dist-upgrade failed

[Guilherme Salgado]

Today, when upgrading a laptop from warty to hoary, I got this problem:

scurvy:~# apt-get dist-upgrade
[...]
Selecting previously deselected package libxkbfile-dev.
Unpacking libxkbfile-dev (from .../libxkbfile-dev_6.8.2-10_i386.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libxkbfile-dev_6.8.2-10_i386.deb
(--unpack): trying to overwrite `/usr/X11R6/lib/libxkbfile.a', which is also in
package xlibs-static- dev
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Preparing to replace libx11-dev 6.8.1-0.3 (using
.../libx11-dev_6.8.2-10_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libx11-dev ...
Preparing to replace debianutils 2.8.3 (using .../debianutils_2.11.2_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement debianutils ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libxau-dev_6.8.2-10_i386.deb
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libxkbfile-dev_6.8.2-10_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

After this I tried with -f, and got this:

scurvy:~# apt-get -f dist-upgrade
[...]
Unpacking libxkbfile-dev (from .../libxkbfile-dev_6.8.2-10_i386.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libxkbfile-dev_6.8.2-10_i386.deb
(--unpack):
 trying to overwrite `/usr/X11R6/lib/libxkbfile.a', which is also in package
xlibs-static-dev
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Unpacking libxau-dev (from .../libxau-dev_6.8.2-10_i386.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libxau-dev_6.8.2-10_i386.deb
(--unpack):
 trying to overwrite `/usr/X11R6/include/X11/Xauth.h', which is also in package
xlibs-static-dev
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Preparing to replace tcl8.4 8.4.6-1 (using .../tcl8.4_8.4.7-1ubuntu1_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement tcl8.4 ...
Preparing to replace tk8.4 8.4.6-1 (using .../tk8.4_8.4.9-1_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement tk8.4 ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libxkbfile-dev_6.8.2-10_i386.deb
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libxau-dev_6.8.2-10_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

What can I do to workaround this?

[Christian Reis (kiko)]

You can work around this with a dpkg -r --force-all xlibs-static-dev xlibs-dev,
but it's still a bug, isn't it?

[Scott James Remnant (Canonical) (canonical-scott)]

It's not a dpkg bug, dpkg doesn't let two packages on your system install the
same file; it's a bug in the X packages.

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

dpkg can be instructed to allow overwrites, though, and if memory serves, Debian
has (or had) a tradition of enabling that mode of operation for stable releases.
 Perhaps we should do the same?

[Daniel Stone (daniels)]

Which version of xlibs-static-dev do/did you have installed (dpkg -l
xlibs-static-dev)? It declares a Conflicts and Replaces on xlibs-static-dev (<<
6.8.1-0ubuntu1) ...

[Tollef Fog Heen (tfheen)]

I just did a test install and upgrade from warty to hoary (and made sure to get the
relevant packages installed). It went just fine, so I would think this bug could
be closed.

[Daniel Stone (daniels)]

\o/