How to install libc6:i386 on 16.04.4 64bit?

I've been trough all the similar questions I can find on here and elsewhere but still can't get a working solution for this.

Things I've tried:

apt-get install libc6:i386

This tries to remove most of the currently installed 64bit libraries that if run would leave the machine unusable.

I've run the following based on other questions/answers and still no joy:

dpkg --add-architecture i386
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade

All complete cleanly but don't change the output of trying to install the 32bit libraries.

The next option was to try:

apt-get install libc6-i386

Which returns:

The following packages have unmet dependencies,
 libc6-i386 : Depends: libc6 (= 2.23-0ubuntu3) but 2.23-0ubuntu10 is to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages

This error appears misleading as apt-mark showhold returns no packages.

The end goal here is to install Symantec's AV package which needs the 32bit libraries.

Solution 1:

Make sure you have enabled all sections in Software & Updates and selected good mirror (I prefer Main server) in

1. Ubuntu Software

   

2. and security-updates in Updates:

   

Then sudo apt-get install libc6:i386 will be enough.

Or deeper:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get install libc6:i386
sudo apt-get install -f

On my system libc:i386 is installed with version 2.23-0ubuntu10.

Solution 2:

1. Boot the Operating System into recovery mode

   Screenshot of recovery mode

2. Select 'root -Drop to root shell prompt' in the Recovery menu

3. Then

dpkg --add-architecture i386 -f (for force install)

apt-get update apt-get upgrade apt-get dist-upgrade

4. Then reboot normally.

I was having the same problem because I installed some 3rd party packages which corrupted the dpkg and broke the dependencies. After trying all these answers I was gonna reinstall Ubuntu, it is when I got the idea to try Recovery mode. 😅😅😅