I used to have ffmpeg installed on my system, but somehow – I don’t know how or when – it got uninstalled. So, I tried installing ffmpeg via Synaptic. But when I mark it for installation, it gets the red exclamation mark indicating a broken package.

As I looked into this, I also discovered that in the past few days my system says that I have three packages that are “kept back”, and, although the system says they are ready to be updated, they never do update. The three packages are:

libavcodec58

libavutil56

libswresample3

sudo apt list –upgradable gives this result:

libavcodec58/bionic 7:4.3-2~18.04.york0 amd64 [upgradable from: 7:4.1.3-0ppa1~18.04]

libavutil56/bionic 7:4.3-2~18.04.york0 amd64 [upgradable from: 7:4.1.3-0ppa1~18.04]

libswresample3/bionic 7:4.3-2~18.04.york0 amd64 [upgradable from: 7:4.1.3-0ppa1~18.04]

sudo apt upgrade gives this result:

The following packages have been kept back:  

 libavutil56 libswresample3

0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.  

I had the idea to just uninstall those three packages, and then try reinstalling them, but….. I didn’t do that, uninstalling any one of them via Synaptic gave me a message that a LONG list of packages would also be uninstalled – basically, every multimedia application I have, such as Audacity, VLC, etc.

I’ve been reading LOTS of answers to others’ questions on this and other sites, but unfortunately they all leave me even more confused about what is wrong and what to do. So, I turn here for help.

Why am I not able to upgrade these three packages? How do I fix that problem?

How do I install ffmpeg from Synaptic without getting a broken package error message?

Output of sudo apt-get --reinstall install libavcodec58 libavutil56 libswresample3:

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:

 libavcodec58 : Depends: libx264-155 but it is not installable

E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Output of apt-cache policy libavcodec58 libavutil56 libswresample3:

libavcodec58:

  Installed: 7:4.1.3-0ppa1~18.04

  Candidate: 7:4.3-2~18.04.york0

  Version table:

     7:4.3-2~18.04.york0 500

        500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntuhandbook1/apps/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 Packages

 *** 7:4.1.3-0ppa1~18.04 500

        500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/cybermax-dexter/sdl2-backport/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 Packages

        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

libavutil56:

  Installed: 7:4.1.3-0ppa1~18.04

  Candidate: 7:4.3-2~18.04.york0

  Version table:

     7:4.3-2~18.04.york0 500

        500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntuhandbook1/apps/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 Packages

 *** 7:4.1.3-0ppa1~18.04 500

        500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/cybermax-dexter/sdl2-backport/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 Packages

        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

libswresample3:

  Installed: 7:4.1.3-0ppa1~18.04

  Candidate: 7:4.3-2~18.04.york0

  Version table:

     7:4.3-2~18.04.york0 500

        500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntuhandbook1/apps/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 Packages

 *** 7:4.1.3-0ppa1~18.04 500

        500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/cybermax-dexter/sdl2-backport/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 Packages

        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

output of sudo apt upgrade:

Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree       

Reading state information... Done

Calculating upgrade... Done

The following packages have been kept back:

  libavutil56 libswresample3

0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.

output of sudo apt update:

Ign:1 http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge InRelease

Ign:2 http://linux.dropbox.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease                         

Hit:3 https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial InRelease                  

Hit:4 https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu bionic InRelease                

Hit:5 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security InRelease              

Hit:6 http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge Release             

Hit:7 https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com bionic InRelease          

Hit:8 https://headsetapp.co/headset-electron/debian stable InRelease           

Hit:9 http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/stevenpusser/xUbuntu_18.04  InRelease

Hit:10 http://download.onlyoffice.com/repo/debian squeeze InRelease            

Hit:11 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease                       

Hit:12 https://www.collaboraoffice.com/repos/CollaboraOnline/CODE-ubuntu1804 ./ InRelease

Hit:13 http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/network:/messaging:/xmpp:/dino/xUbuntu_18.04  InRelease

Hit:14 http://repository.spotify.com stable InRelease                          

Hit:15 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates InRelease               

Hit:16 https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian bionic InRelease      

Hit:17 http://linux.dropbox.com/ubuntu bionic Release                          

Hit:19 http://ppa.launchpad.net/morphis/anbox-support/ubuntu bionic InRelease  

Hit:20 https://download.mono-project.com/repo/ubuntu stable-bionic InRelease   

Hit:21 https://repo.skype.com/deb stable InRelease                             

Hit:23 http://ppa.launchpad.net/agornostal/ulauncher/ubuntu bionic InRelease   

Hit:24 https://ocean.surfshark.com/debian stretch InRelease                    

Ign:25 http://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb stable InRelease                     

Hit:27 http://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb stable Release                       

