How do I resolve “The following packages have unmet dependencies”

[Keith Mills]

I am setting up a new Server (Debian 10). I need to install required packages (and some Perl Modules) with_items using default package manager (apt). When I run my playbook, I receive the following failure:

failed: [deb7ex6405] (item=libexpat1-dev) => {"ansible_loop_var": "item", "cache_update_time": 1559401245, "cache_updated": false, "changed": false, "item": "libexpat1-dev", "msg": "'/usr/bin/apt-get -y -o \"Dpkg::Options::=--


force-confdef\" -o \"Dpkg::Options::=--force-confold\"     --simulate install 'libexpat1-dev'' failed: E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.\n", "rc": 100, "stderr": "E: Unable to correct problems, you have held


broken packages.\n", "stderr_lines": ["E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages."], "stdout": "Reading package lists...\nBuilding dependency tree...\nReading state information...\nSome packages could not be


installed. This may mean that you have\nrequested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable\ndistribution that some required packages have not yet been created\nor been moved out of Incoming.\nThe following information


may help to resolve the situation:\n\nThe following packages have unmet dependencies:\n libexpat1-dev : Depends: libexpat1 (= 2.1.0-1+deb7u2) but 2.1.0-1+deb7u4 is to be installed\n", "stdout_lines": ["Reading package lists...",


"Building dependency tree...", "Reading state information...", "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:", " libexpat1-dev : Depends: libexpat1 (=


2.1.0-1+deb7u2) but 2.1.0-1+deb7u4 is to be installed"]}

Ansible Version:

ansible 2.8.0
config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
configured module search path = [u'/home/kjames/.ansible/plugins/modules',
 u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
 ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible
 executable location = /usr/bin/ansible
 python version = 2.7.5 (default, Apr  9 2019, 14:30:50) [GCC 4.8.5 20150623
 (Red Hat 4.8.5-36)]

Ansible Controller:

NAME="CentOS Linux"
VERSION="7 (Core)"

Destination Server:

PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 7 (wheezy)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="7"

new-buildserver.yaml:

---
# Plan
# use a staging inventory file or specify individual hosts
# copy repos
# install packages
# copy configs for installed packages
# install cpan modules
# update all the things to appropriate levels
# install mxdk
#


- hosts: buildservers
  remote_user: root
  roles:
    - buildservers

debian-8.yaml:

---
    # 2018-07-02
    # Vollmer


    # Install required packages (and some perl modules) with_items using default package manager


    - name: install required packages
      package:
        name: "{{ item }}"
        state: present
      with_items:
        - alien
        - apache2
        - autofs
        - bison
        - createrepo
        - dos2unix
        - flex
#       - g++-multilib
        - git
        - html2text
        - krb5-user
#       - libc6-dev-i386
#       - libevent-dev
        - libmng1
#       - libxml++2.6-2v5
#       - libxml++2.6-dev
#       - libxml2-dev
        - libxml++2.6-2
#       - libxml2-dev:i386
#       - lib64stdc++6:i386
        - libxml2-utils
        - lzma
        - make
#       - smbfs
        - nasm
        - ntp
        - pbuilder
        - python-lxml
        - rpm2cpio
        - xsltproc
        - zip
        - libexpat1-dev
        - libssl-dev
        - zlib1g-dev
        - cpanminus
#       - update
        # The following never worked but were included in the original deployment scripts, kept here for reference
#       - lib64stdc++6:i386
#       - libxml2-dev:i386
#       - smbfs
        # It appears that Debian uses all CPAN provided modules so we do not need to install any from the package manager
      - name: install required perl modules
        package:
          name: "{{ item }}"
          state: present
#         type: package
        with_items:
          - libanydata-perl
          - libapache-asp-perl
          - libcrypt-rc4-perl
          - libdigest-sha-perl
          - libhttp-dav-perl
          - liblog-log4perl-perl
          - libsoap-lite-perl
          - libterm-shell-perl
          - libxml-dom-perl
          - libxml-libxml-perl
          - libxml-sax-perl
          - libxml-xpath-perl

ansible-playbook -i buildservers-agd new-buildserver.yaml --limit DEBIAN

I have tried `sudo apt-get install -f`.

-f, --fix-broken Fix; attempt to correct a system with broken dependencies in place.

This didn't work.

I have also tried:

sudo apt-get 

update sudo 

apt-get clean 

sudo apt-get autoremove

Expected results are to have the packages install successfully.

[Kai Stian Olstad]

On 31.07.2019 17:29, Keith Mills wrote:
> I am setting up a new Server (Debian 10). I need to install required
> packages (and some Perl Modules) with_items using default package manager
> (apt). When I run my playbook, I receive the following failure:
>
> failed: [deb7ex6405] (item=libexpat1-dev) => {"ansible_loop_var": "item",
> "cache_update_time": 1559401245, "cache_updated": false, "changed": false,
> "item": "libexpat1-dev", "msg": "'/usr/bin/apt-get -y -o
> \"Dpkg::Options::=--
>
>
> force-confdef\" -o \"Dpkg::Options::=--force-confold\" --simulate
> install 'libexpat1-dev'' failed: E: Unable to correct problems, you have
> held broken packages.\n", "rc": 100, "stderr": "E: Unable to correct
> problems, you have held
>
>
> broken packages.\n", "stderr_lines": ["E: Unable to correct problems, you
> have held broken packages."], "stdout": "Reading package lists...\nBuilding
> dependency tree...\nReading state information...\nSome packages could not be

This error message has nothing to do with Ansible.
Suggest you seek support in a Debian community.


--
Kai Stian Olstad