Cannot install build-essential/gcc/g++ after upgrade to 17.04

So I was able to install build-essential again by following these steps:

$ sudo apt install build-essential
...
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 build-essential : Depends: gcc (>= 4:5.2) but it is not going to be installed
                   Depends: g++ (>= 4:5.2) but it is not going to be installed

A gcc version greater 5.2 is required, so lets try to install gcc.

$ sudo apt install gcc
...
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
gcc : Depends: cpp (>= 4:6.3.0-2ubuntu1) but it is not going to be installed
      Depends: gcc-6 (>= 6.3.0-9~) but it is not going to be installed

Okay. Something else is missing. Let’s try installing that.

$ sudo apt install cpp
...
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 cpp : Depends: cpp-6 (>= 6.3.0-9~) but it is not going to be installed

Still nothing. Trying again.

$ sudo apt install cpp-6
...
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 cpp-6 : Depends: gcc-6-base (= 6.3.0-12ubuntu2) but 6.3.0-18ubuntu2~16.04 is to be installed

Once again.

$ sudo apt install gcc-6-base
...
gcc-6-base is already the newest version (6.3.0-18ubuntu2~16.04).

So here I don’t know what exactly went wrong. It should be noted that there is a 16.04 string at the end of that version number. That seemed odd. I removed that package.

$ sudo apt remove gcc-6-base

Now I was able to install build-essential again. This will also reinstall gcc-6-base.

$ sudo apt install build-essential

Remaining problem:

$ sudo apt upgrade
...
The following packages have been kept back:
  cpp g++ gcc

Root of the problem is similar as above, gcc-7-base is faulty but I can’t simply remove it, since I get this:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 libgcc1 : Depends: gcc-7-base (= 7.1.0-5ubuntu2~16.04) but it is not going to be installed
 va-driver-all : Depends: mesa-va-drivers but it is not going to be installed or
                          vdpau-va-driver but it is not going to be installed
E: Error, pkgProblemResolver::Resolve generated breaks, this may be caused by held packages.

Danger Zone:

I managed to resolve this issue with the following steps:

$ sudo apt install aptitude
$ sudo dpkg --force-all -P gcc-7-base
$ sudo dpkg --force-all -P gcc-7-base:i386
$ sudo aptitude install gcc-7-base

This is super dangerous and might break your installation. Executing dpkg --force-all -P will remove a package forcefully, ignoring any dependencies on this package. Following this by a regular apt upgrade might remove almost all relevant software from your installation.

I was only able to recover from there by usind aptitude which resolved every dependency issue I had.

I was facing the same issue while upgrading from 14.04 LTS to 16.04 LTS. I have written the detailed solution here. But for the sake of convenience I will reproduce the key points here.

Remove all dependent libraries (autoremove) and install all missing libraries using sudo apt-get -f install (-f means --fix-missing)

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

Install ubuntu toolchain from PPA

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test

Install aptitude.

sudo apt install aptitude

Recursively try installing the broken libraries until you solve the conflict by upgrading or fixing a specific library. In my case I had to fix libstdc++6

$ sudo aptitude -f install build-essential
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  build-essential cpp{a} cpp-5{a} g++{a} g++-5{a} gcc{a} gcc-5{a} libasan2{a} libcc1-0{ab} 
  libcilkrts5{a} libgcc-5-dev{a} liblsan0{ab} libmpx0{a} libstdc++-5-dev{a} 
The following packages will be upgraded:
  gcc-5-base libstdc++6{b} 
2 packages upgraded, 14 newly installed, 0 to remove and 5 not upgraded.
Need to get 29.6 MB of archives. After unpacking 100 MB will be used.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 liblsan0 : Depends: gcc-9-base (= 9.3.0-10ubuntu2~16.04) but 9.3.0-11ubuntu0~14.04 is installed.
 libcc1-0 : Depends: gcc-9-base (= 9.3.0-10ubuntu2~16.04) but 9.3.0-11ubuntu0~14.04 is installed.
 libstdc++6 : Depends: gcc-9-base (= 9.3.0-10ubuntu2~16.04) but 9.3.0-11ubuntu0~14.04 is installed.

As build-essential needs gcc-5.

$ sudo apt-get -f install gcc-5

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 gcc-5 : Depends: cpp-5 (= 5.5.0-12ubuntu1~16.04) but it is not going to be installed
         Depends: gcc-5-base (= 5.5.0-12ubuntu1~16.04) but 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.12 is to be installed
         Depends: libcc1-0 (>= 5.5.0-12ubuntu1~16.04) but it is not going to be installed
         Depends: libgcc-5-dev (= 5.5.0-12ubuntu1~16.04) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

But gcc-5 in turn depends on cpp-5

$ sudo apt-get -f install cpp-5

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 cpp-5 : Depends: gcc-5-base (= 5.5.0-12ubuntu1~16.04) but 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.12 is to be installed

cpp-5 depends on gcc-5-base. Here you can see there is a specific conflict. Aptitide gives multiple choices to solve the conflict. In my case upgrading the libstdc++6 solvd the problem.

$ sudo aptitude -f install gcc-5-base
The following packages will be REMOVED:  
  gcc-5-base{u} 
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 6 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B of archives. After unpacking 67.6 kB will be freed.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 libstdc++6 : Depends: gcc-5-base (= 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.12) but it is not going to be installed.
open: 115; closed: 488; defer: 35; conflict: 58                                                          .The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

     Keep the following packages at their current version:                        
1)     gcc-5-base [5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.12 (now, xenial-security, xenial-updates)]

Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] n
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

      Upgrade the following packages:                                                                     
1)      libstdc++6 [5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.12 (now, xenial-security, xenial-updates) -> 9.3.0-10ubuntu2~16.0

Finally, now the conflict is resolved try installing build-essential again.

$ sudo aptitude -f install build-essential

Good Luck!

I have the same problem but the solution is actually pretty simple so it saying: The following packages have unmet dependencies:

 build-essential : Depends: gcc (>= 4:5.2) but it is not going to be installed
                   Depends: g++ (>= 4:5.2) but it is not going to be installed

the just install the the package on the 'depends' do :

apt-get install gcc

and then it will says :

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 gcc : Depends: cpp (= 4:9.2.1-3.1) but 4:8.3.0-1 is to be installed
       Depends: gcc-9 (>= 9.2.1-1~) but it is not going to be installed

then do :

apt-get install cpp 

ass you can see the depends: change from depends:gcc to depends:cpp then do it over and over again until that same error didn't pop up and then :

sudo apt install build-essential