package kodi (not installed) failed to install/upgrade: trying to overwrite '/usr/share/xsessions/kodi.desktop', which is also in package kodi-data 15.2+dfsg1-3ubuntu1

[Boenadi Agustian]

failed to upgrade and mismatch with kodi 15. look like it already have kodi 16 but not final release from the git. cant be install

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: kodi (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-21.37-generic 4.4.6
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-21-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue Apr 26 19:37:57 2016
ErrorMessage: trying to overwrite '/usr/share/xsessions/kodi.desktop', which is also in package kodi-data 15.2+dfsg1-3ubuntu1
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-04-19 (738 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release i386 (20140417)
RelatedPackageVersions:
 dpkg 1.18.4ubuntu1
 apt 1.2.10ubuntu1
SourcePackage: kodi
Title: package kodi (not installed) failed to install/upgrade: trying to overwrite '/usr/share/xsessions/kodi.desktop', which is also in package kodi-data 15.2+dfsg1-3ubuntu1
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to xenial on 2016-04-21 (4 days ago)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Frank B (barcenas-francisco)]

Is there a fix for this yet?

[hornetster (hornetster)]

Surely there is a fix fo this now?

[Scott Emmons (lscotte)]

Summary: This does not appear to be a bug with the Ubuntu kodi package, but an incompatibility with a package from another source.

From what I can see, the new version of the kodi package did not come from Ubuntu repositories [1]. When installing newer versions of packages from other sources, you may have some additional work to do to keep the system in a consistent state. Often, new major versions of a package will include refactoring of files between packages, or this package (being from another source) simply packages kodi in a completely different manner than the Ubuntu build packages.

There are a couple of potential solutions to this:

1. Stick with the version provided in the Ubuntu repositories (this version will not change, so you'll likely be missing additional features due to it being an older version).
2. Completely purge all existing kodi packages first, then re-install the packages from the 3rd party source. Don't assume an upgrade will work. The folks who are providing this package might want to consider documenting how best to install it.

[1] In the attached DpkgTerminalLog.txt I see this "Unpacking kodi (2:16.1~git20160425.1001-final-0xenial) over (15.2+dfsg1-3ubuntu1) ..." and "2:16.1~git20160425.1001-final-0xenial" is not a version string from Ubuntu repositories.

[Eric Lebrun (elebrun-b)]

I just recently had the same problem. I solved the problem by removing kodi-data particularly, however doing "apt-get autoremove" removed the kodi-data after I removed kodi and kodi-bin versions 15.2 then I was able to install the latest version 17.4 with out that error occuring.

Hope this helps someone.

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

Looked like one of the few genuine package conflict bug reports against kodi in launchpad at first, but in the end it unsurprisingly turns out to be more of the same as evidenced by DpkgTerminalLog.txt. It's not a bug in Ubuntu. Marking as invalid.

Don't install random packages off the internet, it's a really stupid and dangerous thing to do. And definitely don't come running to report a problem in Ubuntu afterwards when you managed to screw up your system because of it.