Unable to Upgrade 22.04 to 24.04 - An unresolvable problem occurred while calculating the upgrade

Hi Guys,

I am running - sudo do-release-upgrade

It then comes back with

Could not determine the upgrade 

An unresolvable problem occurred while calculating the upgrade. 

This was likely caused by: 
* Unofficial software packages not provided by Ubuntu 
Please use the tool 'ppa-purge' from the ppa-purge 
package to remove software from a Launchpad PPA and 
try the upgrade again. 

If none of this applies, then please report this bug using the 
command 'ubuntu-bug ubuntu-release-upgrader-core' in a terminal. If 
you want to investigate this yourself the log files in 
'/var/log/dist-upgrade' will contain details about the upgrade. 
Specifically, look at 'main.log' and 'apt.log'. 


Restoring original system state

Aborting
Reading package lists... Done    
Building dependency tree... Done 
Reading state information... Done

When I look in the main.log I see the following error

2025-05-01 18:49:40,745 ERROR Dist-upgrade failed: 'E:Error, pkgProblemResolver::Resolve generated breaks, this may be caused by held packages.'

I then run update and upgrade and get

john@UbuntuPlex:~$ sudo apt update
[sudo] password for john: 
Hit:1 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy InRelease
Hit:2 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates InRelease              
Hit:3 https://downloads.plex.tv/repo/deb public InRelease                      
Hit:4 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports InRelease            
Get:5 https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/edge stable InRelease [3,590 B]     
Get:6 https://esm.ubuntu.com/apps/ubuntu jammy-apps-security InRelease [7,613 B]
Hit:7 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security InRelease               
Hit:8 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/deluge-team/stable/ubuntu jammy InRelease
Get:9 https://esm.ubuntu.com/apps/ubuntu jammy-apps-updates InRelease [7,468 B]
Hit:10 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/jcfp/nobetas/ubuntu jammy InRelease
Get:11 https://esm.ubuntu.com/infra/ubuntu jammy-infra-security InRelease [7,462 B]
Hit:12 http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable InRelease
Get:13 https://esm.ubuntu.com/infra/ubuntu jammy-infra-updates InRelease [7,461 B]
Hit:14 http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/npreining:/debian-ubuntu-onedrive/xUbuntu_22.04  InRelease
Get:15 https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/edge stable/main amd64 Packages [18.3 kB]
Fetched 51.9 kB in 3s (19.2 kB/s)   
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
All packages are up-to-date.
john@UbuntuPlex:~$ sudo apt upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 0 not to upgrade.
john@UbuntuPlex:~$ sudo apt-cache policy update-manager
update-manager:
  Installed: 1:22.04.21
  Candidate: 1:22.04.21
  Version table:
 *** 1:22.04.21 500
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1:22.04.9 500
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/main i386 Packages

I can’t figure out what is stopping the upgrade, please help.

John

You should start with sudo apt full-upgrade before running the do-release-upgrade command… And make sure there are no held packages in the end…

Edit: also check that you do not have third party repos enabled that might potentially clash with package versions in the archive …

Hi Ogra,

Nothing needed done.

john@UbuntuPlex:~$ sudo apt full-upgrade
[sudo] password for john: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 0 not to upgrade.

John

Well, any PPA or other third party sources?

see below.

Checking package manager
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy InRelease                        
Hit https://downloads.plex.tv/repo/deb public InRelease                        
Get:1 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates InRelease [128 kB]     
Get:2 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security InRelease [129 kB]      
Hit https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/edge stable InRelease                 
Hit http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/npreining:/debian-ubuntu-onedrive/xUbuntu_22.04  InRelease
Hit https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/deluge-team/stable/ubuntu jammy InRelease 
Get:3 https://esm.ubuntu.com/apps/ubuntu jammy-apps-security InRelease [7,613 B]
Hit https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/jcfp/nobetas/ubuntu jammy InRelease       
Get:4 https://esm.ubuntu.com/apps/ubuntu jammy-apps-updates InRelease [7,468 B]
Hit http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports InRelease              
Hit http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable InRelease                     
Get:5 https://esm.ubuntu.com/infra/ubuntu jammy-infra-security InRelease [7,462 B]
Get:6 https://esm.ubuntu.com/infra/ubuntu jammy-infra-updates InRelease [7,461 B]
Fetched 287 kB in 0s (0 B/s)                                                   
Reading package lists... Done    
Building dependency tree... Done 
Reading state information... Done

What does sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop^ do? (note the caret (^)). Does that want to install more stuff?

Yes it does, I installed it, is that OK?

1 Like

Probably. It’s one step to returning your system to close to stock condition.
One assumes your data is properly backed up before starting a release-upgrade.
Now does your release-upgrade work?

1 Like

Hi Ian,

No it doesn’t. Still the same errors

Okay, you tried the easy stuff.

Now it gets more complex and time-consuming. The problem is most commonly something you installed from among those many non-Ubuntu sources. Or perhaps something you removed.

The typical troubleshooting from here involves iteration: Review the apt log, uninstall non-Ubuntu software, disable a non-Ubuntu source, try the release-upgrade again. Rinse and repeat for each non-Ubuntu source. At some point you will uninstall whatever you originally installed that is causing the problem. Maybe you get it on the first try if you are handy at reading the log. Maybe not.

This is, of course, very much what your original output suggested:

Decision Point: How much time and effort are you willing to invest before reinstalling becomes an attractive option?

1 Like

Could this be the issue?

Investigating (18) fontconfig-config:amd64 < 2.13.1-4.2ubuntu5 -> 2.15.0-1.1ubuntu2 @ii umU Ib >
Broken fontconfig-config:amd64 Breaks on kubuntu-settings-desktop:amd64 < 1:22.04.10 | 1:24.04.13 @ii umH > (< 1:23.04.3)
  Considering kubuntu-settings-desktop:amd64 0 as a solution to fontconfig-config:amd64 82
  Upgrading kubuntu-settings-desktop:amd64 due to Breaks field in fontconfig-config:amd64

That is one possibility among many.
Is this a kubuntu system?