Why do I get an "unmet dependencies" error when trying to install WINE? [duplicate]

Solution 1:

I had a similar problem with broken dependencies when trying to install wine and acroread, and a complaint when trying to install ia32-libs-multiarch, just after upgrading to 12.04 from 11.04 (passing over 11.10). It seems that some ppa's I had in 11.04 installed newer versions of applications in the system. After upgrading, the remains of these apps seemed to do some mess in the dependencies.

The solution that seems to work (until now), was found on a german ubuntu board (http://forum.ubuntuusers.de, posts from user Lasall):

First a downgrade is required and done with the following: create the 'preferences' file:

sudo vi /etc/apt/preferences

and insert the following lines:

Package: *       
Pin: release a=precise*
Pin-Priority: 2012

enter :wq to write the file. Pin-Priority must be greater than 1000.

Then you may downgrade the offending applications with:

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Then you may install packages that complained about dependencies, like sudo apt-get install ia32-libs-multiarch, or sudo apt-get install ia32-libs.

Finally, you should remove the file you just created:

sudo rm /etc/apt/preferences

because else no new updates would be found.

Hope this helps you too!

Solution 2:

This is what worked for me in ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS

Run

gksu gedit /etc/apt/preferences.d/base-files

Paste & Save

Package: *       
Pin: release a=precise*
Pin-Priority: 2012

Downgrade Apps Causing The Error

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Now We Can Install Wine

sudo apt-get install wine

Finally, remove the file you created

sudo rm /etc/apt/preferences.d/base-files