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  • Please always run sudo apt-get update before a package install ... and before removing a package. I.e. : Currently Ubuntu 16.04 receives updates every day .... will be more consistent in a few months. - Commented Jun 11, 2016 at 9:55
  • @Knud Larsen, Thank you for your very helpful comment. I can understand having to run sudo apt-get update before package install. However, why do I have to run sudo apt-get update before package removal? What command do I run to find out the contents of the package mono-devel? Please have a nice weekend. Commented Jun 11, 2016 at 10:53
  • It looks like you ran apt-get install mono-devel (and apt is trying to upgrade it to the latest version). I don't see how you could get this error message if you were removing mono-devel. If this is really the output from apt-get purge mono-devel, what does apt-get -f install do? Commented Jun 11, 2016 at 11:59
  • @Gilles, You are a genius. -f, --fix-broken Fix; attempt to correct a system with broken dependencies in place.This option, when used with install/remove, can omit any packages to permit APT to deduce a likely solution. If packages are specified, these have to completely correct the problem. APT itself does not allow broken package dependencies to exist on a system. It is possible that a system's dependency structure can be so corrupt as to require manual intervention. May I ask how I may have corrupted my Ubuntu Linux 16.04 system's dependency structure? Thank you. Commented Jun 11, 2016 at 13:06
  • It's hard to tell what happened, probably an apt operation that got interrupted midway. The logs in /var/log/apt might provide a clue. Commented Jun 11, 2016 at 13:11