60

I tried to install Scala with the typesafe stack and got into trouble. Now I cannot do much with apt (except update), the broken package seems to be impossible to remove/clean:

Here's the result of apt-get -f install:

$ sudo apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3:i386 scala-library liboil0.3:i386
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following extra packages will be installed:
  scala
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  scala
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
4 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 21.5 MB of archives.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
Get:1 http://apt.typesafe.com/ unicorn/main scala all 2.9.2-400 [21.5 MB]
Fetched 21.5 MB in 13s (1,567 kB/s)                                                                          
(Reading database ... 329381 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking scala (from .../scala_2.9.2-400_all.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/scala_2.9.2-400_all.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite '/usr/share/java/scala-partest.jar', which is also in package scala-library 2.9.1.dfsg-3
dpkg-deb: error: subprocess paste was killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/scala_2.9.2-400_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Here's my attempt to autoremove:

$ apt-get autoremove
E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (13: Permission denied)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), are you root?
phdp@desktop:~/work/manuscripts/ideas/ibm_food_webs$ sudo apt-get autoremove
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 typesafe-stack : Depends: scala but it is not installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try using -f.
0

7 Answers 7

64

I fixed my issue using this command:

sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite path-to-the-deb-file

If --force-overwrite doesn't work, try:

sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite-all path-to-the-deb-file

In your case:

sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite /var/cache/apt/archives/scala_2.9.2-400_all.deb
3
  • 2
    Thank you so much! You just made my day. This helped me where 'sudo apt --fix-broken install' failed.
    – Ohumeronen
    Jun 23, 2018 at 11:47
  • Thanks a lot. Mine too. Unmet dependencies with cuda-drivers!
    – lhlmgr
    Jun 6, 2020 at 16:50
  • 1
    Helped with this mongodb issue: dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/mongodb-org-database-tools-extra_5.0.6_amd64.deb (--unpack): trying to overwrite '/usr/bin/install_compass', which is also in package mongodb-org-tools 4.2.0 Thanks alot
    – cgn.dev
    Feb 19, 2022 at 20:45
29

the following command worked.

sudo rm -rf /var/lib/dpkg/updates/*
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
sudo rm /var/cache/apt/*.bin
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get update
sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt-get install -f

if still getting same error then try

sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq package_name 

after removing package update your system and restart once.

3
  • 4
    Remarkable how anyone could ever have come up with that exact sequence of commands. May 14, 2020 at 23:00
  • I have installed wrong version of GitLab CE 13.7 package (deb for the other Debian version) and only dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq package_name has helped me to fix it. Thanks a lot!
    – Tolbxela
    Jan 15, 2021 at 13:16
  • take my f***in upvote!!! Jul 12, 2023 at 7:48
13

It seems like removing the scala-library package and then reconfiguring might work. So you're on the right track. The correct commands are, in this order:

sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get install -f

Your autoremove command did not succeed because you did not run it as root (using sudo).

3
  • Actually, he reran the autoremove after it told him he was not root. Look at the third line. Jun 8, 2015 at 19:05
  • 2
    doesn't work...
    – Mehdi
    Dec 22, 2015 at 12:01
  • 1
    I found this set of commands useful as it identified the culprit who caused the bad dependency, allowing me to remove it normally. Otherwise it was a mystery who was causing the issue.
    – SunPowered
    Mar 13, 2016 at 11:16
9

In my case this worked:

sudo dpkg -P package_name 

(not deb name)

2
  • 1
    dpkg: dependency problems prevent removal of collada-dom-dev: ros-indigo-collada-parser depends on collada-dom-dev. ros-indigo-collada-urdf depends on collada-dom-dev. dpkg: error processing package collada-dom-dev (--purge): dependency problems - not removing Errors were encountered while processing: collada-dom-dev
    – Mehdi
    Dec 22, 2015 at 12:02
  • thx, saved my day
    – ZFNerd
    Mar 11, 2018 at 10:02
5

The easy way to open synaptic. It will states you that a broken packages are found so you have to locate the broken packages and just remove then you can do whatever you like.

2

The following worked for me (although I'm on x86):

$ sudo vim /var/lib/apt/lists/apt.typesafe.com_dists_unicorn_main_binary-i386_Packages

Change the line reading

Filename: pool/main/s/scala/scala_     2.9.2-400_all.deb

to:

Filename: pool/main/s/scala/scala_%20%20%20%20%202.9.2-400_all.deb

Followed by:

sudo apt-get remove scala-library
sudo apt-get remove scala
sudo apt-get install scala
1
  • 1
    Nano is easier for some users. Perhaps you can document that one can also use sudo nano or gksudo gedit?
    – nanofarad
    Sep 26, 2012 at 15:25
1

In my case I couldn't update the system because of the following error when trying sudo apt-get install -f:

update-alternatives: error: /var/lib/dpkg/alternatives/package_name broken: invalid status

A remedy was to remove the file from /var/lib/dpkg/alternatives and repeat the above command. I ran it a few times until all the invalid packages were fixed.

In my case it prevented me from configuring Java properly.

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