Issue
I was using this script to install basic software, but had to interrupt because of slow internet speed.
Now when I hit $ sudo apt-get install npm , I get following error
yask123@yaskslaptop:~$ sudo apt-get installed npm
E: Invalid operation installed
yask123@yaskslaptop:~$ sudo apt-get install npm
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
npm : Depends: nodejs but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-abbrev (>= 1.0.4) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-ansi (>= 0.3.0-2) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-ansi-color-table but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-archy but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-block-stream but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-fstream (>= 0.1.22) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-fstream-ignore but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-github-url-from-git but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-glob (>= 3.1.21) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-graceful-fs (>= 2.0.0) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-inherits but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-ini (>= 1.1.0) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-lockfile but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-lru-cache (>= 2.3.0) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-minimatch (>= 0.2.11) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-mkdirp (>= 0.3.3) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-gyp (>= 0.10.9) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-nopt (>= 3.0.1) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-npmlog but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-once but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-osenv but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-read but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-read-package-json (>= 1.1.0) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-request (>= 2.25.0) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-retry but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-rimraf (>= 2.2.2) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-semver (>= 2.1.0) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-sha but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-slide but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-tar (>= 0.1.18) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-underscore but it is not going to be installed
Depends: node-which but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
Solution
The command to have Ubuntu fix unmet dependencies and broken packages is
sudo apt-get install -f
from the man page:
-f, --fix-broken Fix; attempt to correct a system with broken dependencies in place. This option, when used with install/remove, can omit any packages to permit APT to deduce a likely solution. If packages are specified, these have to completely correct the problem. The option is sometimes necessary when running APT for the first time; APT itself does not allow broken package dependencies to exist on a system. It is possible that a system's dependency structure can be so corrupt as to require manual intervention (which usually means using dselect(1) or dpkg --remove to eliminate some of the offending packages)
Ubuntu will try to fix itself when you run the command. When it completes, you can test if it worked by running the command again, and you should receive output similar to:
Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
Answered By - Eric Stillwagon Answer Checked By - Senaida (WPSolving Volunteer)