package libreoffice-common 1:6.0.7-0ubuntu0.18.04.13 failed to install/upgrade: conflicting packages - not installing libreoffice-common

[Ravi]

package install error

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: libreoffice-common 1:6.0.7-0ubuntu0.18.04.13
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-213.224-generic 4.15.18
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-213-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.27
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
Date: Thu Aug 24 02:36:52 2023
ErrorMessage: conflicting packages - not installing libreoffice-common
InstallationDate: Installed on 2023-08-22 (1 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20160803)
PackageArchitecture: all
Python3Details: /usr/bin/python3.8, Python 3.8.10, python3-minimal, 3.8.2-0ubuntu2
PythonDetails: N/A
RelatedPackageVersions:
 dpkg 1.19.7ubuntu3.2
 apt 2.0.9
SourcePackage: libreoffice
Title: package libreoffice-common 1:6.0.7-0ubuntu0.18.04.13 failed to install/upgrade: conflicting packages - not installing libreoffice-common
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Rico Tzschichholz (ricotz)]

This seems to be a package ordering issue/regression in apt or dpkg. While apparmor in focal is 2.13.3 and therefore sufficient to the needs of libreoffice, it would be easier to apply a mitigation to libreoffice in focal.

[Seth Arnold (seth-arnold)]

I'm concerned about this patch:

A versioned Conflicts entry is not something that someone adds lightly -- probably an abstraction file or policy language feature was added in that version of AppArmor, and policy compilation will fail if that version isn't installed before the newer versions of the LibreOffice packages are installed. That will probably be even more confusing to diagnose and repair than this error.

This patch also suggests that:

(a) perhaps do-release-upgrade needs to be modified to change the order of package updates
(b) perhaps apt needs to be investigated to find out why the incorrect package order was selected
(c) perhaps the Debian policy needs to be consulted to make sure that a Conflicts: entry is actually the right way to ask apt for the necessary package ordering.

It's three years since Focal release. Surely we've had a few LibreOffice users upgrade from Bionic to Focal in those three years. Why is this only showing up in Launchpad today?

I recommend further research into why this happened before trying to patch it.

Thanks

[Rico Tzschichholz (ricotz)]

Thanks for taking a look.

I absolutely agree that it seems libreoffice is not at fault here while it worked over the years without this issue being raised.

Therefore some kind of bug/regression in apt/dpkg seems possible.

[Yann HUBERT (yannhub44)]

Many thanks for your answers.

[mike cooper (mike-cooper)]

Seem to have managed to work around this 'mis-upgrade' - using 'Old Engineers Intuition'. I had upgraded from 18 to Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS - during which a number of issues popped up, which I agreed to be passed back. After installation, nothing in libreoffice would work.
One error window advised "sudo apt-get install -f" - using which simply returned faults on libreoffice-common. Running "sudo apt --fix-broken install" did not work either.
Looking at "sudo apt" in Terminal, I came across "sudo apt satisfy", which seemed worth trying as "sudo apt satisfy libreoffice-common". A lot of stuff happened, which concluded with no errors. I re-ran "sudo apt --fix-broken install" and then "sudo apt autoremove" which both had nothing to do!
Running "sudo apt-get install -f" returned OK, so I rebooted; libreoffice ran in recovery mode; recovered; and I am now back in business!

[Durgesh Narayan Rajesh (durgeshnitp)]

Thanks Mike, after lot of stuff trail and error, your suggestion works like charm!!
Cheers!!

[Charles Caussin (nascar)]

Hi!
Excuse my poor English!
Same problem than mike cooper (18.04 to 20.04).
I did what mike cooper wrote and his suggestion works very good (I don't reboot)!

Thanks Mike!