Forcefully removing broken packages

Published: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 Last modified: Monday, Apr 8, 2024

Problem

hendry@x61 webconverger-base$ sudo apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies...Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 smbclient libtorrent10 python-numeric cups-client libdns45 libexiv2-4 tsocks foomatic-db-engine socat libisccc40 avahi-utils lib64gomp1 cups-common liblwres40 libijs-0.35
  kqemu-common libbind9-40 libisccfg40 foomatic-filters foomatic-db samba-common libservlet2.3-java libisc45 lib64objc2
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following extra packages will be installed:
  libgcj-common
The following packages will be upgraded:
  libgcj-common
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 21 not upgraded.
124 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B/121kB of archives.
After this operation, 176kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
(Reading database ... 179416 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace libgcj-common 1:4.3.3-5 (using .../libgcj-common_1%3a4.4.0-4_all.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libgcj-common ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libgcj-common_1%3a4.4.0-4_all.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite `/usr/bin/aot-compile', which is also in package java-gcj-compat-dev
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libgcj-common_1%3a4.4.0-4_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
hendry@x61 webconverger-base$ sudo apt-get remove java-gcj-compat-dev
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.
  eclipse-gcj: Depends: java-gcj-compat-dev
  java-gcj-compat-headless: Depends: libgcj-common (>= 1:4.4.0-2) but 1:4.3.3-5 is to be installed
  libgcj-bc: Depends: libgcj-common (>= 1:4.4.0-4) but 1:4.3.3-5 is to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

Solution

dpkg --force-depends --purge java-gcj-compat-dev
apt-get -f install