Hit:28 http://ppa.launchpad.net/alexlarsson/flatpak/ubuntu bionic InRelease    

Hit:29 http://ppa.launchpad.net/andreasbutti/xournalpp-master/ubuntu bionic InRelease

Hit:30 http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable InRelease                  

Hit:31 http://dl.google.com/linux/earth/deb stable InRelease                   

Hit:32 http://deb.torproject.org/torproject.org bionic InRelease               

Hit:33 http://ppa.launchpad.net/atareao/atareao/ubuntu bionic InRelease        

Hit:34 https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/ms-teams stable InRelease          

Hit:35 http://ppa.launchpad.net/atareao/telegram/ubuntu bionic InRelease       

Get:36 https://mega.nz/linux/MEGAsync/xUbuntu_18.04 ./ InRelease [2,473 B]     

Hit:37 https://linux.teamviewer.com/deb stable InRelease                       

Hit:38 http://ppa.launchpad.net/audio-recorder/ppa/ubuntu bionic InRelease     

Hit:39 https://linux.teamviewer.com/deb preview InRelease                 

Hit:40 http://shop.softmaker.com/repo/apt wheezy InRelease                     

Hit:41 http://ppa.launchpad.net/bit-team/stable/ubuntu bionic InRelease        

Hit:42 http://ppa.launchpad.net/cybermax-dexter/sdl2-backport/ubuntu bionic InRelease

Hit:43 https://wire-app.wire.com/linux/debian stable InRelease            

Hit:44 http://ppa.launchpad.net/cybolic/vineyard-testing/ubuntu bionic InRelease

Hit:45 http://ppa.launchpad.net/danielrichter2007/grub-customizer/ubuntu bionic InRelease

Get:46 https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian stable InRelease [17.1 kB]                

Hit:48 http://ppa.launchpad.net/diesch/stable/ubuntu bionic InRelease          

Hit:49 http://ppa.launchpad.net/gerardpuig/ppa/ubuntu bionic InRelease         

Hit:18 https://packagecloud.io/firstlookmedia/code/ubuntu bionic InRelease     

Hit:50 http://ppa.launchpad.net/i2p-maintainers/i2p/ubuntu bionic InRelease    

Hit:51 http://ppa.launchpad.net/maarten-baert/simplescreenrecorder/ubuntu bionic InRelease

Hit:52 http://ppa.launchpad.net/mikhailnov/pulseeffects/ubuntu bionic InRelease

Hit:54 http://ppa.launchpad.net/nextcloud-devs/client/ubuntu bionic InRelease

Hit:22 https://packages.riot.im/debian bionic InRelease                   

Hit:55 http://ppa.launchpad.net/nilarimogard/webupd8/ubuntu bionic InRelease

Hit:56 http://ppa.launchpad.net/noobslab/apps/ubuntu bionic InRelease

Hit:57 http://ppa.launchpad.net/openshot.developers/ppa/ubuntu bionic InRelease

Hit:58 http://ppa.launchpad.net/peek-developers/stable/ubuntu bionic InRelease

Hit:59 http://ppa.launchpad.net/phoerious/keepassxc/ubuntu bionic InRelease

Hit:60 http://ppa.launchpad.net/photoflare/photoflare-stable/ubuntu bionic InRelease

Hit:61 http://ppa.launchpad.net/psi-plus/ppa/ubuntu bionic InRelease

Hit:62 http://ppa.launchpad.net/rvm/smplayer/ubuntu bionic InRelease

Hit:63 http://ppa.launchpad.net/sandromani/gimagereader/ubuntu bionic InRelease

Hit:64 http://ppa.launchpad.net/stebbins/handbrake-releases/ubuntu bionic InRelease

Get:65 http://ppa.launchpad.net/system76-dev/stable/ubuntu bionic InRelease [15.4 kB]

Hit:66 http://ppa.launchpad.net/teejee2008/ppa/ubuntu bionic InRelease         

Hit:67 http://ppa.launchpad.net/thomas.tsai/ubuntu-tuxboot/ubuntu bionic InRelease

Hit:68 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntuhandbook1/apps/ubuntu bionic InRelease   

Hit:69 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntuhandbook1/cantata-qt/ubuntu bionic InRelease

Hit:70 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntuhandbook1/corebird/ubuntu bionic InRelease

Hit:71 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ufleisch/kid3/ubuntu bionic InRelease          

Hit:72 http://ppa.launchpad.net/webupd8team/y-ppa-manager/ubuntu bionic InRelease

Hit:73 http://ppa.launchpad.net/yg-jensge/shotwell/ubuntu bionic InRelease     

Hit:74 http://ppa.launchpad.net/yktooo/ppa/ubuntu bionic InRelease             

Fetched 35.0 kB in 13s (2,664 B/s)                                             

Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree       

Reading state information... Done

3 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.