Debian Wheezy apt-get problems

Linux and Unix-Like Linux
1

I'm trying to install libncurses (and a few other applications), but I run across these errors:

ghost:/# apt-get install libncurses5-dev
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run `apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
  libasound2-plugins: Depends: libavcodec53 (>= 6:0.8.2-2) but it is not going to be installed or
                               libavcodec-extra-53 (>= 6:0.8.2-2) but it is not going to be installed
                      Depends: libavutil51 (>= 6:0.8.2-2) but it is not going to be installed
                      Depends: libpulse0 (>= 0.99.1) but 0.9.21-3 is to be installed
  libncurses5-dev: Depends: libtinfo-dev (= 5.9-10) but it is not going to be installed
                   Depends: ncurses-bin (= 5.9-10) but 5.7+20100313-4 is to be installed
  mplayer: Depends: libavcodec53 (>= 6:0.8.3-1~) but it is not going to be installed or
                    libavcodec-extra-53 (>= 6:0.8.17) but it is not going to be installed
           Depends: libavformat53 (>= 6:0.8.3-1~) but it is not going to be installed
           Depends: libavutil51 (>= 6:0.8.3-1~) but it is not going to be installed
           Depends: libdvdnav4 (>= 4.2.0+20120524) but it is not going to be installed
           Depends: libpostproc52 (>= 6:0.8.3-1~) but it is not going to be installed
           Depends: libpulse0 (>= 0.99.1) but 0.9.21-3 is to be installed
           Depends: libswscale2 (>= 6:0.8.3-1~) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

And then:

ghost:/# apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  libswscale0 libavutil49 libpostproc51 libavformat52 libavcodec52 libaudio2
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following extra packages will be installed:
  libavcodec53 libavformat53 libavutil51 libdvdnav4 libpostproc52 libpulse0 libswscale2
Suggested packages:
  libdvdcss2 pulseaudio
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libavcodec53 libavformat53 libavutil51 libdvdnav4 libpostproc52 libswscale2
The following packages will be upgraded:
  libpulse0
1 upgraded, 6 newly installed, 0 to remove and 195 not upgraded.
55 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B/6999kB of archives.
After this operation, 24.5MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y

And then

WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated!
  libavutil51 libavcodec53 libpulse0 libavformat53 libdvdnav4 libpostproc52 libswscale2
Install these packages without verification [y/N]? y
Can not write log, openpty() failed (/dev/pts not mounted?)
(Reading database ... 19252 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking libavutil51 (from .../libavutil51_6%3a0.8.21-0+deb7u1_armel.deb) ...
dpkg-deb: file `/var/cache/apt/archives/libavutil51_6%3a0.8.21-0+deb7u1_armel.deb' contains ununderstood data member data.tar.xz     , giving up
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libavutil51_6%3a0.8.21-0+deb7u1_armel.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess dpkg-deb --fsys-tarfile returned error exit status 2
Unpacking libavcodec53 (from .../libavcodec53_6%3a0.8.21-0+deb7u1_armel.deb) ...
dpkg-deb: file `/var/cache/apt/archives/libavcodec53_6%3a0.8.21-0+deb7u1_armel.deb' contains ununderstood data member data.tar.xz     , giving up
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libavcodec53_6%3a0.8.21-0+deb7u1_armel.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess dpkg-deb --fsys-tarfile returned error exit status 2
Preparing to replace libpulse0 0.9.21-3 (using .../libpulse0_2.0-6.1_armel.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libpulse0 ...
dpkg-deb: file `/var/cache/apt/archives/libpulse0_2.0-6.1_armel.deb' contains ununderstood data member data.tar.xz     , giving up
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libpulse0_2.0-6.1_armel.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess dpkg-deb --fsys-tarfile returned error exit status 2
Unpacking libavformat53 (from .../libavformat53_6%3a0.8.21-0+deb7u1_armel.deb) ...
dpkg-deb: file `/var/cache/apt/archives/libavformat53_6%3a0.8.21-0+deb7u1_armel.deb' contains ununderstood data member data.tar.xz     , giving up
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libavformat53_6%3a0.8.21-0+deb7u1_armel.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess dpkg-deb --fsys-tarfile returned error exit status 2
Unpacking libdvdnav4 (from .../libdvdnav4_4.2.0+20120524-2_armel.deb) ...
dpkg-deb: file `/var/cache/apt/archives/libdvdnav4_4.2.0+20120524-2_armel.deb' contains ununderstood data member data.tar.xz     , giving up
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libdvdnav4_4.2.0+20120524-2_armel.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess dpkg-deb --fsys-tarfile returned error exit status 2
Unpacking libpostproc52 (from .../libpostproc52_6%3a0.8.21-0+deb7u1_armel.deb) ...
dpkg-deb: file `/var/cache/apt/archives/libpostproc52_6%3a0.8.21-0+deb7u1_armel.deb' contains ununderstood data member data.tar.xz     , giving up
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libpostproc52_6%3a0.8.21-0+deb7u1_armel.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess dpkg-deb --fsys-tarfile returned error exit status 2
Unpacking libswscale2 (from .../libswscale2_6%3a0.8.21-0+deb7u1_armel.deb) ...
dpkg-deb: file `/var/cache/apt/archives/libswscale2_6%3a0.8.21-0+deb7u1_armel.deb' contains ununderstood data member data.tar.xz     , giving up
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libswscale2_6%3a0.8.21-0+deb7u1_armel.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess dpkg-deb --fsys-tarfile returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libavutil51_6%3a0.8.21-0+deb7u1_armel.deb
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libavcodec53_6%3a0.8.21-0+deb7u1_armel.deb
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libpulse0_2.0-6.1_armel.deb
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libavformat53_6%3a0.8.21-0+deb7u1_armel.deb
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libdvdnav4_4.2.0+20120524-2_armel.deb
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libpostproc52_6%3a0.8.21-0+deb7u1_armel.deb
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libswscale2_6%3a0.8.21-0+deb7u1_armel.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
ghost:/#

