Cannot install any package in Ubuntu using dpkg, getting "package architecture does not match system"

Whenever I want to upgrade or install any package on Ubuntu 16.04 this error appears!

dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/gcc-6-base_6.0.1-ubuntu1_amd64.deb (--unpack):

package architecture (amd64) does not match system (i386)

Errors were encountered while processing:

/var/cache/apt/archives/gcc-6-base_6.0.1-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb

E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

The uname command outputs as follows:

uname -i
x86_64
uname -a
Linux hossein 4.4.0-138-generic #164-Ubuntu SMP Tue Oct 2 17:16:02 UTC 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

2 Answers

Try to run this commands to enable support for the 64-bit userspace.

sudo apt-get update
sudo dpkg --add-architecture amd64
sudo apt-get update

and try to install the packages again. Also,you could try to run

dpkg --print-architecture

to move the investigation further.

Your processor, as quoted, works on a different architecture than the one provided by the binary inside the package. To work around this problem, you could:

• Download a compatible stable version, one that does run in a i386 architecture (you can download the package here) or...
• Download, compile and run the source code (suggested download here).

As you trying to install GCC, a simple

sudo apt-get install gcc

should work from the latest stable version. If you keep getting erros, try checking this threads: