package libreoffice-help-en-us (not installed) failed to install/upgrade: unable to open '/usr/share/libreoffice/help/en-US/text/swriter/menu/insert_header_footer.html.dpkg-new': Operation not permitted

[Fred Drake]

libreoffice-common update has been failing to install for a few days; tried removing & reinstalling the whole mess, but it still fails with a similar error:

$ sudo apt --fix-broken install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
  libreoffice-help-common
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove it.
The following additional packages will be installed:
  libreoffice-common
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libreoffice-common
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
17 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/33.7 MB of archives.
After this operation, 94.3 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
(Reading database ... 213490 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../libreoffice-common_1%3a6.3.4-0ubuntu0.19.10.1_all.deb ...
Unpacking libreoffice-common (1:6.3.4-0ubuntu0.19.10.1) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/libreoffice-common_1%3a6.3.4-0ubuntu0.19.10.1_all.deb (--unpack):
 unable to open '/usr/lib/libreoffice/share/gallery/sg36.sdv.dpkg-new': Operation not permitted
rmdir: failed to remove '/var/lib/libreoffice/share/prereg/': No such file or directory
rmdir: failed to remove '/var/lib/libreoffice/share/': No such file or directory
rmdir: failed to remove '/var/lib/libreoffice/program/': No such file or directory
rmdir: failed to remove '/var/lib/libreoffice': No such file or directory
rmdir: failed to remove '/var/lib/libreoffice': No such file or directory
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libreoffice-common_1%3a6.3.4-0ubuntu0.19.10.1_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 19.10
Package: libreoffice-help-en-us (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.3.0-24.26-generic 5.3.10
Uname: Linux 5.3.0-24-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu8.2
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue Jan 14 12:45:46 2020
ErrorMessage: unable to open '/usr/share/libreoffice/help/en-US/text/swriter/menu/insert_header_footer.html.dpkg-new': Operation not permitted
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-12-07 (402 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.10 "Cosmic Cuttlefish" - Release amd64 (20181017.3)
Python3Details: /usr/bin/python3.7, Python 3.7.5, python3-minimal, 3.7.5-1
PythonDetails: N/A
RelatedPackageVersions:
 dpkg 1.19.7ubuntu2
 apt 1.9.4
SourcePackage: libreoffice
Title: package libreoffice-help-en-us (not installed) failed to install/upgrade: unable to open '/usr/share/libreoffice/help/en-US/text/swriter/menu/insert_header_footer.html.dpkg-new': Operation not permitted
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to eoan on 2019-12-26 (18 days ago)

[Marcus Tomlinson (marcustomlinson)]

I'd like to first rule out that this is not a duplicate of the following bug:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dpkg/+bug/1685984

Do you have Sophos AV installed? If so, please try disabling it temporarily and retry the update:

/opt/sophos-av/bin/savdctl disable

[Fred Drake (fdrake)]

I do have Sophos AV installed, and disabling it allowed re-installation of the LibreOffice packages without problems.

Thank you!