Can't install Ubuntu desktop (Depends on wireless-tools but this cannot be installed)

Question

I am trying to install Ubuntu desktop on my Ubuntu 17.10 minimal. It installs fine until the point of installing wireless-tools which is a dependency that has to be installed.

The following error shows up trying to install it

Preparing to unpack .../wireless-tools_30~pre9-12ubuntu1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking wireless-tools (30~pre9-12ubuntu1) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/wireless-tools_30~pre9-12ubuntu1_amd64.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite '/sbin/iwconfig', which is also in package wireless-tools-udeb 30~pre9-8ubuntu1
dpkg-deb: error: subprocess paste was killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Selecting previously unselected package ubuntu-desktop.
Preparing to unpack .../ubuntu-desktop_1.404.1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking ubuntu-desktop (1.404.1) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/wireless-tools_30~pre9-12ubuntu1_amd64.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Trying to run sudo apt --fix-broken results in the same output.

Does anyone know what I should do?

I already tried to reboot and run sudo apt update and sudo apt upgrade

I already tried to purge it all and install again but comes with the same result.

I also already tried downloading the package manually and clearing the cache and install it that way but this resulted the same problem.

sudo apt install -f results the exact same error as the one above. =C — Menno van leeuwen, Nov 24 '17 at 17:42
Please show me how you downloaded the package and the command you used to install it. I want to try to install it on my system to see if I get the same error. — , Nov 24 '17 at 17:44
One of those packages seems to be from 17.04, the other from 17.10. You may break your system quite severely if you mix packages from different releases of Ubuntu. — user535733, Nov 24 '17 at 17:52

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 24 '17 at 17:47

0

Read the error message carefully:

dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/wireless-tools_30~pre9-12ubuntu1_amd64.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite '/sbin/iwconfig', which is also in package wireless-tools-udeb 30~pre9-8ubuntu1

Lets break that down a bit:

dpkg: error processing archive A (--unpack): trying to overwrite 'FILE', which is also in package B

FILE can only be provided by one package at a time. When two packages (A and B) both try to provide FILE, the two packages conflict. You cannot have both installed at the same time.

Since you want A, you must uninstall B, or you must --force install A.

answered Nov 24 '17 at 17:47

user535733

62,253

1

Thanks I think this was it. I ended up downloading the latest deb from launchpad and then running sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite wireless-tools_30~pre9-5ubuntu2_amd64.deb then rebooted it and it worked! – Menno van leeuwen Nov 24 '17 at 17:56
Put that in your own Answer... – Nov 24 '17 at 18:18
Glad it helped. – user535733 Nov 24 '17 at 19:13

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 26 '17 at 02:13

0

I ended up downloading the latest deb from launchpad and then running sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite wireless-tools_30~pre9-5ubuntu2_amd64.deb then sudo reboot and that made it work!

answered Nov 26 '17 at 02:13

Menno van leeuwen

1

Can't install Ubuntu desktop (Depends on wireless-tools but this cannot be installed)

2 Answers2