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Thrawn

Member

Registered: 2012-05-01

Posts: 17

[SOLVED] How to handle pacman error "could not satisfy dependencies"?

Hi everyone !!

Today I tried to update my system (pacman -Syu), but I had this error :

error: failed to prepare transaction (could not satisfy dependencies)
:: Starting full system upgrade...
:: libsoup-gnome: requires libsoup=2.40.3

Usually I google around to search how to solve this kind of errors, depending on a specific package. But it's not the first time it happens, and I would like to know is there is a "generic way" to solve this kind of problems. (I'm aware it might highly depend of the specific package, but I'm looking for advice on how to solve this kind of problems, not only this specific one).

I mean, what is the usual way to deal with this kind of errors ? Is it ignoring the problematique package (or group of package) while waiting for another update ? And if yes, how to get the initial package that created the problematic dependency ? Is it to force the update of the problematic package and then do a full upgrade ? Is it because the package became obsolete and that I have to suppress it ? What is usually the cause of thoses kind of errors ? What kind of log information should I read on my computer to understand better where this problem come from ?

Thanks for your help !!!

Last edited by Thrawn (2013-04-29 12:10:52)

jasonwryan

Anarchist

From: .nz

Registered: 2009-05-09

Posts: 30,426

Website

Re: [SOLVED] How to handle pacman error "could not satisfy dependencies"?

It is always helpful to post full error messages; ie., the package you are trying to install...
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fo … ow_to_Post

Your local db appears to be out-of-date.

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Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,727

Re: [SOLVED] How to handle pacman error "could not satisfy dependencies"?

pacman -S libsoup
pacman -Su

seems the libsoup update isn't applying cleanly, I had to do this and I've run into a few other people, too.

Thrawn

Member

Registered: 2012-05-01

Posts: 17

Re: [SOLVED] How to handle pacman error "could not satisfy dependencies"?

Thanks for your answers !!!

From what I understand, the best way to fix this kind of problems is :

* have a clean local database

pacman -Sy

or

pacman -Syy

* fix the problem with the specific package first,

pacman -S <package>

* and then to upgrade the rest of the system.

pacman -Su

At least, it worked for me for this specific package.

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,727

Re: [SOLVED] How to handle pacman error "could not satisfy dependencies"?

It should work in many cases. If the package in question has anything to do with filesystem or with pacman itself (glibc, curl, etc), it could cause a lot of problems, though. Usually if those types of updates are having problems, there will be a news post or atleast a mailing list post.