package gawk (not installed) failed to install/upgrade: pre-dependency problem - not installing gawk

[Roberto López López]

while installing dvdrip

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: gawk (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-24.37-generic 3.2.14
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-24-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu7
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu May 10 18:13:21 2012
ErrorMessage: pre-dependency problem - not installing gawk
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release amd64 (20110427)
SourcePackage: gawk
Title: package gawk (not installed) failed to install/upgrade: pre-dependency problem - not installing gawk
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-04-26 (13 days ago)

[Jeroen Schot (schot)]

At first glance this looks like a bug in the packaging system (apt?) related to multi-arch: The configured libsigsegv2:i386 is incorrectly used to satisfy the pre-depends on libsigsegv:amd64, but when the amd64 version replaces the i386 one this breaks.

Did a second attempt to install dvdrip succeed?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Jeroen Schot (schot)]

I believe this is a bug in dpkg, possibly debian bug 652063. I can reproduce this with dpkg in precise, and the error disappears when the dpkg from oneric is used. To reproduce this bug (on a multi-arch system):

$ sudo apt-get install gawk:amd64
$ sudo apt-get install gawk:i386

The second apt-get will remove libsigsegv2:amd64 for libsigsegv2:i386, but dpkg doesn't handle this properly. Issuing another `apt-get install` fixes the installation.