Comment 8 for bug 1691729

I need a headless, minimal install of Ubuntu to run on a Raspberry Pi 3. I followed the instructions here:

https://medium.com/a-swift-misadventure/how-to-setup-your-raspberry-pi-2-3-with-ubuntu-16-04-without-cables-headlessly-9e3eaad32c01

and initially chose the most recent of the Ubuntu Server Classic images suggested:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/releases/16.04/release/ubuntu-16.04.2-preinstalled-server-armhf+raspi2.img.xz

Unfortunately, this failed to boot and I have the impression it got stuck during the boot process
as the current consumption remains static on my PSU at ~283mA, whereas on a running Pi, it varies during the boot-phase.

I tried the next suggested image:

http://www.finnie.org/software/raspberrypi/ubuntu-rpi3/ubuntu-16.04-preinstalled-server-armhf+raspi3.img.xz

This indeed booted and I ssh'd into the board to continue the setup. I ran:

sudo apt-get update

followed by:

sudo apt-get upgrade

This fails with the following:

Preparing to unpack .../linux-firmware_1.157.11_all.deb ...
Unpacking linux-firmware (1.157.11) over (1.157) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/linux-firmware_1.157.11_all.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite '/lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac43430-sdio.bin', which is also in package linux-firmware-raspi2 1.20160503+6832d9a-0ubuntu1~rpi1
dpkg-deb: error: subprocess paste was killed by signal (Broken pipe)

Followed by:

Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/linux-firmware_1.157.11_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I expect that this is the same problem described by this bug report, but with a more recent version of linux-firmware.

I have now installed Ubuntu Mate 16.04 so that I can continue working, but it comes with LibreOffice, Firefox etc, etc, which I really have no use for. The purpose of this comment is to confirm that the issue persists, and to inquire if there is any visibility as to when the package may be fixed. Thank you all for you efforts. Neil.