VLC Player has been removed, now I can't reinstall it

[jakkups]

Also I just remembered that this happened after I did a partial upgrade if that helps.

[Paqman]

Also I just remembered that this happened after I did a partial upgrade if that helps.

Ah. Partial upgrades are a bad idea. You generally only get them if the repos are in an unstable condition and the package manager isn't able to resolve all the dependencies require to do a full update.

Are you running the testing branch (Raring Ringtail)? Getting a partial upgrade offered is extremely rare unless you're testing.

Either way, the best way to resolve a problem with the repos is to wait a day or two then try again. Sometimes switching to a different server helps, but you've already done that once.

[jakkups]

Ah. Partial upgrades are a bad idea. You generally only get them if the repos are in an unstable condition and the package manager isn't able to resolve all the dependencies require to do a full update.

Are you running the testing branch (Raring Ringtail)? Getting a partial upgrade offered is extremely rare unless you're testing.

Either way, the best way to resolve a problem with the repos is to wait a day or two then try again. Sometimes switching to a different server helps, but you've already done that once.

This is what version I'm running.

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=12.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=precise
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS"

[Paqman]

OK, that's the regular release then. So you've definitely refreshed your sources and switched to a different server? Have you added or removed any new repos, PPAs, etc lately?

[jakkups]

OK, that's the regular release then. So you've definitely refreshed your sources and switched to a different server? Have you added or removed any new repos, PPAs, etc lately?

Since this partial upgrade added videolan/master-daily PPA and added libavcodec & libavutil 4:0.8.4ubuntu0.12.04.1 repos.

Unchecked and then rechecked all the software sources and chose a different server aswell.

[Paqman]

Righto, you may not be running a testing branch of Ubuntu, but you've got a testing PPA enabled. That's where the breakage has come from. For future reference, anything calling itself a "daily" is likely to be unstable, and should be treated with a bit of caution.

If you do enable some unstable sources and get offered a "partial upgrade", open up a tool like Synaptic and check exactly what will be removed before you decide to either accept or refuse the upgrade.

Uncheck that PPA, open a terminal with Ctrl-T and run:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get install vlc

This will get a list of packages minus all the stuff from the PPA, remove anything you don't need installed, then try to install VLC. Post back any errors you get.

[jakkups]

Everything worked fine up until the installation part. This is what I got back:

sudo apt-get install vlc
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.
vlc : Depends: vlc-nox (= 2.0.3+git20121114+r428-0~r41~precise1) but it is not going to be installed
Recommends: vlc-plugin-notify (= 2.0.3+git20121114+r428-0~r41~precise1) but it is not going to be installed
Recommends: vlc-plugin-pulse (= 2.0.3+git20121114+r428-0~r41~precise1) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

[Paqman]

E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Right, we're getting there. Try:

sudo apt-get -f install

Or if you have Synaptic installed it has a filter to locate and fix broken packages. They both do the same thing AFAIK.

[jakkups]

OK, this is what I got:

sudo apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

[mc4man]

If (for the moment or for good) you want to return to the ubuntu repo vlc vs. the videolan ppa version try this -

Disable the ppa in sources (if not already done

sudo apt-get purge vlc-data

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install vlc

see what occurs ...