dpkg error on apt-get upgrade

[Christopher Browne]

On Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 9:00 AM, Thomas Milne
<tbrucemilne-TcoXwbchSccMMYnvST3LeUB+6BGkLq7r at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> I ran an apt-get upgrade and for the first time ever (testament to the
> perfection of Debian) I got an error:
>
> Preparing to replace lives-data 1:1.0.0-0.0 (using
> .../lives-data_1%3a1.3.10-0.1_all.deb) ...
> Unpacking replacement lives-data ...
> dpkg: error processing
> /var/cache/apt/archives/lives-data_1%3a1.3.10-0.1_all.deb (--unpack):
>  trying to overwrite '/usr/bin/build-lives-rfx-plugin', which is also
> in package lives 1:1.0.0-0.0
> Errors were encountered while processing:
>  /var/cache/apt/archives/lives-data_1%3a1.3.10-0.1_all.deb
> E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
>
> Tried Google, but not sure what part of that to google, mostly get no
> hits. It looks like I've got a permissions problem, it can't overwrite
> the old binaries?
>
> First time I've ever run into this, so I'm lost. Any hints?

It is somewhat self-explanatory...

That particular file is in two packages, which conflicts.

You might resolve this by de-installing the offending packages, and
installing "fresh" the stuff you want.

Perhaps a bug needs to be reported.  You could use reportbug to do so.

You can cause the new .deb to overwrite the file from the other package via:
dpkg -i whatever.deb --force-overwrite

See the force options:
root at cbbrowne:~# dpkg --force-help
dpkg forcing options - control behaviour when problems found:
  warn but continue:  --force-<thing>,<thing>,...
  stop with error:    --refuse-<thing>,<thing>,... | --no-force-<thing>,...
 Forcing things:
  all [!]                Set all force options
  downgrade [*]          Replace a package with a lower version
  configure-any          Configure any package which may help this one
  hold                   Process incidental packages even when on hold
  bad-path               PATH is missing important programs, problems likely
  not-root               Try to (de)install things even when not root
  overwrite              Overwrite a file from one package with another
  overwrite-diverted     Overwrite a diverted file with an undiverted version
  bad-verify             Install a package even if it fails authenticity check
  depends-version [!]    Turn dependency version problems into warnings
  depends [!]            Turn all dependency problems into warnings
  confnew [!]            Always use the new config files, don't prompt
  confold [!]            Always use the old config files, don't prompt
  confdef [!]            Use the default option for new config files if one
                         is available, don't prompt. If no default can be found,
                         you will be prompted unless one of the confold or
                         confnew options is also given
  confmiss [!]           Always install missing config files
  confask [!]            Offer to replace config files with no new versions
  breaks [!]             Install even if it would break another package
  conflicts [!]          Allow installation of conflicting packages
  architecture [!]       Process even packages with wrong architecture
  overwrite-dir [!]      Overwrite one package's directory with another's file
  remove-reinstreq [!]   Remove packages which require installation
  remove-essential [!]   Remove an essential package

WARNING - use of options marked [!] can seriously damage your installation.
Forcing options marked [*] are enabled by default.
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