How to Install ROS Kinetic Ubuntu 16.04

Question

After trying to install ROS following the instructions here.

After finally entering this command:

sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-desktop-full

I was presented with this error:

Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree

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:  ros-kinetic-desktop-full :

Depends: ros-kinetic-desktop but it is not going to be installed
 
Depends: ros-kinetic-perception but it is not going to be installed

Depends: ros-kinetic-simulators but it is not going to be installed E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

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Originally posted by yodigi7 on ROS Answers with karma: 21 on 2016-09-16

Post score: 2

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Original comments

Comment by jdmartin86 on 2016-12-19:
I'm having the same problem -- tried following Davide Faconti's solution, and it didn't help.

Comment by Qinsheng on 2017-09-23:
I have same problem and tried everythings but no luck!

Answer 1

Hi Yodigi,

I had the same problem with the exact same three depends messages after upgrading to 16.04. When you run

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

do you get a message about packages being "held back"? I fixed my issue by running

sudo apt-get install < packages-held-back >

which installs the packages and all of its dependencies. From what I've read, individually installing the packages is safer than running

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

I also had an issue with openni not configuring but the following commands solved the issue

sudo apt-get remove libopenni0

sudo apt-get purge libopenni*

and finally, running

sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-desktop-full

ran successfully.

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Originally posted by klindgren with karma: 56 on 2016-12-28

This answer was ACCEPTED on the original site

Post score: 4

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Original comments

Comment by youssef desouky on 2020-07-15:
this worked for me sudo apt-get dist-upgrade thankyou

Answer 2

I had the exact same problem and solved it by installing The Four Main Repositories:

1. Main - Canonical-supported free and open-source software.
2. Universe - Community-maintained free and open-source software.
3. Restricted - Proprietary drivers for devices.
4. Multiverse - Software restricted by copyright or legal issues.

To install these repositories one method is to go through the "Ubuntu Software Center". Open the software center, then from the Edit menu select "Software Sources" and select checkboxes next to the repository names. Complete Instruction can be found here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Ubuntu

However, when I controlled the "Ubuntu Software Center" these repositories were already checked! When I tried to close the window it throw an error that cannot update. I solved that problem by changing the Download From to Main Server.

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Originally posted by tekin with karma: 86 on 2017-07-05

This answer was NOT ACCEPTED on the original site

Post score: 5

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Original comments

Comment by zedrone on 2018-10-25:
it makes work "sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-desktop-full". Thanks!!

Comment by espkh4 on 2019-01-26:
Under System Settings->Software & Updates,

checking everything under Ubuntu Software, Other Software,Updates

then running sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-desktop-full

worked for me.

Answer 3

aptitude is very useful for this. In my case I had to say no to a handful of aptitude's proposed solutions, but eventually it offered to downgrade qt5, and that seems to have worked.

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Originally posted by drewm1980 with karma: 258 on 2017-08-18

This answer was NOT ACCEPTED on the original site

Post score: 1

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Original comments

Comment by jungx148 on 2020-11-09:
This worked for me. Thx!

Answer 4

I had the exact same issue. I solved it by tracking down the dependencies that caused this. I did this by asking one of the unmet dependencies to be be installed. You do this multiple times to go deeper in the dependency chain. At the end I found out that qt5 was the issue. I ran sudo apt-get purge '.*qt5*.' and ran sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-desktop-full again. It worked.

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Originally posted by asthma with karma: 21 on 2018-01-09

This answer was NOT ACCEPTED on the original site

Post score: 2

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Original comments

Comment by Raisintoe on 2018-08-30:
Your answer saved me, thank you!

Comment by Jägermeister on 2018-10-10:
Did not work for me :/