Fixing dependency problems in Kali Linux

Fixing dependency problems in Kali Linux

Like many forums and blogs people are hell bent on providing help without much explanation, (i.e. do this and it will be fixed, God! I hate solutions like that) and users end up with too many lines in their sources.list file.

Many users goes to Debian website and add the following repositories in Kali as specified in this page:

deb [arch=i386,amd64,armel,armhf] http://http.kali.org/kali kali-dev main contrib non-free
deb [arch=i386,amd64,armel,armhf] http://http.kali.org/kali kali-dev main/debian-installer
deb-src http://http.kali.org/kali kali-dev main contrib non-free

deb [arch=i386,amd64,armel,armhf] http://http.kali.org/kali kali main contrib non-free
deb [arch=i386,amd64,armel,armhf] http://http.kali.org/kali kali main/debian-installer
deb-src http://http.kali.org/kali kali main contrib non-free

deb [arch=i386,amd64,armel,armhf] http://security.kali.org/kali-security kali/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.kali.org/kali-security kali/updates main contrib non-free

deb [arch=i386,amd64,armel,armhf] http://repo.kali.org/kali kali-bleeding-edge main
deb-src http://repo.kali.org/kali kali-bleeding-edge main

As I understand, first of all you don’t need to specify which architecture you’re using and neither do you have to add Bleeding Edge repositories unless you’re working on something that requires it. Following example was adapted from Kali Forums where a solution worked flawlessly.

Once you end up with a crappy sources.list file following is something similar what you’ll see when you do apt-get update or apt-get install something

W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://http.kali.org/kali/ kali/main amd64 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/http.kali.org_kali_dists_kali_main_binary-amd64_Packages)
W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://http.kali.org/kali/ kali/contrib amd64 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/http.kali.org_kali_dists_kali_contrib_binary-amd64_Packages)
W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://http.kali.org/kali/ kali/non-free amd64 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/http.kali.org_kali_dists_kali_non-free_binary-amd64_Packages)
W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://security.kali.org/kali-security/ kali/updates/main amd64 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/security.kali.org_kali-security_dists_kali_updates_main_binary-amd64_Packages)
W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://security.kali.org/kali-security/ kali/updates/contrib amd64 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/security.kali.org_kali-security_dists_kali_updates_contrib_binary-amd64_Packages)
W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://security.kali.org/kali-security/ kali/updates/non-free amd64 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/security.kali.org_kali-security_dists_kali_updates_non-free_binary-amd64_Packages)
W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems

This is how an example sources.list looks like with duplicate entries:

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 7.0 _Kali_ - Official Snapshot amd64 LIVE/INSTALL Binary 20130905-07:57]/ kali contrib main non-free

#deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 7.0 _Kali_ - Official Snapshot amd64 LIVE/INSTALL Binary 20130905-07:57]/ kali contrib main non-free

## Security updates
deb http://http.kali.org/kali kali main non-free contrib
deb http://security.kali.org/kali-security kali/updates main contrib non-free

deb [arch=i386,amd64,armel,armhf] http://http.kali.org/kali kali-dev main contrib non-free
deb [arch=i386,amd64,armel,armhf] http://http.kali.org/kali kali-dev main/debian-installer

deb [arch=i386,amd64,armel,armhf] http://http.kali.org/kali kali main contrib non-free
deb [arch=i386,amd64,armel,armhf] http://http.kali.org/kali kali main/debian-installer
deb http://repo.kali.org/kali kali-bleeding-edge main

deb-src http://http.kali.org/kali kali main non-free contrib
deb-src http://security.kali.org/kali-security kali/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://http.kali.org/kali kali main contrib non-free
deb-src http://http.kali.org/kali kali-dev main contrib non-free

The fix is rather easy, you just remove unnecessary lines from sources.list and stick with Kali Linux Official Repositories. This guide takes you through fixing you sources.list in Kali Linux.

Add official Kali Linux Repositories.

Hope this helps when you bump into similar issues.