Broken package updating Ubuntu 18.04 GL dispatch library

Question

This two updates can't be installed:

Vendor neutral GL dispatch library - development files

Vendor neutral GL dispatch library - GLESV1 support

The update shows a new window with the title: Broken System Package and a message that recommends disabling third-party packages and running apt-get install -f.

This is the output after running the command:

Reading package list... Done
Building the dependency tree       
Reading status information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Ready
The packages listed below were installed automatically and are no longer required.
  libjs-bootstrap libjs-excanvas libjs-jquery-flot libjs-jquery-ui
  libjs-jquery-ui-theme-smoothness libjs-leaflet libjs-requirejs
  libjs-requirejs-text node-sprintf-js
Use "sudo apt autoremove" to remove them.
The following additional packages will be installed:
  libgles1 libglvnd-dev
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libgles1
The following packages will be updated:
  libglvnd-dev
1 updated, 1 new will be installed, 0 to remove and 10 not updated.
You need to download 0 B/14.6 kB of files.
66.6 kB of additional disk space will be used after this operation.
Do you want to continue? [Y/N] Y
(Reading the database ... 704136 files or directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack ... 
libgles1_1.0.0-2ubuntu2.2_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libgles1:amd64 (1.0.0-2ubuntu2.2) ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libgles1_1.0.0-2ubuntu2.2_amd64.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite `/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGLESv1_CM.so.1', which is also in package nvidia-340 340.106-0ubuntu3
Preparing to unpack ...
/libglvnd-dev_1.0.0-2ubuntu2.2_amd64.deb ...Unpacking libglvnd-dev:amd64 (1.0.0-2ubuntu2.2) on (1.0.0-2ubuntu2.1) ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libglvnd-dev_1.0.0-2ubuntu2.2_amd64.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite `/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGLESv1_CM.so', which is also in package nvidia-340 340.106-0ubuntu3
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libglvnd-dev_1.0.0-2ubuntu2.2_amd64.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite `/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGLESv1_CM.so', which is also in the package nvidia-340 340.106-0ubuntu3
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libgles1_1.0.0-2ubuntu2.2_amd64.deb
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libglvnd-dev_1.0.0-2ubuntu2.2_amd64.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Answer 1

I just had this issue, run

sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite /var/cache/apt/archives/libglvnd-dev_1.0.0-2ubuntu2.2_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite /var/cache/apt/archives/libgles1_1.0.0-2ubuntu2.2_amd64.deb
sudo apt -f install

Answer 2

I currently face the same problem. I am using Ubuntu 18.04 and am not using third-party repositories. Only thing worth mentioning is that I asked the Software Updater to notify me when any new Ubuntu version is released instead of only long-term-support version.

After doing a rather exhaustive search on the web I can present some guidance.

Info about this Vendor-Neutral GL Dispatch Library:
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTQ0NzU
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/EGLDriverPackagingHOWTO
https://github.com/NVIDIA/libglvnd

Other forum posts:
Broken apt, can't update libglvnd due to unmet dependencies (Nvidia)
Contains an answer.

http://forum.ubuntu-fr.org/viewtopic.php?id=2031019
In French though. Using Google Translate post 24 makes me believe there is some official temporary solution

https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-newbie-8/ubuntu-apt-upgrade-error-4175638908/
Solution links to CUDA error while installing, help to uninstall

Bug reports:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libglvnd/+bug/1793610
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libglvnd/+bug/1793937
Update (25/09): https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libglvnd/+bug/1791542
Last weblink is most active, also mentioning a fixed package is in the 'proposed' repositories now.

Update (25/09): My question: I prefer to wait for the official solution that is currently in the 'proposed' repository. Yet I do wish to keep my system up to date, particularly security wise. How to proceed? Because running the Software Updater only syncs the packages but does not proceed to install new packages because of this 'Broken Package System' problem we are facing.

My view:
Many solutions/answers involve forced or manual actions. The users that perform them have had mixed results about the outcomes. So beware.
This problem seems to be very recent. So I am still hoping for some official solution and that I do not have to do forced or manual actions.
Finally, an observation, I bumped into many posts about broken package system related to GL or nvidia stuff. So this seems to be a common source of broken package systems.

Do not hesitate to expand or comment on this answer if you have new or additional info/answers. I suggest we use this thread to post info/answers, because everything is somewhat scattered now.

Answer 3

This is what I did. First I removed Nvidia driver

sudo dpkg -P nvidia-340
sudo apt --fix-broken install
sudo apt remove nvidia-340

That way I could finally upgrade packages without errors.

After that I downloaded nvidia-340 package

cd ~/Downloads
wget http://ftp.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ubuntu/pool/restricted/n/nvidia-graphics-drivers-340/nvidia-340_340.106-0ubuntu3_amd64.deb

After that I extracted deb contents

mkdir nvidia_tmp
dpkg-deb -x nvidia-340_340.106-0ubuntu3_amd64.deb nvidia_tmp
dpkg-deb --control nvidia-340_340.106-0ubuntu3_amd64.deb nvidia_tmp/DEBIAN

Then I changed nvidia_tmp/DEBIAN/md5sums a little bit

vim nvidia_tmp/DEBIAN/md5sums

Remove these two lines

6f9f6f57f6da31de03d13007942325fe  usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libGLESv1_CM.so.340.106
d0c1dc5d4d851b94223db7f5993444c8  usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGLESv1_CM.so.340.106

Save the file and remove some files

rm nvidia_tmp/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libGLESv1_CM.so
rm nvidia_tmp/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libGLESv1_CM.so.1
rm nvidia_tmp/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libGLESv1_CM.so.340.106
rm nvidia_tmp/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGLESv1_CM.so
rm nvidia_tmp/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGLESv1_CM.so.1
rm nvidia_tmp/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGLESv1_CM.so.340.106

Then I removed the original deb package (the one I downloaded)

rm nvidia-340_340.106-0ubuntu3_amd64.deb

Now we create a new Nvidia package

dpkg -b nvidia_tmp/ nvidia-340_340.106-0ubuntu3_amd64.deb

Finally I installed this package using Gdebi.

Hope this can help.

Answer 4

Curiously I had almost the same error as with OP, but in my case the exact same conflict was with :i386 architecture but my machine and Kubuntu is x86-64 so I just apt removed libgl1-mesa-dev:i386 and libglvnd-dev:i386 - they didn't seem to be required by anything.

Frankly I am unsure why I even have these 32-bit libraries lying around.