Ytdyklly

Apparently I broke my Debian system again.

If I want to install anything using apt I get the following warning:

Reading state information... Done

You might want to run 'apt --fix-broken install' to correct these.

The following packages have unmet dependencies:

 libc-bin : Depends: libc6 (< 2.25) but 2.27-3 is to be installed

 locales : Depends: libc-bin (> 2.27) but 2.24-11+deb9u3 is to be installed

E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt --fix-broken install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

Following this hint is no use, as it only results in

The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:

  bc cups-browsed cups-core-drivers cups-daemon cups-filters cups-filters-core-drivers

  cups-ppdc cups-server-common dc foomatic-db-compressed-ppds foomatic-db-engine hp-ppd

  hplip-data libart-2.0-2 libavahi-glib1 libcupscgi1 libcupsmime1 libcupsppdc1

  libfontembed1 libgutenprint2 libhpmud0 liblouisutdml-bin liblouisutdml-data

  liblouisutdml7 libqpdf17 libsane-hpaio libsnmp-base libsnmp30 mscompress

  openprinting-ppds printer-driver-all printer-driver-brlaser printer-driver-c2050

  printer-driver-c2esp printer-driver-cjet printer-driver-dymo printer-driver-escpr

  printer-driver-foo2zjs printer-driver-foo2zjs-common printer-driver-fujixerox

  printer-driver-hpijs printer-driver-m2300w printer-driver-min12xxw

  printer-driver-pnm2ppa printer-driver-ptouch printer-driver-pxljr

  printer-driver-sag-gdi python3-pexpect python3-pil python3-ptyprocess

  python3-renderpm python3-reportlab python3-reportlab-accel qpdf ssl-cert

Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.

The following packages will be REMOVED:

  cups hplip libc-bin locales printer-driver-gutenprint printer-driver-hpcups

  printer-driver-postscript-hp printer-driver-splix task-english task-print-server

WARNING: The following essential packages will be removed.

This should NOT be done unless you know exactly what you are doing!

  libc-bin

0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 10 to remove and 7 not upgraded.

1 not fully installed or removed.

After this operation, 22.0 MB disk space will be freed.

You are about to do something potentially harmful.

To continue type in the phrase 'Yes, do as I say!'

 ?] 

A quick Google search informed me that removing libc-bin is a terrible idea, which and idiot like me should never do. The question is now, how can I fix my problem?

Further info:

$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 9.4.0 _Stretch_ - Official amd64 NETINST 20180310-11:21]/ stretch main

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 9.4.0 _Stretch_ - Official amd64 NETINST 20180310-11:21]/ stretch main

deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ stretch main non-free contrib

deb-src http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ stretch main non-free contrib



deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates main contrib non-free

deb-src http://security.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates main contrib non-free



# stretch-updates, previously known as 'volatile'

deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main contrib non-free

deb-src http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main contrib non-free

Requested by comments:

$ sudo apt install libc-bin/stable

Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree       

Reading state information... Done

libc-bin is already the newest version (2.24-11+deb9u3).

Selected version '2.24-11+deb9u3' (Debian:9.4/stable [amd64]) for 'libc-bin'

Selected version '2.24-11+deb9u3' (Debian:9.4/stable [amd64]) for 'libc6' because of 'libc-bin'

You might want to run 'apt --fix-broken install' to correct these.

The following packages have unmet dependencies:

 libc-bin : Depends: libc6 (< 2.25) but 2.27-3 is to be installed

 locales : Depends: libc-bin (> 2.27) but 2.24-11+deb9u3 is to be installed

E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt --fix-broken install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*

# deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-toolchain-r/test/ubuntu cosmic main

# deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-toolchain-r/test/ubuntu cosmic main

$ apt-cache policy

Package files:

 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

     release a=now

 500 http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian stretch-updates/main amd64 Packages

     release o=Debian,a=stable-updates,n=stretch-updates,l=Debian,c=main,b=amd64

     origin ftp.de.debian.org

 500 http://security.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates/non-free amd64 Packages

     release v=9,o=Debian,a=stable,n=stretch,l=Debian-Security,c=non-free,b=amd64

     origin security.debian.org

 500 http://security.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates/contrib amd64 Packages

     release v=9,o=Debian,a=stable,n=stretch,l=Debian-Security,c=contrib,b=amd64

     origin security.debian.org

 500 http://security.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates/main amd64 Packages

     release v=9,o=Debian,a=stable,n=stretch,l=Debian-Security,c=main,b=amd64

     origin security.debian.org

 500 http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian stretch/contrib amd64 Packages

     release v=9.4,o=Debian,a=stable,n=stretch,l=Debian,c=contrib,b=amd64

     origin ftp.de.debian.org

 500 http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian stretch/non-free amd64 Packages

     release v=9.4,o=Debian,a=stable,n=stretch,l=Debian,c=non-free,b=amd64

     origin ftp.de.debian.org

 500 http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 Packages

     release v=9.4,o=Debian,a=stable,n=stretch,l=Debian,c=main,b=amd64

     origin ftp.de.debian.org

Pinned packages:

$dpkg --list libc6

 Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold

| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend

|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)

||/ Name             Version       Architecture  Description

+++-================-=============-=============-=====================================

ii  libc6:amd64      2.27-3        amd64         GNU C Library: Shared libraries

find /lib -name libc-*

/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc-2.27.so

The problem seems to be that you've somehow installed (or at least convinced dpkg that it's available) a newer version of the locales package. The one available in Stretch only depends on libc-bin (>> 2.24), while your output shows that your apt sees a version depending on libc-bin (> 2.27) (you might say it's inconsistent that dpkg uses >> in dependencies and apt outputs > in cases like this, that's the way it is, they mean the same).

The locales package is not essential, so I would try to remove that and then install it again afterwards, if you have a lot of locales compiled that might take a while.