Packages not installing because of "symbolic link size change" ??!?

[Eminence]

I have problem with my KUbuntu 14.04 - some packages stopped to install, the error message I get is:

:

dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/libreoffice-core_1%3a4.4.2~rc2-0ubuntu1~trusty1_amd64.deb (--unpack):
symbolic link '/usr/share/doc/libreoffice-core/changelog.Debian.gz' size has changed from 60 to 26

This message appears for different packages, not just from the libreoffice family. The problem started after I did an apt-get update ; apt-get upgrade this morning. The first packages I had this problem with were gnupg packages. I solved by manually removing the installed packages with dpkg and then again manually installing the ones already in the cache with dpkg. I hoped it has solved it but no, roughly half of the packages seem "non upgradeable" now.

Anyone has run into this and can provide any clues as to how to fix it other than by manual dpkg work of removing and then re-installing them all?

[claydoh]

Moving out of the How-to section and to a 14.04 support section

[LinkBot]

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Searching with: 'ubuntu dpkg error symbolic link size has changed'

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Picking one: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...s/+bug/1347781

[Eminence]

Any help? Please?

[SecretCode]

Have you tried what is suggested in the link provided by LinkBot?

[Eminence]

I have this problem not with one package, but with dozens of them (certainly more than ten or so). I tried the manual method when I initially thought this an issue with just one package only to discover most of them seem to have this problem. If manually deleting files would be the only solution then re-installing seems simpler.

Maybe there is an option somewhere in apt-get to make it remove each package from the system before installing the new version?

[SecretCode]

If it's "just" dozens of packages, it should be possible to delete each of the symbolic link files mentioned in the error messages. This would be a lot quicker (in runtime) than removing the packages! It might seem like more time in preparing the commands, but you could copy and paste the filenames into a script.
sudo rm /usr/share/doc/libreoffice-core/changelog.Debian.gz /usr/share/doc/something-else/changelog.Debian.gz /etc-this-is-only-an-example

Try deleting just one symlink and upgrading that affected package first, to verify this fix works for you.

[Eminence]

The fix works for me, but there are many packages to recover, this error was encountered in following packages:

Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/libgudev-1.0-0_1%3a204-5ubuntu20.11_amd64.deb
/var/cache/apt/archives/libpolkit-agent-1-0_0.105-4ubuntu2.14.04.1_amd64.deb
/var/cache/apt/archives/libpolkit-backend-1-0_0.105-4ubuntu2.14.04.1_amd64.deb
/var/cache/apt/archives/firefox_37.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.14.04.1_amd64.deb
/var/cache/apt/archives/firefox-locale-en_37.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.14.04.1_amd64.deb
/var/cache/apt/archives/libdpkg-perl_1.17.5ubuntu5.4_all.deb
/var/cache/apt/archives/policykit-1_0.105-4ubuntu2.14.04.1_amd64.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Once I process these (remove the offending symlink, run apt-get upgrade again) new ones pop up.

[SecretCode]

Rinse and repeat - two or three times - if there are still more than 10 or so new ones popping up after this, then more drastic solutions might be needed.