Linux Headers issues

[celticfire]

I've been same issues with my system and I can't upgrade as I continually get this error:

E: The package linux-headers-4.4.0-141 needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.

even when attempting to reinstall with the following command:
sudo apt install --reinstall linux-headers-generic

I continue to get the error above.

Couple of odd things to note, when I run a list of the packages I get the following:

dpkg --list | grep linux-image
ii linux-image-4.4.0-139-generic 4.4.0-139.165 amd64 Linux kernel image for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
pi linux-image-4.4.0-141-generic 4.4.0-141.167 amd64 Linux kernel image for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-image-extra-4.4.0-139-generic 4.4.0-139.165 amd64 Linux kernel extra modules for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
pi linux-image-extra-4.4.0-141-generic 4.4.0-141.167 amd64 Linux kernel extra modules for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
pi linux-image-generic 4.4.0.141.147 amd64 Generic Linux kernel image

When I run uname -r I get this:
uname -r
4.4.0-139-generic


Anyone have any ideas? I seem to keep going in circles attempting to upgrade but can't reinstall the headers. All insight welcome, thanks in advance.

[TheFu]

4.4 is from the original 16.04 install. If you aren't tied to it, 4.15 is available and has been for a very long time.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack

I'm on this across all my production ubuntu servers and desktops.

ii linux-image-4.15.0-66-generic 4.15.0-66.75~16.04.1 amd64 Signed kernel image generic
ii linux-image-4.15.0-70-generic 4.15.0-70.79~16.04.1 amd64 Signed kernel image generic

[celticfire]

Thanks for the reply, but it look like something is corrupt in my kernel installation/configuration as even when I attempt to upgrade from the link provided I still get the same error:

sudo apt-get install --install-recommends linux-generic-hwe-16.04 xserver-xorg-hwe-16.04
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
E: The package linux-headers-4.4.0-141 needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.

[TheFu]

Dumb question - did a sudo apt update get run just before?

$ sudo apt search linux-headers-4.4.0-141
Sorting... Done
Full Text Search... Done
linux-headers-4.4.0-141/xenial-updates,xenial-updates,xenial-security,xenial-security 4.4.0-141.167 all
Header files related to Linux kernel version 4.4.0

linux-headers-4.4.0-141-generic/xenial-updates,xenial-security 4.4.0-141.167 amd64
Linux kernel headers for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP

linux-headers-4.4.0-141-lowlatency/xenial-updates,xenial-security 4.4.0-141.167 amd64
Linux kernel headers for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
Do you have at least 1 of those repos enabled?

Do you normally patch weekly? Getting into APT-hell can happen in a few different ways. Patching weekly, avoiding direct .deb file installations, and limiting the use of PPAs to just a few, reputable, PPAs per system is the easiest way to avoid APT issues.
Even if you do those things perfectly, having versioned backups that you can restore from yesterday, 3 weeks ago, 2 months ago is always helpful. Had a DB get corrupted when a new nextcloud update broken some things. Took me a few weeks to notice, because the core things for which I used nextcloud still worked fine. Anyway, I looked through to changes in the backups to find the DB modification and had to go back 35 days. If I didn't have 90 days of daily, automatic, versioned, backups, I'd have to start all over with nextcloud and the 15 apps installed inside. As it was, it took me a few times to figure out which app had broken things.

[ubfan1]

4.4.0-141 is a pretty old version. the only reason I can think of using it is the API change which occurred about that time (I thought 142 was the old API, but don't recall). Are you trying to builld a driver which fails with the newer headers?

[celticfire]

It's actually kind of strange, I haven't done anything to the system but I keep these errors. I also noticed this when I open software-properties-gtk

sudo software-properties-gtk

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/gtk/SoftwarePropertiesGtk.py", line 1171, in detect_drivers
self.apt_cache = apt.Cache()
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apt/cache.py", line 113, in __init__
self.open(progress)
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apt/cache.py", line 165, in open
self._depcache = apt_pkg.DepCache(self._cache)
SystemError: E:The package linux-headers-4.4.0-141 needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.

Does seem like there is some type of driver issue that is reliant on those headers but it is in some corrupted state. I also can't view any drivers that installed in the software-properties-gtk UI. Any ideas what I should do at this point? seems like everytime I attempt any type of upgrade or install I get that error (SystemError: E:The package linux-headers-4.4.0-141 needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.)

[ubfan1]

The header package dpkg "actons" are "p" whichis purge. If you had manually deleted some of those files, maybe the purge is getting confused. Manually try a sudo apt-get purge linux-image-generic 4.4.0.141.147 and for any complaints about "missing files" , just use touch to make them (zero length is OK). When you get rid of all the "p" actions, then try an install .

[celticfire]

Same thing:

sudo apt-get purge linux-image-generic 4.4.0.141.147
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
E: The package linux-headers-4.4.0-141 needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it.

[ubfan1]

Confirm that you are running Ubuntu 16.04, and post your /etc/apt/sources.list. Also apt-cache policy linux-headers-4.4.0-141

[TheFu]

Are these canonical repos in your APT sources?
xenial-updates,xenial-updates,xenial-security,xenial-security

BTW, running any GUI program using sudo is a bad idea. Always use sudo -H, if you must.

[Doug S]

With caution, try this (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/48431372/removing-broken-packages-in-ubuntu), which I am copying below:



Find your package in /var/lib/dpkg/info, for example using: ls -l /var/lib/dpkg/info | grep <package>


Move the package folder to another location:

sudo mv /var/lib/dpkg/info/<package>.* /tmp/


Run the following command:

sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq <package>