Can anyone help?

TIA.

2

It looks like you’re encountering issues because your version of dpkg doesn’t support .xz compressed files, which are used in the newer .deb packages.

If you cannot Update dpkg to a version that supports .xz archives and the issue persists, you might need to manually download and install dpkg from a more recent repository or try updating to a newer distribution if possible. This should enable support for the .xz format and allow the installations to proceed without errors.

3

Ok. Thank you for your input.
That said, that my current dpkg cannot install .xz archives, how would I upgrade to Debian Jessie with a broken dpkg? I cannot compile a working dpkg, So, how would I go about upgrading?

Thank you.

4

You can try manually downloading and installing a compatible dpkg version without using dpkg itself.

5

Any idea where I can find it? I need the "armel" architecture version. It seems to be difficult to find.

Thank you, sir.

6

Try here:

http://archive.debian.org/debian/pool/main/d/dpkg/

7

That is the problem, of course, when you are running operations on any OS which is long past end-of-life:

Wheezy also had benefited from Long Term Support (LTS) until the end of May 2018. The LTS was limited to i386, amd64, armel and armhf.

Since your system is 6 years past EOL, you should consider migrating to a new server which is not EOL, to be candid and honest.

8

Yes. Thank you. I was able to get dpkg to a version that is working. However, I still get an error:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  alpine alsa-base alsa-utils apt apt-utils aptitude base-files binutils bitlbee ca-certificates centerim console-setup cpp cpp-4.4 dpkg esound-common fbi gawk gcc gcc-4.4 gcc-4.4-base ghostscript
  gstreamer0.10-plugins-base ifupdown initscripts iputils-ping irssi keyboard-configuration libaprutil1 libc-bin libc-dev-bin libc6 libc6-dev libcups2 libcupsimage2 libcurl3-gnutls libcwidget3 libdevmapper1.02.1 libesd0
  libgcc1 libgl1-mesa-glx libgomp1 libgssapi-krb5-2 libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0 libgstreamer0.10-0 libjack-jackd2-0 libk5crypto3 libkrb5-3 libkrb5support0 libldap-2.4-2 liblocale-gettext-perl libmpfr4 libopenal1
  libpam-modules libsasl2-2 libsdl1.2debian libsigc++-2.0-0c2a libsmbclient libsox-fmt-alsa libsox-fmt-base libstdc++6 libtext-charwidth-perl libtext-iconv-perl libtiff4 libxml2 man-db mc menu module-init-tools mount
  netbase nmap ntpdate openssl oss-compat oss4-base passwd perl perl-base perl-modules procps python python-dbus python-gobject python-minimal sox sysvinit tmux update-inetd usbutils wpasupplicant xz-utils
The following packages will be upgraded:
  alsa-oss bsdmainutils bzip2 dialog elinks-lite file gftp-common gftp-text htop less libaa1 libaudio2 libavahi-client3 libavahi-common3 libbz2-1.0 libdbus-glib-1-2 libdrm2 libdvdread4 libexif12 libfaad2 libffi5
  libfontenc1 libfribidi0 libgcrypt11 libgdbm3 libglib2.0-0 libgpg-error0 libgpgme11 libidn11 libiw30 libjasper1 libjpeg62 libkeyutils1 libltdl7 liblua5.1-0 liblzo2-2 libmagic1 libmenu-cache1 libmikmod2 libmpg123-0
  libnewt0.52 libnl1 libpam0g libpaper1 libpcap0.8 libpcre3 libpcsclite1 libpixman-1-0 libpopt0 libreadline5 libreadline6 libsdl-gfx1.2-4 libsdl-mixer1.2 libselinux1 libsepol1 libsmpeg0 libsqlite3-0 libss2 libsysfs2
  libtalloc2 libtasn1-3 libudev0 libusb-0.1-4 libvisual-0.4-0 libwavpack1 libwbclient0 libxaw7 libxdamage1 libxfixes3 libxinerama1 libxkbfile1 libxmu6 libxpm4 libxt6 libxv1 libxxf86dga1 libxxf86vm1 linux-libc-dev lzma
  mikmod minicom mpg123 nano nap nethack-common nethack-console psmisc screen shared-mime-info splitvt ttf-dejavu-core udev wget whiptail xkb-data xserver-xfbdev
96 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 92 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B/20.6MB of archives.
After this operation, 2713kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? 

Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated!
  bzip2 libbz2-1.0 libpam0g libselinux1 libsepol1 libss2 libgpg-error0 libgcrypt11 libgdbm3 libnewt0.52 libpopt0 libreadline6 libtasn1-3 udev libudev0 libusb-0.1-4 libidn11 libkeyutils1 file libmagic1 libpcre3 alsa-oss
  libaa1 libxt6 libaudio2 libavahi-common3 libavahi-client3 libffi5 libglib2.0-0 libdbus-glib-1-2 libdrm2 libdvdread4 libexif12 libfaad2 libfontenc1 libfribidi0 libiw30 libjasper1 libjpeg62 libltdl7 liblua5.1-0 liblzo2-2
  libmikmod2 libmpg123-0 libnl1 libpaper1 libpcap0.8 libpcsclite1 libpixman-1-0 libreadline5 libsdl-gfx1.2-4 libsdl-mixer1.2 libsmpeg0 libsqlite3-0 libsysfs2 libtalloc2 libvisual-0.4-0 libwavpack1 libwbclient0 libxmu6
  libxpm4 libxaw7 libxfixes3 libxdamage1 libxinerama1 libxkbfile1 libxv1 libxxf86dga1 libxxf86vm1 ttf-dejavu-core libmenu-cache1 bsdmainutils nano wget whiptail less dialog gftp-text gftp-common htop libgpgme11
  linux-libc-dev lzma mikmod minicom mpg123 nap nethack-console nethack-common psmisc screen shared-mime-info splitvt xserver-xfbdev elinks-lite xkb-data
Install these packages without verification [y/N]? 

Install these packages without verification [y/N]? y
Extracting templates from packages: 100%
Preconfiguring packages ...
Can not write log, openpty() failed (/dev/pts not mounted?)
Setting up util-linux (2.20.1-5.3) ...
Can't locate Dpkg.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1 /usr/local/share/perl/5.10.1 /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.10 /usr/share/perl/5.10 /usr/local/lib/site_perl .) at /usr/sbin/update-alternatives line 16.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/sbin/update-alternatives line 16.
dpkg: error processing util-linux (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 util-linux
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Thank you for your help! You are indeed The Founder.

9

It's good if you read your error messages and think about them; what they are, and why you have time (before posting).

The error in your post suggests a missing or broken Perl module, Dpkg.pm, which is essential for dpkg operations.

Specifically, this issue is affecting update-alternatives and preventing dpkg from correctly configuring util-linux.

Normally errors messages are very useful; and when you are running a version of Debian which is 6 years past EOL, you cannot expect any of the automated processes to work flawlessly.

So, you must either (1) upgrade to a new server version running a fully supported version of Debian / Linux, or (2) you will have to (struggle to) fix every error in your obsolete version of Debian one-error-at-a-time, @ignatius

Running unsupported software 6 years past end-of-life is not a good idea, for anyone. If you want an easier life, you need to run your apps on a supported, modern version of Debian or Linux.

1 Like