2

I was trying to install gnome3 on my ubuntu but because of some reason, apt-get went into an invalid state after the installation (which was incomplete i think). Whenever I try any apt-get operation, I get an error:

You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 gnome-shell : Depends: gnome-themes-standard (>= 2.91) but it is not installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try using -f.

When I try sudo apt-get -f install I get:

Unpacking gnome-themes-standard (from .../gnome-themes-standard_3.0.0-2~natty1_i386.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/gnome-themes-standard_3.0.0-2~natty1_i386.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite '/usr/share/themes/HighContrastInverse/index.theme', which is also in package gnome-accessibility-themes 3.0.0-0ubuntu1~build2
dpkg-deb: error: subprocess paste was killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Processing triggers for gconf2 ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/gnome-themes-standard_3.0.0-2~natty1_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Any way to fix this?

1
  • try these| sudo apt-get install -f | sudo dpkg --configure -a | sudo apt-get update | May 7, 2011 at 5:31

1 Answer 1

1

You're trying to install two packages that contain the file /usr/share/themes/HighContrastInverse/index.theme at the same time. That's not possible. In natty, this file is in gnome-themes-standard 2.91.93-1 and not in gnome-accessibility-themes 2.32.1-0ubuntu1. You have third-party versions of both these packages, so you should report your problem as a bug to that third party. If the packages come from different third parties, then these are two incompatible packages sources, which may or may not be a bug they consider worth fixing. Do make sure that you have their latest version of gnome-accessibility-themes first: run

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnome-accessibility-themes

The easiest solution to your problem is to wait for the package provider to fix the packages. Or, if nothing depends on gnome-accessibility-themes, you could try removing it.

The packaging tools actually offer a way to make two packages cohabit even when they provide a file in common. You can rename one of the packages' version of the file with dpkg-divert:

sudo dpkg-divert --rename --package gnome-accessibility-themes \
                 --divert /usr/share/themes/HighContrastInverse/index.theme.gnome-accessibility-themes \
                /usr/share/themes/HighContrastInverse/index.theme

I don't necessarily recommend this: there may be other incompatibilities between the packages that you'll only find out later, and it can get messy if there are a lot of conflicting files. If you try the diversion, dpkg-divert --remove --rename --package gnome-accessibility-themes /usr/share/themes/HighContrastInverse/index.theme will cancel its effects.

1
  • I think the package maintainers realized the problem and fixed it. All I did was apt-get update and apt-get -f install and voila! its fixed :)
    – jrharshath
    May 10, 2011 at 3:45

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .