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dspacejs
Asked: 2015-04-05 21:23:08 +0800 CST

gnome3 isn't installing on Ubuntu due to unmet dependencies

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I've never used Linux before until I installed Ubuntu yesterday. I want to install Gnome3, and I've tried plenty of tutorials over the internet but nothing has worked. Whenever I attempt to do sudo apt-get install ubuntu-gnome-desktop, I get these dependency errors:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
ubuntu-gnome-desktop : Depends: gdm but it is not going to be installed
      Depends: gnome-control-center but it is not going to be installed
      Depends: gnome-icon-theme-full but it is not going to be installed
      Depends: gnome-online-accounts but it is not going to be installed
      Depends: gnome-session but it is not going to be installed
      Depends: gnome-shell but it is not going to be installed
      Depends: gnome-shell-extensions but it is not going to be installed
      Recommends: evolution but it is not going to be installed
      Recommends: mcp-account-manager-goa but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

I've tried searching for some solutions, but nothing is working so I'm asking here. sudo apt-get install -f didn't work either.

14.04

2 Answers

  1. Open a terminal and type the following commands:

    sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo apt-get install gnome-shell gnome-shell-extensions

    Please post any errors, thanks.

    Aah, it appears you don't have the universe repository enabled.

    Go to software center or synaptic and go to edit > software sources and there should be an option to enable it from there.

    After enabling the repository(ies) you will need to run those commands above to get everything up to date before you try and install it.

    I have all repos enabled and have double verified that this installs on a newly installed and fully updated Ubuntu Desktop 14.04lts just fine with no dependency issues. I even went ahead and installed ubuntu-gnome-desktop after gnome-shell installed with no issues.

    While you are at it, you can install synaptic, if not already installed, to see if there are any broken packages that need to be fixed. Synaptic has a tool to fix broken package if they do exist. Click on "fix broken packages" from one of the dropdown menus and then click "apply". Although, it doesn't appear this is the problem because you don't have the correct dependencies so you should already get that error but if need be.

    Also, there may be issues setting your network preferences from gnome-shell (all the newer versions of gnome-shell are lacking in this area anyhow imo)

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  2. Instead of installing through apt-get, you can also download Ubuntu GNOME desktop OS for free from their website : http://ubuntugnome.org/download/

    Or, if you just want the Stand alone Gnome desktop without ubuntu, then you can simply go to www.gnome.org and Download GNOME 3.16 the latest version os for free.

    Personally, I prefer to download and install this GNOME 3 OS instead of trying to install GNOME 3 as a side environment because, currently, Gnome 3.16 is not available (3.10 or 3.12 is available through apt-get). Download GNOME 3.16 OS now

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