Python – Unable to install python2.7-dev due to unmet dependencies Ubuntu 12.04

dependenciespythonubuntu-12.04

Having exactly the same problem described on this page: http://qnundrum.com/answer.php?q=431114

Below is directly quoted from that page:

I am unable to install python-dev becasue of unmet dependancies. How can I get around this? Deleting python is not an option and I cant got back to python2.6-dev as it cant be found.

sudo apt-get install python-dev

The following packages have unmet dependencies: python-dev : Depends: python2.7-dev (>= 2.7.3) but it is not going to be installed E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

So try python2.7-dev

sudo apt-get install python2.7-dev

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
python2.7-dev :
    Depends: python2.7 (= 2.7.3-0ubuntu3) but 2.7.3-0ubuntu3.1 is to be installed
    Depends: libpython2.7 (= 2.7.3-0ubuntu3) but 2.7.3-0ubuntu3.1 is to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

So my question is how I can solve this problem without uninstall Python? Any advice would be really appreciated!

Best Answer

If you're not already, try changing your package repository reference to 'Main' or the United States. Doing this fixed my Python-dev unmet-dependencies problem (my 12.04 install was using the United Kingdom package repository, previously).

  1. In 'Ubuntu Software Center' (USC) go to the menu/tab 'Edit => Software Sources'.
  2. Change the 'Download from' drop-down value to 'Main Server' or a server in the United States.
  3. Leave USC, the open 'Update Manager' from Ubuntu's program menu, and 'Check' for software update (or issue 'sudo apt-get update' in a terminal window).
  4. Update your software as you normally would, e.g. via 'Update Manager' or apt-get/aptitude in a terminal.

This repaired my repository and I went on to install whatever I needed afterwards, as normal.

Before rectifying my problem with the above instructions, various aptitude/apt-get commands suggested that I remove many, many packages, but, as you can apreciate, I didn't fancy loosing my 6-months+ of package additions, and that's even though I snapshot the package list at times (see my gist for hints)! I'm really glad I found out about the instructions I'm leaving here.

Hope this helps.

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