Broken system on a friends machine

[rapattack]

Hi i was trying to install a few things the other day at a friends house. I am not an expert and she has no basic knowledge at all. Not sure how to fix this as i can't seem to install anything via synaptic or the add/remove software center. Hope the images help

[Bucky Ball]

Disable third-party repositories and run:

sudo apt-get install -f

... as the fourth screen shot suggests.

This is where it generally gets difficult and confusing when someone is trying to troubleshoot for a friend because I am presuming you are not sitting in front of that machine?

These shots look like they were taken eleven days ago and there was some trouble with the launchpad repos at the time from memory. Have you been anywhere near that machine since and do you know the current state of play with it?

[rapattack]

Hi thanks yes i am not in front of the machine and your right about the date. Been swamped and don't know when i will have time to get back there. I cant instruct her over the phone or anything as she is too skitish about anything tech and won't listen to instructions. Thats what i get for convincing her to use Linux instead of windows lol. Well windows was installed but the sound was mute. I checked everything(hardware/software) and no progress. Installed Ubuntu and no problems with the sound at all. Oh and yes got the driver from the manufacturers website and a clean install of windows. Anyway she is so new to computing she doesn;t know the difference.

[Bucky Ball]

Well, try what I mention in my first post when you're in front of the machine. Launchpad repos were down at the time of pics so everything may be back to normal now. Get here to try an update with update manager and find out.

Not a lot to do if you're not at that machine, though.

[rapattack]

Yes thanks I am hoping to get there in the next few days :0)

[rapattack]

i am in front of the computer now and did the command above in the terminal then update and upgrade. Its worked! Thanks so much. Will post if theres further issues. Managed to also install a couple of things and ran them. Firefox seems to still have some issue. I forgot to post about that but chrome is working as in a browser so that will do for now

[Bucky Ball]

Great news! Please mark thread as solved using the instructions in my signature and post a new thread regarding any further issues. Good luck.

PS: Not sure what release you have installed but just a tip: always a good idea to use LTS releases for these 'at a distance' installs you do. They are the most stable and with five years support.

The interim releases (from 13.10 on) have only nine months support which presents the hassle of having to somehow get to the machine and upgrade it to a supported release every nine months (and my mother-in-law's Ubuntu machine is 750Kms away so that is very inconvenient!).

[rapattack]

Yes thanks will do that. Thanks for the tip :0) I have seen LTS but didnt know what it was about. Now i know...thanks again

[Bucky Ball]

All good. Incidentally, with the LTS releases, rather than saying having to upgrade from 12.10>13.04>13.10>14.04 LTS you can leap frog the interims and simply go from one LTS to the next, i.e. 12.04 LTS>14.04 LTS>16.04 LTS etc. via the Update Manager.

LTS releases are every two years but supported for five.

[rapattack]

Oh ok i see. So this is not fraut with problems like years ago? I remember i tried to do that and too many things went wrong. I always download the iso/live version then install from that.