[Bug 1920753] Re: Cannot install build-essential on fresh Ubuntu 20.04.2 installation

[Tigran Aivazian]

Oh, I have some good news. I just couldn't believe that Ubuntu 20 is so
badly broken that it is impossible to compile anything (surely, it would
be noticed by someone!) so I installed it in a VM inside the VirtualBox
and "build-essential" was installable without any problems (and gcc
compiles programs just fine).

Now, the only difference between this install and the one I did in the
morning on the physical SSD is that in the morning I ticked the option
"Download upgrades while installing" (or left it checked). In the VM I
unchecked this box. And also, in the fresh install in the VM I installed
"build-essentials" WITHOUT doing "sudo apt update ; sudo apt upgrade".

So, my guess is that one or both of these two things cause build-
essential breakage:

1. Ticking "Download upgrades during installation" option during install.
2. Doing "sudo apt update ; sudo apt upgrade" BEFORE "sudo apt install build-essential"

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1920753

Title:
  Cannot install build-essential on fresh Ubuntu 20.04.2 installation

Status in build-essential package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  After a fresh install of Ubuntu 20.04.2 (followed by upgrade to the
  very latest packages) I installed gcc and then wanted to install
  build-essential, but it fails with the following error message:

  $ sudo apt install build-essential
  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.
   build-essential : Depends: libc6-dev but it is not going to be installed or
                              libc-dev
                     Depends: g++ (>= 4:9.2) but it is not going to be installed
  E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

  This means that nothing can be compiled, obviously.

  Also, g++ cannot be installed either:

  $ sudo apt install g++
  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.
   g++ : Depends: g++-9 (>= 9.3.0-3~) but it is not going to be installed
  E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
  $ gcc --version
  gcc (Ubuntu 9.3.0-17ubuntu1~20.04) 9.3.0
  Copyright (C) 2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
  This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
  warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

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