On Mon, Jul 02, 2007 at 01:00:58AM -0000, Adam wrote:
> Was wondering if anyone has a workaround for this problem other than
> uninstalling and reinstalling. I'm trying to upgrade a package and
> get this error. The software involved doesn't seem to be one that I
> can uninstall without uninstalling a bunch of things I'd rather not
> uninstall to reinstall. See error at the bottom of this upgrade
> command. The same happens when I just try an install. Any ideas
> would be greatly appreciated. I've tried to touch a 777 file for /usr/
> sbin/add-shell but I still get that error. I pretty much can't run
> any upgrade, I get the same error. I try the upgrade by itself then
> on debianutils.
>
> # uname -a
> Linux xena 2.6.7-1-386 #1 Thu Jul 8 05:08:04 EDT 2004 i686 GNU/Linux
2.6.7 is somewhat old now, but should be OK...
Which release are you running? Feels like sarge...
> # apt-get upgrade
> Reading Package Lists... Done
> Building Dependency Tree... Done
> The following packages have been kept back:
[snip lots of apt-get output]
> Need to get 0B/37.8MB of archives.
> After unpacking 16.0MB of additional disk space will be used.
> Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y
> Extracting templates from packages: 100%
> Preconfiguring packages ...
> (Reading database ... 38049 files and directories currently
> installed.)
> Preparing to replace debianutils 2.8.4 (using .../
> debianutils_2.21_i386.deb) ...
> Unpacking replacement debianutils ...
> dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/
> debianutils_2.21_i386.deb (--unpack):
> trying to overwrite `/usr/sbin/add-shell', which is also in package
> passwd
> dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)
> Errors were encountered while processing:
> /var/cache/apt/archives/debianutils_2.21_i386.deb
> E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
The debianutils and passwd packages both contain the file
/usr/sbin/add-shell, which is what the package manager complains about.
This is not a permissions problem - but the package manager complaining.
Looks like a bug in either debianutils or passwd: Debian policy says
that if they want to have the same file, they should declare that they
conflict with eachother. Or at least one of them should declare that.
You might get somewhere with:
apt-get install passwd
to upgrade the passwd package first - the current passwd package in etch
does not supply that file (but depends on debianutils which in turn does
supply it...)
Hope this helps
--
Karl E. Jorgensen
karl@jorgensen.org.uk http://www.jorgensen.org.uk/
karl@jorgensen.com http://karl.jorgensen.com
==== Today's fortune:
The default Magic Word, "Abracadabra", actually is a corruption of the
Hebrew phrase "ha-Bracha dab'ra" which means "pronounce the blessing".
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