Trying to overwrite ... which is different from other instances of package

Question

I tried to upgrade Intel graphics in ubuntu 16.10 using the official installer. The last stage of unpacking libcairo2 produces an error (see figure).

When I do upgrade I get the same error also:

Preparing to unpack .../0-libcairo2_1.15.2-0intel1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libcairo2:amd64 (1.15.2-0intel1) over (1.15.2-0intel1) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /tmp/apt-dpkg-install-aYhdFd/0 libcairo2_1.15.2-0intel1_amd64.deb (--unpack):
trying to overwrite shared '/usr/share/doc/libcairo2/changelog.Debian.gz', which is different from other instances of package libcairo2:amd64
Preparing to unpack .../1-libcairo2_1.15.2-0intel1_i386.deb ...
Unpacking libcairo2:i386 (1.15.2-0intel1) over (1.15.2-0intel1) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /tmp/apt-dpkg-install-aYhdFd/1-libcairo2_1.15.2-0intel1_i386.deb (--unpack):
trying to overwrite shared '/usr/share/doc/libcairo2/changelog.Debian.gz', which is different from other instances of package libcairo2:i386
Errors were encountered while processing:
/tmp/apt-dpkg-install-aYhdFd/0-libcairo2_1.15.2-0intel1_amd64.deb
/tmp/apt-dpkg-install-aYhdFd/1-libcairo2_1.15.2-0intel1_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

It seems that there is a conflict in thelibcairo releases; if yes, how to resolve it ?

Answer 1

Removing the change-log file helped me out here. (If you want you can do a backup, but it is only a change-log file.)

sudo rm /usr/share/doc/libcairo2/changelog.Debian.gz

And then trying again to update. I did it via;

sudo apt-get update

and then

sudo apt-get upgrade

You could try it again with the intel update tool.

Answer 2

I have a similar problem with libmysqlclient21.

The solution was found in Debian Bug Report. The next command helped me fix the issue:

sudo apt-get install -f -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-overwrite" libmysqlclient21

Then continue with the normal upgrading process.