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it's hard to get a description of what SHOULD be in /etc/apt/sources.list.d to make this happen that isn't dangerously out of date.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.