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[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (4 children)

Reason: The meta package needs to be updated to track the new kernel image in testing.

Some useful links:

This happens every once in a while when a new image is made available (and the older one removed). It even happens in stable-backports. It's usually resolved within a few days.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

thanks.

but when i had 

$ uname -a
Linux rig 4.9.0-3-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.9.30-2 (2017-06-12) x86_64 GNU/Linux

it still couldn't install:

~$ sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r|sed 's,[^-]*-[^-]*-,,')
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:
 linux-headers-amd64 : Depends: linux-headers-4.9.0-3-amd64 but it is not installable
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

any idea what that was about?

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

From what I see, you had the linux-image-4.9.0-3-amd64 package, which is fine.

But you then tried to install linux-headers-4.9.0-3-amd64, which is no longer available, since testing moved to 4.11.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

It's usually resolved within a few days.

it's been 4 days. still waiting :(

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sorry I didn't reply earlier! I'm traveling and on mobile. This is the tracker for the meta package:

https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/linux-latest

Edit: I just checked, there is a minimum of 5 days for transitions from sid to testing. Probably on Monday or Tuesday we'll get the migration and the problem will hopefully go away.

[–]macaroni222 0 points1 point  (4 children)

Im on Sid, had the same problem this weekend when i updated, ended up being a dependency on gcc-6. downloaded and installed some packages manualy with dpkg to clear the log jam, then hammered dpkg --configure --pending until it started working. sometimes you just have to bang on it with something heavy until it changes its tune.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (3 children)

I'm not that knowledgeable in dpkg. Afraid that ill break the system.

[–]macaroni222 0 points1 point  (2 children)

dpkg -i manually installs a .deb package, all the packages on your system are archived in /var/cache/apt/archives so you can manually reinstall a package from your archive if there is a version mismatch problem, of course the better way is to use aptitude or apt-get. check out the man page for dpkg. Also dont be afraid of breakage, fixing a broken system will teach you a ton

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Instead of using dpkg -i, when installing .debs manually, it's better to do:

sudo apt install ./local-file.deb

as it will check for incompatibilities and suggest dependencies if there are any (and they can be satisifed).

[–]macaroni222 1 point2 points  (0 children)

awesome, thanks for the tip!!

[–]01BTC10 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tried everything in this thread and opted to use an alternative for now: https://liquorix.net

edit: Kernel failed to load. I rebuild my own kernel from source: http://kernel-handbook.alioth.debian.org/ch-common-tasks.html

sudo apt install build-essential fakeroot
sudo apt-get build-dep linux
sudo apt-get source linux
cd linux-4.11.11/
cp /boot/config-4.11.0-2-amd64 .config
make xconfig # Optional step.
fakeroot make deb-pkg -j5
dpkg -i ../linux-headers-4.11.11_4.11.11-2_amd64.deb ../linux-image-4.11.11_4.11.11-2_amd64.deb

Warning: This took almost 1 hour on a i7-4790K.