I did was sudo apt-get update and that fixed my issue. Good luck.

I had a similar scenario in a fresh install of 14.04, with no files listed in dpkg --get-selections | grep hold, and no joy after sudo apt-get update.

What did fix it for me was a simple

sudo apt-get autoremove

When I tried to reinstall the failing package it worked fine. Yay!

A Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages error message often occurs because you are trying to install or have installed a package that you're not supposed to install. These are some fast and easy ways to fix the you have held broken packages error.

• Open your sources.list file in /etc/apt/sources.list and check that there aren't any software sources for a different Ubuntu release than the Ubuntu release that you are currently using. If you find any incorrect release lines in sources.list, open the sources.list file with sudoedit /etc/apt/sources.list, comment out the incorrect lines in sources.list by preceding them with a # character, save the sources.list file, and run sudo apt update to update the list of available software packages.

• If you have manually downloaded a .deb file simulate installing it by running apt install --simulate ./downloaded-deb-file.deb. If downloaded-deb-file.deb cannot be installed because of unmet dependencies the results of apt install --simulate ./downloaded-deb-file.deb will list these unmet dependencies. Since the command is a simulation you don't need and shouldn't use sudo or run it as root. Note the version requirements of each unmet dependency and search the web for a .deb file(s) that meets these version requirements. If you have found a .deb file that meets its version requirements, download it and run apt install --simulate ./new-downloaded-deb-file.deb to check if the newly downloaded .deb file has any unmet dependencies of its own.

• Select the Fix Broken Packages option in Synaptic package manager. Run the following commands to install Synaptic.

    sudo apt update  
    sudo apt upgrade   
    sudo apt install synaptic  
  

  Open Synaptic and in Synaptic select Edit -> Fix Broken Packages and then repeat Edit -> Fix Broken Packages a second time.

  In Synaptic in the left pane click the Custom Filters button which is marked by the mouse cursor in the below screenshot. From the list in the top left corner select Broken. In the center pane will be listed any broken packages that still need to be repaired.

  

  Select the broken packages one at a time. Select a broken package, and then open the terminal and run apt policy <package-name>. The results of this command will tell you if that broken package was installed from the default Ubuntu repositories or from some other source. If the broken package was installed from some other source, maybe that package can be removed along with its software source and replaced by a different version of the same package from the default Ubuntu repositories. Usually this means fixing a broken package by downgrading that package to an older version.

• If you get this error message:

    Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution)  
  

  Run the following commands:

    sudo apt update  
    sudo apt upgrade   
    sudo apt-get -f install   
  

• Manually remove a broken package.

  1. Find your package in /var/lib/dpkg/info

      ls -l /var/lib/dpkg/info | grep <package>
     

  2. Move the package folder to another location.

      cd /tmp && sudo mkdir new-package-location  
      sudo mv /var/lib/dpkg/info/<package>.* /tmp/new-package-location/    
     

  3. Run the following command:

      sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq <package>  
     

If all of these methods don't work it is possible that the broken packages are caused by something that is embedded so deeply in the operating system that none of these methods have any effect on it. The first obvious place to look for this deeply embedded "something" is in the software sources in /etc/apt/sources.list. Check the sources.list file to see if it contains any non-standard lines that may be causing a broken packages error. A standard Ubuntu sources.list file looks like the sources.list files in this answer.

The correct way to remove a suspicious line from sources.list is to comment it out by preceding it with a # character. Then run sudo apt update to refresh the list of available software.

I ran into a similar scenario regarding missing dependencies. In my case I was trying to install curl on ubuntu saucy salamander 13.10...

The error stated that the dependency required an earlier version of the curl3 library.

I was able to degrade to the earlier version by trying to install curl using aptitude.

When it noted the missing dependency, and the reason (required an earlier version of the library file), it gave me several options in how to respond... y//n/q

Y would have aborted the install, N would look for another option, and Q would simply quit and do nothing more, leaving a broken package.

I selected N, and it gave me the option to downgrade the library file to an earlier version. So that's what I did, and curl finished installing with no more errors.

• I may look into upgrading the library file again after the install, but hey, so far so good.

I have tried all the methods mentioned on this page. Somehow it did not work for me.

This is how I fixed it: Track the broken package and reinstall it.

