How to diagnose "you have held broken packages" (error shows up when trying to install many different packages)

Question

Problem

I keep getting the error Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages. when trying to install packages, for example sqlite3 or opam (as well as many other packages, but not all)

sudo apt install sqlite3                                                                                                                                                mathieu-laptop
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
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:
 sqlite3 : Depends: libsqlite3-0 (= 3.45.1-1ubuntu2) but 3.45.1-1ubuntu2.1 is to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Same problem for opam:

sudo apt install opam                                                                                                                                                   mathieu-laptop
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
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:
 bzip2 : Depends: libbz2-1.0 (= 1.0.8-5.1) but 1.0.8-5.1build0.1 is to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

I've done all the typical fixes I could find, nothing seems to do anything:

mathieu@mathieu-laptop Downloads $ sudo apt update
Hit:1 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble InRelease
Hit:2 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-security InRelease
Hit:3 https://download.sublimetext.com apt/stable/ InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
All packages are up to date.
mathieu@mathieu-laptop Downloads $ sudo apt upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
Get more security updates through Ubuntu Pro with 'esm-apps' enabled:
  vlc-plugin-qt libvlc5 libzvbi-common vlc-data libvlccore9 vlc
  python3-virtualenv vlc-bin vlc-l10n libcjson1 libavdevice60 ffmpeg
  libpostproc57 vlc-plugin-samba libavcodec60 libzvbi0t64 vlc-plugin-notify
  libavutil58 libswscale7 vlc-plugin-access-extra vlc-plugin-skins2
  vlc-plugin-video-splitter libswresample4 vlc-plugin-video-output
  libavformat60 libvlc-bin vlc-plugin-base vlc-plugin-visualization
  libavfilter9
Learn more about Ubuntu Pro at https://ubuntu.com/pro
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
mathieu@mathieu-laptop Downloads $ sudo apt dist-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
Get more security updates through Ubuntu Pro with 'esm-apps' enabled:
  vlc-plugin-qt libvlc5 libzvbi-common vlc-data libvlccore9 vlc
  python3-virtualenv vlc-bin vlc-l10n libcjson1 libavdevice60 ffmpeg
  libpostproc57 vlc-plugin-samba libavcodec60 libzvbi0t64 vlc-plugin-notify
  libavutil58 libswscale7 vlc-plugin-access-extra vlc-plugin-skins2
  vlc-plugin-video-splitter libswresample4 vlc-plugin-video-output
  libavformat60 libvlc-bin vlc-plugin-base vlc-plugin-visualization
  libavfilter9
Learn more about Ubuntu Pro at https://ubuntu.com/pro
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
mathieu@mathieu-laptop Downloads $ sudo apt install -f
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
mathieu@mathieu-laptop Downloads $ sudo dpkg --get-selections | grep hold
mathieu@mathieu-laptop Downloads $ apt-mark showhold
mathieu@mathieu-laptop Downloads $

Hypothesis

My best explanation is this: I broke something by installing a package from .deb file using apt (apparently you're not supposed to do that), I then resolved an "held broken packages" error by errors by sudo apt install <dependency-name>=required-version (I forgot which one though), and now my system is in a broken state because it thinks that this dependency is required.

Question

How can I figure out what's going on?
Is there an easy way to revert to a sane state? (ie. not as drastic as re-installing ubuntu)

Update

Please edit your question to explain why you disabled or deleted the noble-updates repository, and why you cannot re-enable it

As far as I recall, I didn't ever disable or enable noble-updates. Is it safe to add as is? If yes, I don't have a problem with adding it. From anther answer from the commenter it seems that it was part of default, and this seems to roughly agree

$ apt-policy
Package files:
 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     release a=now
 500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-security/main amd64 Packages
     release v=24.04,o=Ubuntu,a=noble-security,n=noble,l=Ubuntu,c=main,b=amd64
     origin security.ubuntu.com
 500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-security/universe amd64 Packages
     release v=24.04,o=Ubuntu,a=noble-security,n=noble,l=Ubuntu,c=universe,b=amd64
     origin security.ubuntu.com
 500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-security/multiverse amd64 Packages
     release v=24.04,o=Ubuntu,a=noble-security,n=noble,l=Ubuntu,c=multiverse,b=amd64
     origin security.ubuntu.com
 500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-security/restricted amd64 Packages
     release v=24.04,o=Ubuntu,a=noble-security,n=noble,l=Ubuntu,c=restricted,b=amd64
     origin security.ubuntu.com
 500 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble/multiverse amd64 Packages
     release v=24.04,o=Ubuntu,a=noble,n=noble,l=Ubuntu,c=multiverse,b=amd64
     origin au.archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble/universe amd64 Packages
     release v=24.04,o=Ubuntu,a=noble,n=noble,l=Ubuntu,c=universe,b=amd64
     origin au.archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble/restricted amd64 Packages
     release v=24.04,o=Ubuntu,a=noble,n=noble,l=Ubuntu,c=restricted,b=amd64
     origin au.archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble/main amd64 Packages
     release v=24.04,o=Ubuntu,a=noble,n=noble,l=Ubuntu,c=main,b=amd64
     origin au.archive.ubuntu.com
 500 https://download.sublimetext.com apt/stable/ Packages
     release o=Sublime Text,a=apt/stable,l=Sublime Text APT Repository,c=
     origin download.sublimetext.com
Pinned packages:

Details

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS
Release:        24.04
Codename:       noble
$ uname -a                                                                                                                                                                        mathieu-laptop
Linux mathieu-laptop 6.11.0-24-generic #24~24.04.1-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Tue Mar 25 20:14:34 UTC 2 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered May 02 '25 at 10:22

Summary

I installed some packages, some of which depended from noble-updates
I removed the noble-updates suite due to carelessness
This caused conflicts in packages dependencies

Fix: just add noble-updates back in.

Story

I was annoyed with the popup that asked to update the popup every time I was doing something with my computer, so in the Software and updates application, I changed the setting (in the Updates tab) Automatically check for updates to Every two weeks instead of (forgot what the default was).

I then also saw the setting Subscribed to, which has three options: Security updates only, Security and recommended updates and All updates. I forgot what the default value was, I thought "I only care about security, updates are just a chance to break my system, the fewer the better" so I changed it Security updates only.

Turns out this last option changes the Suites from which updates are pulled (you can observe the file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntu.sources change as you change the option in the GUI).

In particular, it removes noble-updates.

So I changed the option back to Security updates and recommended updates (the fewer the better).

Further questions

Should I set the option to All updates instead of just `Security updates and recommended updates?
Suppose I wanted to use the option Security updates only. Is there an easy way to uninstall all the packages which came from the suite that I deleted (ie. how do I delete all the packages that are currently installed on my system but aren't from a my current suites?).