Problem Description: I am trying to upgrade the system to 24.04, but it keeps complaining about ubuntu-desktop, ubuntu-gnome-desktop and update-manager. I have tried to uninstall them, reinstall them, but to no avail.
Relevant System Information:
Screenshots or Error Messages: The main.log file shows:
2025-02-11 18:21:15,701 DEBUG Marking 'ubuntu-desktop' for upgrade
2025-02-11 18:21:16,856 WARNING Can't mark 'ubuntu-desktop' for upgrade (E:No es poden corregir els problemes, teniu paquets retinguts que estan trencats.)
2025-02-11 18:21:16,857 DEBUG Marking 'ubuntu-gnome-desktop' for upgrade
2025-02-11 18:21:17,735 WARNING Can't mark 'ubuntu-gnome-desktop' for upgrade (E:No es poden corregir els problemes, teniu paquets retinguts que estan trencats.)
2025-02-11 18:21:17,803 DEBUG denylist expr 'update-manager$' matches 'update-manager'
2025-02-11 18:21:17,804 DEBUG The package 'update-manager' is marked for removal but it's in the removal deny list
2025-02-11 18:21:56,694 ERROR Dist-upgrade failed: 'El paquet «update-manager» estĂ marcat per a eliminar-lo, perĂČ apareix a la llista negra de fitxers a eliminar.'
2025-02-11 18:21:56,720 DEBUG abort called
2025-02-11 18:21:56,722 DEBUG openCache()
The localized messages mean âUnable to correct problems, you have held broken packagesâ.
What Iâve Tried: I have tried removing other packages that might cause problems (like non-free Brother drivers), but the result is still the same. I have tried removing both ubuntu-desktop and ubuntu-gnome-desktop, but nothing.
For the record, if I remove ubuntu-desktop and ubuntu-gnome-desktop and retry, main.log shows:
2025-02-11 19:38:21,944 DEBUG none of the '['ubuntu-desktop', 'kubuntu-desktop', 'xubuntu-core', 'xubuntu-desktop', 'ubuntustudio-desktop', 'lubuntu-desktop', 'ubuntu-gnome-desktop', 'ubuntu-mate-core', 'ubuntu-mate-desktop', 'ubuntukylin-desktop', 'ubuntu-budgie-desktop']' meta-pkgs installed
2025-02-11 19:38:21,945 DEBUG guessing 'ubuntu-gnome-desktop' as missing meta-pkg
2025-02-11 19:38:22,949 ERROR failed to mark 'ubuntu-gnome-desktop' for install (E:No es poden corregir els problemes, teniu paquets retinguts que estan trencats.)
2025-02-11 19:38:48,485 DEBUG denylist expr 'update-manager$' matches 'update-manager'
2025-02-11 19:38:48,485 DEBUG The package 'update-manager' is marked for removal but it's in the removal deny list
2025-02-11 19:38:51,115 ERROR Dist-upgrade failed: 'El paquet «update-manager» estĂ marcat per a eliminar-lo, perĂČ apareix a la llista negra de fitxers a eliminar.'
2025-02-11 19:38:51,146 DEBUG abort called
And dpkg --get-selections | grep hold gives absolutely nothing, and I have done apt update and apt upgrade several times without errors.
just thinking outload what about?
check /var/log/dist-upgrade/main.log to see what is actually the problem and modify the sudo dpkg â remove & reinstall command example below to the actual package at fault
example
The thing is I have already removed both packages, but then my second post happens: the installer guesses itâs ubuntu-gnome-desktop and still fails to mark it for update.
joanc@lenovo700:~$ sudo apt upgrade
S'està llegint la llista de paquets⊠Fet
S'està construint l'arbre de dependÚncies⊠Fet
S'està llegint la informació de l'estat⊠Fet
S'està calculant l'actualització⊠Fet
El paquets segĂŒents s'han instal·lat automĂ ticament i ja no sĂłn necessaris:
cheese libreoffice-draw libreoffice-gnome libreoffice-impress
libreoffice-pdfimport usb-creator-common usb-creator-gtk
Empreu «sudo apt autoremove» per a suprimir-los.
Get more security updates through Ubuntu Pro with 'esm-apps' enabled:
vlc-plugin-qt libvlc5 python2.7-minimal libimage-magick-perl
python3-jupyter-core vlc-data python3-tornado libvlccore9 libheif1 dcmtk vlc
imagemagick vlc-bin libopusfile0 libjs-jquery-ui libpathplan4 vlc-l10n
graphviz libgvpr2 libgvc6 libdcmtk16 libopenexr25 libmagick++-6.q16-8
python-setuptools python3-scipy libcgraph6 libmagickcore-6.q16-6-extra
vlc-plugin-samba libcdt5 libimage-magick-q16-perl libmagickwand-6.q16-6
libpython2.7 vlc-plugin-notify jupyter-core imagemagick-6.q16
python-pkg-resources libmagickcore-6.q16-6 vlc-plugin-access-extra
vlc-plugin-skins2 libgsl27 vlc-plugin-video-splitter liblab-gamut1
imagemagick-6-common vlc-plugin-video-output libgslcblas0 python2.7
libde265-0 libpython2.7-minimal libpmix2 libvlc-bin libpython2.7-stdlib
vlc-plugin-base vlc-plugin-visualization
Learn more about Ubuntu Pro at https://ubuntu.com/pro
0 actualitzats, 0 nous a instal·lar, 0 a suprimir i 0 no actualitzats.
OK, I hit yes, this is the result. Looks promising, Iâm going to retry the upgrade.
Update:
Didnât work. The update manager crashed, but the end of main.log shows the same error again: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages
2025-02-11 22:55:29,762 WARNING Can't mark 'ubuntu-desktop' for upgrade (E:No es poden corregir els problemes, teniu paquets retinguts que estan trencats.)
2025-02-11 22:55:29,845 DEBUG denylist expr 'update-manager$' matches 'update-manager'
2025-02-11 22:55:29,845 DEBUG The package 'update-manager' is marked for removal but it's in the removal deny list
Your apt policy output shows that at some time in past you had 24.04 (noble) apt sources,
and your apt update output shows apparently changed back to 22.04 (jammy) apt sources.
Indeed, that would make exactly the kind of confusing mess you describe.
As a matter of fact, I tried to upgrade a couple weeks ago, the process was interrupted and the sources.list file got changed. But I recovered the old one and it seemed that I had recovered integrity. But youâre right, for some reason update-manager didnât get it.
I would be inclined to fix the sources.list files to have noble and then sudo apt update and sudo apt dist-upgrade (and perhaps also sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop^ to be sure), because as has been observed, youâre half way between 22.04 and 24.04, and the only way to go is forward, not backwards. You cannot use update-manager to do this.