Here is an example:

I am trying to install aptitude.

sudo apt install aptitude

It could not install libcwidget3v5

sudo apt install libcwidget3v5

Try installing libncursesw5

sudo apt install libncursesw5

Try installing libtinfo5

sudo apt install libtinfo5

Bingo, this guy is the culprit libtinfo5, it already there, remove and reinstall.

Remove or purge libtinfo5.

apt purge libtinof5 would be better as it removes the configuration files as well.

sudo apt remove libtinfo5

Reinstall libtinfo5 again

sudo apt install libtinfo5

Now try installing aptitude

sudo apt install aptitude

Had the same problem, I ran that package check command from the other answer (dpkg --get-selections | grep hold) and saw

tomcat7                                         deinstall
tomcat7-common                                  install

so I used "apt-get remove tomcat7-common"

Then I could install Tomcat 6 (I was removing Tomcat 7 and installing Tomcat 6 as you do).

Let's understand this error with an example:

Assume this is the error message:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 nginx-module-brotli : Depends: nginx (= 1.17.3-2-ppa7~bionic)
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Let's break it down into variables:

X=nginx-module-brotli
Y=nginx
Z=1.17.3-2-ppa7~bionic

Here X is the package you are trying to install. Y is the package, which is causing dependency troubles (there may be multiple Ys) and Z is the version that is required.

So in a summary:

X needs the package Y with the version Z to work.

However, apt is facing troubles while finding the version Z for Y.

So, let's check if version Z is available for the package Y. We can use apt-cache policy <package_name> to find the available versions for the package. For example:

 $ apt-cache policy nginx
libasound2:
  Installed: nginx_1.20.2-1~bionic
  Candidate: 1.2.2-2.1ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** nginx_1.20.2-1~bionic 100
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1.17.3-2-ppa7~bionic 500
        500 http://br.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/main amd64 Packages

Here, you can see two versions for the package nginx is available. The version required by X is Z. According to the version table, version Z for the package Y is available. But apt always installs the latest version (I know it's a little dumb.) So there are two ways to fix this:

1. Install the correct package version.
2. Increase the aptitude of apt.

To install the correct package version use:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install <Y>=<Z>

Where is the package causing dependency troubles and is the version needed by X. Now, the installation should be successful.

To increase the aptitude of your package manager:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install aptitude
sudo aptitude -f install <Z>

Where is the package you are trying to install. Some useful tips with aptitude:

• -f option will do advance troubleshooting. It's pretty useful!

• selecting n for a solution will make aptitude propose more solutions!

• Running man aptitude will show a detailed manual for using aptitude. Online manual.

Is the package version not available?

First, try running sudo apt update to update the repository list. Then try installing the package again.

Still not available?

You have two options:

1. Search for the package in https://packages.ubuntu.com/ and restore the default repositories.

2. Add custom PPAs to satisfy dependencies.

Searching package and restoring default repositories:-

1. Go to https://packages.ubuntu.com

2. Scroll down to the Search section.

3. In the Keyword column, enter the name of the package.

4. In the Distribution column, select the code name of your Ubuntu version (lsb_release -c).

5. Click on search!

6. Select the Exact Hit.

7. Check the version and repository for the package.

Check if the version needed and version available matches. If yes then refer to How do I restore the default repositories?

Adding a custom PPA.

You have to take help from Google for that. Just google up the package and version and hopefully you'll find a PPA.

Some helpful commands:

• sudo apt -f install <package> to force install package.
• sudo aptitude -f install <package> To force install package.
• sudo add-apt-repository whatever/ppa to add a PPA.
• sudo apt purge <package> to remove a package.

I'm asking a new question, what information should I provide?

Information such as:

• Your Ubuntu version (output of lsb_release -d.
• Output of sudo apt install <package>
• Output of apt policy <package> and apt policy <package's dependency>

Other details should be provided when asked.

For me, none of the above worked because my system wasn't updated. I did

Home Key > Software Updater > Install

and updated my system; afterwards, I could install my package normally with apt.

I had the same problem reinstalling xsane after a failed ppa installation. As happened to yochannah (now called 'StackExchange What The Heck'), "no files listed in dpkg --get-selections | grep hold, and no joy after sudo apt-get update".

The hint that apt-get gave me is

xsane : Depends: libsane (>= 1.0.24) but it is not going to be installed

Because of yochannah's answer, I had the feeling I must remove some previously installed packages. And it was so, I had to manually remove all related packages to sane, amongst others xsane-common and libsane, which was still installed as the ppa version.

Therefore, watch out what you have previously installed and tidy up!