apt-get broken after version update (unmet dependencies)

I did an upgrade for 14.04-->15.10 with the software update tool. I logged back in and tried to upgrade/update. I'm met with error messages about unmet dependencies have to do with TeXlive which are preventing me from do any apt-get operations.

I get this response every time I try to do something with apt-get:

 user@XPS13:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade
    [sudo] password for user: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 asymptote : Depends: texlive-latex-base but it is not installed
             Depends: texlive-base-bin
 context : Depends: texlive-binaries but it is not installed
           Recommends: fonts-freefont but it is not installable
 dvipng : Depends: texlive-base-bin
 feynmf : Depends: texlive-latex-base but it is not installed
          Depends: texlive-font-utils but it is not installed
          Depends: texlive-extra-utils but it is not installed
 fragmaster : Depends: texlive-base-bin
              Depends: texlive-latex-base but it is not installed
              Depends: texlive-extra-utils but it is not installed
              Depends: texlive-font-utils but it is not installed
 latex-beamer : Depends: texlive-latex-base but it is not installed
 latex-cjk-common : Depends: texlive-latex-base but it is not installed
                    Depends: texlive-font-utils (>= 2007.dfsg.2-1) but it is not installed
 latex-cjk-thai : Depends: texlive-latex-base but it is not installed
                  Depends: texlive-lang-other (>= 2013.20130523-1) but it is not installed
 latexmk : Depends: texlive-latex-base but it is not installed
 luatex : Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2014) but it is not installed
 musixtex : Depends: texlive-binaries but it is not installed
 pmx : Depends: texlive-latex-base but it is not installed
 prosper : Depends: texlive-latex-base but it is not installed
 tex4ht : Depends: texlive-base-bin
 tex4ht-common : Depends: texlive-base-bin
 texlive-base : Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed
 texlive-fonts-extra-doc : Depends: texlive-base (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed
                           Depends: tex-common (>= 6) but 4.04 is installed
 texlive-fonts-recommended-doc : Depends: tex-common (>= 6) but 4.04 is installed
                                 Depends: texlive-base (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed
 texlive-full : Depends: texlive-lang-spanish (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-music (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-2 is installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-arabic (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-english (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-metapost-doc (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed
                Depends: texlive-bibtex-extra (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-latex-extra (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-2 is installed
                Depends: texlive-xetex (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed
                Depends: texlive-latex-base (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-french (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-science-doc (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-2 is installed
                Depends: texlive-latex-recommended (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-polish (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-latex-recommended-doc (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-german (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-fonts-recommended (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-math-extra (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-2 is installed
                Depends: texlive-games (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-extra-utils (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-font-utils (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-latex-base-doc (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed
                Depends: texlive-publishers-doc (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-2 is installed
                Depends: texlive-pstricks (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-2 is installed
                Depends: texlive-latex-extra-doc (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-2 is installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-indic (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-cyrillic (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-czechslovak (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-other (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-greek (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-fonts-extra (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-korean (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-omega (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed
                Depends: texlive-pictures-doc (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-african (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: prerex but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-portuguese (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-formats-extra (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-science (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-2 is installed
                Depends: texlive-pictures (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-cjk (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-humanities (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-plain-extra (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-2 is installed
                Depends: texlive-metapost (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-italian (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-publishers (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-2 is installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-chinese (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-generic-recommended (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-generic-extra (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-base (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-japanese (>= 2015) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-luatex (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed
                Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2015.20150524) but it is not installed
                Depends: texlive-pstricks-doc (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-2 is installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-european (>= 2015) but it is not installed
 texlive-humanities-doc : Depends: texlive-base (>= 2015) but 2013.20140215-1 is installed
                          Depends: tex-common (>= 6) but 4.04 is installed
 texlive-latex-extra : Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed
 texlive-latex-recommended : Depends: texlive-latex-base (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed
                             Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed
 texlive-luatex : Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed
 texlive-math-extra : Depends: texlive-latex-base (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed
                      Depends: texlive-fonts-recommended (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed
                      Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed
 texlive-metapost : Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed
 texlive-music : Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed
                 Depends: texlive-latex-base (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed
 texlive-omega : Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed
                 Depends: texlive-latex-base (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed
 texlive-pictures : Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed
 texlive-pstricks : Depends: texlive-generic-recommended (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed
                    Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed
                    Recommends: texlive-font-utils but it is not installed
                    Recommends: texlive-extra-utils but it is not installed
 texlive-publishers : Depends: texlive-latex-base (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed
 texlive-science : Depends: texlive-latex-base (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed
                   Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed
 texlive-xetex : Depends: texlive-latex-base (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed
                 Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2013.20130512) but it is not installed
 tipa : Depends: texlive-latex-base but it is not installed
        Depends: texlive-base-bin
E: Unmet dependencies. Try using -f.
user@XPS13:~$ 

running apt-get -f install downloaded the missing packages, but then returned an error, and the issue persists:

Fetched 1,526 MB in 10min 34s (2,404 kB/s)                                     
Extracting templates from packages: 100%
Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 654588 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../texlive-latex-base-doc_2015.20150625-1ubuntu1_all.deb ...
Unpacking texlive-latex-base-doc (2015.20150625-1ubuntu1) over (2013.20140215-1) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/texlive-latex-base-doc_2015.20150625-1ubuntu1_all.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite '/usr/share/doc/texlive-doc/latex/url/url.tex.gz', which is also in package texlive-latex-recommended-doc 2013.20140215-1
dpkg-deb: error: subprocess paste was killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/texlive-latex-base-doc_2015.20150625-1ubuntu1_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I found a thread on another forum where someone had the exact same issue after a version upgrade but there is no solution.

https://superuser.com/questions/489681/package-problems-after-upgrade

Doing apt-get purge of the texlive packages just returns the same error about missing dependencies.

Another thread with an identical issue:

dpkg-deb: error: subprocess paste was killed by signal (Broken pipe) after installing Ubuntu 15.10

Update:

I manually removed every one of the offending packages one by one using dpkg --purge --force-all. apt-get works now as far as I can tell. Hopefully when I reinstall texlive all will be well.


Solution 1:

I fixed the problem in a bit simpler way, just

sudo dpkg --force-all --purge texlive-latex-base-doc

After this, I was able to complete the update successfully.

Solution 2:

I had a similar problem. In my case I had to run

sudo dpkg --purge --force-all texlive-xetex
sudo dpkg --purge --force-all texlive-math-extra

as mentioned by @mysonbort. These two packages where somehow creating conflicts. After removing them a

sudo apt-get -f install

worked smoothly.