Duplicate package problem screws apt-get

[joneall]

I installed Unity to give it a try. I wanted to install cairo-dock, but it complained about not being to overwrite something from kde, kde-telepathy-something. (Sorry for the vagueness.) I checked what that was and it seemed to be a chat program, which I do not use. So I deleted it. Big mistake. Now my packages are messed up:

For instance, running "sudo apt-get -f install" gives

Preparing to unpack .../account-plugin-google_0.12+15.10.20150723-0ubuntu1_all.deb ...
Unpacking account-plugin-google (0.12+15.10.20150723-0ubuntu1) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/account-plugin-google_0.12+15.10.20150723-0ubuntu1_all.deb (--unpack):
trying to overwrite '/usr/share/accounts/services/google-im.service', which is also in package kde-config-telepathy-accounts 4:15.08.2-0ubuntu1
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/account-plugin-google_0.12+15.10.20150723-0ubuntu1_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)


Nor can I install anything, for similar errors. How do I get my package integrity back?

[vinnywright]

if you just "delete" a application ,,,the system will still think it is installed and freak out when trying to do anything with it or it's files ,
to remove an app you nead to use apt-get or muon to remove/uninstall and purge it .

I would first try reinstalling it(whatever you deleted ) then "sudo apt-get install --reinstall packagename" and then " sudo apt-get remove --purge packagename"

I do think you will have more problems than just this getting Unity to play nice with KDE and KDE to play nice with Unity.

VINNY

[joneall]

I do think you will have more problems than just this getting Unity to play nice with KDE and KDE to play nice with Unity.

Yeah, I wish I'd written down the name of what I deleted. In any case, how could I reinstall it with apt working? And I thought KDE and Gnome (Isn't Unity a form of Gnome?) could co-exist happily on the same machine.

[Qqmike]

Isn't there a package management log somewhere, like a history in Muon, where you could find the deleted package?

[GreyGeek]

Isn't there a package management log somewhere, like a history in Muon, where you could find the deleted package?

Under the View-->History menu option. It lists both additions and removals, with a date stamp. BUT, ONLY when you use muon to do the adding or removing. If you use apt-get from the command line then there is no history.

Also, if there is a need to use
sudo apt-get -f install
then it is advisable to follow that with
sudo dpkg --configure -a
and repeat the combination several times, until no errors are returned.
If that doesn't fix things then a manual fix is the only solution.

[Feathers McGraw]

Instead of trying to view logs within Muon, you can use the apt system log directly:

less /var/log/apt/history.log

KSystemLog doesn't seem to be able to display apt's history log either, which is strange.

[claydoh]

I installed Unity to give it a try. I wanted to install cairo-dock, but it complained about not being to overwrite something from kde, kde-telepathy-something. (Sorry for the vagueness.) I checked what that was and it seemed to be a chat program, which I do not use. So I deleted it. Big mistake. Now my packages are messed up:

For instance, running "sudo apt-get -f install" gives

Preparing to unpack .../account-plugin-google_0.12+15.10.20150723-0ubuntu1_all.deb ...
Unpacking account-plugin-google (0.12+15.10.20150723-0ubuntu1) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/account-plugin-google_0.12+15.10.20150723-0ubuntu1_all.deb (--unpack):
trying to overwrite '/usr/share/accounts/services/google-im.service', which is also in package kde-config-telepathy-accounts 4:15.08.2-0ubuntu1
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/account-plugin-google_0.12+15.10.20150723-0ubuntu1_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)


Nor can I install anything, for similar errors. How do I get my package integrity back?

Now, if you are convinced that the file(s) being overwritten are useless to you, or are simply duplicates, you can use the error to get you the info to force it to overwrite the existing file with the new one.

sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite /var/cache/apt/archives/account-plugin-google_0.12+15.10.20150723-0ubuntu1_all.deb

you can use packages.ubuntu.com to help see what may be important or not, b ut it is not always obvious

[claydoh]

Also, check these out, they are going the other direction - adding kubuntu to Ubuntu, but may offer a solution:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/69373...n-ubuntu-15-10
http://askubuntu.com/questions/63447...buntu-on-15-04

[sithlord48]

you can also just remove the telepathy package and reinstall it after you remove your other package.