APT vs. dpkg - Removing packages with a dependency problem (telepathy)

Question

I wanted to try an application (Kamoso) but its installation failed, and now a system tray icon tells me:

An error occurred ... run Package Manager or apt-get to see what is wrong. Error: BrokenCount>0

$ sudo apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  kde-config-telepathy-accounts
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  kde-config-telepathy-accounts
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 10 not upgraded.
2 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/148 kB of archives.
After this operation, 808 kB of additional disk space will be used.


  Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
    (Reading database ... 1330003 files and directories currently installed.)
    Preparing to unpack .../kde-config-telepathy-accounts_4%3a15.12.3-0ubuntu1_i386.deb ...
    Unpacking kde-config-telepathy-accounts (4:15.12.3-0ubuntu1) ...
    dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/kde-config-telepathy-accounts_4%3a15.12.3-0ubuntu1_i386.deb (--unpack):
     trying to overwrite '/usr/share/accounts/services/google-im.service', which is also in package account-plugin-google 0.12+16.04.20160126-0ubuntu1
    Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.23-0ubuntu7) ...
    Errors were encountered while processing:
     /var/cache/apt/archives/kde-config-telepathy-accounts_4%3a15.12.3-0ubuntu1_i386.deb
    E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Ubuntu software centre fails repairing:

    installArchives() failed: (Reading database ... 
(Reading database ... 100%
(Reading database ... 1330003 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../kde-config-telepathy-accounts_4%3a15.12.3-0ubuntu1_i386.deb ...
Unpacking kde-config-telepathy-accounts (4:15.12.3-0ubuntu1) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/kde-config-telepathy-accounts_4%3a15.12.3-0ubuntu1_i386.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite '/usr/share/accounts/services/google-im.service', which is also in package account-plugin-google 0.12+16.04.20160126-0ubuntu1
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.23-0ubuntu7) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/kde-config-telepathy-accounts_4%3a15.12.3-0ubuntu1_i386.deb
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of kde-telepathy-minimal:
 kde-telepathy-minimal depends on kde-config-telepathy-accounts (>= 15.04.0); however:
  Package kde-config-telepathy-accounts is not installed.

dpkg: error processing package kde-telepathy-minimal (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of kde-telepathy:
 kde-telepathy depends on kde-telepathy-minimal (= 15.04.20ubuntu1); however:
  Package kde-telepathy-minimal is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package kde-telepathy (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured

I tried to remove or purge kde-telepathy-minimal or kde-telepathy:

$ sudo apt-get purge kde-telepathy
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 kde-telepathy-minimal : Depends: kde-config-telepathy-accounts (>= 15.04.0) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

Could you please help me remove either of the packages, as a solution to clean up this broken installation and get the package manager back to work?

Two packages conflict: package account-plugin-google and kde-config-telepathy-accounts. You must choose one, and uninstall the other. Read the error message carefully, and you will see this problem, and the reason for it. — user535733, Apr 24 '17 at 00:13
Apt queues package actions, and the first error aborts the entire queue. Use dpkg to uninstall the offending (conflicting) package, then use apt to clean up the dependencies. — user535733, Apr 24 '17 at 13:27
I did not know that both apt and dpkg have a "remove" command. Thank you! — ubuntubu, Apr 24 '17 at 15:17

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 25 '17 at 08:07

3

Thanks to @user535733 for the useful comment: "Use dpkg to uninstall the offending (conflicting) package, then use apt to clean up the dependencies"

Here's how I removed the conflicting packages:

$ sudo dpkg --remove kde-telepathy
(Reading database ... 1330002 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing kde-telepathy (15.04.20ubuntu1) ...

$ sudo dpkg --remove kde-telepathy-minimal
(Reading database ... 1329999 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing kde-telepathy-minimal (15.04.20ubuntu1) ...

Afterwards I cleaned up with

sudo apt autoremove

edited Apr 25 '17 at 08:07

Zanna

70,465

answered Apr 24 '17 at 15:04

ubuntubu

433

Trying first to remove kde-telepathy-minimal, was not possible:

guest@guest:~$ sudo dpkg --remove kde-telepathy-minimal
dpkg: dependency problems prevent removal of kde-telepathy-minimal:
 kde-telepathy depends on kde-telepathy-minimal (= 15.04.20ubuntu1).
dpkg: error processing package kde-telepathy-minimal (--remove):
 dependency problems - not removing
Errors were encountered while processing:
 kde-telepathy-minimal

– ubuntubu Apr 24 '17 at 15:05

APT vs. dpkg - Removing packages with a dependency problem (telepathy)

1 Answers1