19

I am trying to install ia32-libs (a dependency to build the VirtualBox sources) on my Debian x86_64 box, however it's giving me the error:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 ia32-libs : Depends: ia32-libs-i386 but it is not installable
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Naturally, I went ahead to try and install ia32-libs-i386, but I faced another error:

Package ia32-libs-i386 is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

E: Package 'ia32-libs-i386' has no installation candidate

Does anybody know what the issue is here? I think I may need to enable multiarch, however I'm not completely sure. Here's my sources.list, if it helps at all:

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free

deb http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main
Improve this question
1
  • 5
    Welcome to unstable. It is unstable. Is there some reason you are using that? Doesn't seem like a good idea for a server.
    – Zoredache
    Aug 7, 2012 at 16:08

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
33

You need to enable the installation of i386 packages on your amd64 system:

dpkg --add-architecture i386
apt-get update

The ia32-libs-i386 package is only installable from the i386 repository, which becomes available with the above commands.

See also: http://wiki.debian.org/Multiarch/Implementation

Improve this answer
1
  • I tried that, then apt-get warned me that libc-bin would be removed, the system would probably be very broken, and so I would have to type "Yes, do what I say" to force it to put the system in a unusable state. Doesn't look good...
    – lfagundes
    Jun 24, 2013 at 21:07
1

The problem is using debian unstable and testing. Either use stable (or squeeze as it is currently called) or live with the brokenness.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .