Ubuntu 12.04 amd64 - Unable to install libgcr-3-1:i386 - APT can't resolve dependency to libgcr-3-common:all

[Michael Wisheu]

Summary:
I've tried on a freshly installed Ubuntu 12.04 amd64 to install libgcr-3-1:i386.
APT fails to resolve the dependency libgcr-3-common:i386 which is plain wrong as APT should resolve the dependency to libgcr-3-common:all. Can someone please have a look and check if this is an issue with the package libgcr-3-1 or is a bug in APT?

Installation details:
Fresh install of Ubuntu 12.04 amd64
$ cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=12.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=precise
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS"

Package management system status:
$ sudo apt-get update -q=2 ; echo $?
0
$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -y
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

Attempt to install libgcr-3-1:i386:
$ sudo apt-get install libgcr-3-1:i386
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 libgcr-3-1:i386 : Depends: libgck-1-0:i386 (>= 3.2.2) but it is not going to be installed
                   Depends: libgcr-3-common:i386 but it is not installable
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Details about the packages:
$ sudo apt-cache show libgcr-3-1:i386
Package: libgcr-3-1
Priority: optional
Section: libs
Installed-Size: 715
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <email address hidden>
Original-Maintainer: Josselin Mouette <email address hidden>
Architecture: i386
Source: gnome-keyring
Version: 3.2.2-2ubuntu4
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.15), libcairo2 (>= 1.2.4), libgck-1-0 (>= 3.2.2), libgcrypt11 (>= 1.4.5), libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 (>= 2.22.0), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.31.8), libgtk-3-0 (>= 3.1.4), libp11-kit0 (>= 0.6), libpango1.0-0 (>= 1.18.0), libgcr-3-common
Filename: pool/main/g/gnome-keyring/libgcr-3-1_3.2.2-2ubuntu4_i386.deb
Size: 195902
MD5sum: f6174dd35a866a24100ad75f067e2f8a
SHA1: f2da89ca3d6e672662c660596d206912958d1fda
SHA256: 75f7f3173a15aeadcbb580826ff17e2879cb2bc2c17bc20223f8b4adbb7f0be6
Description-en: Library for Crypto UI related task - runtime
 GCR is a library for crypto UI and related tasks.
 .
 This package contains the shared libraries needed to run programs
 built against the GCR library.
Homepage: http://live.gnome.org/GnomeKeyring
Description-md5: 8a00eb544ac1338960d9775caa5693e1
Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug
Origin: Ubuntu
Supported: 5y
Task: ubuntu-desktop, ubuntu-usb, edubuntu-desktop, edubuntu-usb, xubuntu-desktop, mythbuntu-frontend, mythbuntu-frontend, mythbuntu-desktop, mythbuntu-backend-slave, mythbuntu-backend-slave, mythbuntu-backend-master, mythbuntu-backend-master, lubuntu-desktop, ubuntustudio-desktop

$ apt-cache show libgcr-3-common:i386
N: Can't select versions from package 'libgcr-3-common:i386' as it is purely virtual
N: No packages found

$ apt-cache show libgcr-3-common
Package: libgcr-3-common
Priority: optional
Section: libs
Installed-Size: 242
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <email address hidden>
Original-Maintainer: Josselin Mouette <email address hidden>
Architecture: all
Source: gnome-keyring
Version: 3.2.2-2ubuntu4
Replaces: libgcr-3-1 (<< 3.2.2-1)
Breaks: libgcr-3-1 (<< 3.2.2-1)
Filename: pool/main/g/gnome-keyring/libgcr-3-common_3.2.2-2ubuntu4_all.deb
Size: 19850
MD5sum: 2a79d7c683df510aec4c05d9c5d845fe
SHA1: 11ae097567312aa0a4c5f1b756f7f5f63f4bf2ec
SHA256: 9ac34fc318295e8574bf8cc205059a14232004ef2ce5866bb3c979235b3e15df
Description-en: Library for Crypto UI related task - common files
 GCR is a library for crypto UI and related tasks.
 .
 This package contains data files uses by the GCR library.
Homepage: http://live.gnome.org/GnomeKeyring
Description-md5: 62051b31c323709fb93c97d6f25f6bd4
Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug
Origin: Ubuntu
Supported: 5y
Task: ubuntu-desktop, ubuntu-usb, edubuntu-desktop, edubuntu-usb, xubuntu-desktop, mythbuntu-frontend, mythbuntu-frontend, mythbuntu-desktop, mythbuntu-backend-slave, mythbuntu-backend-slave, mythbuntu-backend-master, mythbuntu-backend-master, lubuntu-desktop, ubuntustudio-desktop

[Michael Wisheu (wisheu)]

It looks like this is caused because the package libgcr is not multiarch ready.
$ wget -q http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/g/gnome-keyring/libgcr-3-1_3.2.2-2ubuntu4_i386.deb ; echo $?
0

$ sudo dpkg -i libgcr-3-1_3.2.2-2ubuntu4_i386.deb
dpkg: error processing libgcr-3-1_3.2.2-2ubuntu4_i386.deb (--install):
 libgcr-3-1:i386 3.2.2-2ubuntu4 (Multi-Arch: no) is not co-installable with libgcr-3-1:amd64 3.2.2-2ubuntu4 (Multi-Arch: no) which is currently installed
Errors were encountered while processing:
 libgcr-3-1_3.2.2-2ubuntu4_i386.deb

Still remains the question why APT gives this misleading/wrong error message:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 libgcr-3-1:i386 : Depends: libgck-1-0:i386 (>= 3.2.2) but it is not going to be installed
                   Depends: libgcr-3-common:i386 but it is not installable
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

libgcr-3-common:i386 just plain doesn't exist and thus APT should give a better error message in my eyes.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.