upgrade failed: mixed non-coinstallable and coinstallable package instances present

Colin asked that I include contents of /var/lib/dpkg. They're attached here.

Package: libcanberra-gtk-module
Status: deinstall ok config-files
Priority: optional
Section: libs
Installed-Size: 83
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <email address hidden>
Architecture: amd64
Source: libcanberra
Version: 0.28-0ubuntu12
Config-Version: 0.28-0ubuntu12
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.2.5), libcanberra-gtk0 (>= 0.2), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.12.0), libgtk2.0-0 (>= 2.22), libx11-6
Conffiles:
 /etc/X11/Xsession.d/52libcanberra-gtk-module_add-to-gtk-modules adb2246d890f20fc819d3a75e2449597
Description: translates Gtk+ widgets signals to event sounds
 A GtkModule which will automatically hook into all kinds of events
 inside a Gtk+ program and generate sound events from them.
Original-Maintainer: Marc-Andre Lureau <email address hidden>

Package: libcanberra-gtk-module
Status: install ok installed
Multi-Arch: same
Priority: optional
Section: libs
Installed-Size: 87
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <email address hidden>
Architecture: i386
Source: libcanberra
Version: 0.28-3ubuntu3
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.3.6-6~), libcanberra-gtk0 (>= 0.2), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.12.0), libgtk2.0-0 (>= 2.24.5-4), gconf2 (>= 2.28.1-2)
Description: translates GTK+ widgets signals to event sounds
 A GtkModule which will automatically hook into all kinds of events
 inside a GTK+ program and generate sound events from them.
Homepage: http://0pointer.de/lennart/projects/libcanberra/
Original-Maintainer: Marc-Andre Lureau <email address hidden>

I wonder if this is an OTT reaction to an old non-M-A package in the config-files state.

for arbitrary data point, I was not able to recreate this by doing the following in an instance of ami-dcab08b5 (ubuntu-precise-daily-amd64-desktop-20120613).
  sudo apt-get --assume-yes update
  sudo apt-get --assume-yes dist-upgrade
  sudo apt-get --assume-yes install ia32-libs
  sudo sed -i.dist 's,precise,quantal,' /etc/apt/sources.list
  sudo apt-get --assume-yes update
  sudo apt-get --assume-yes dist-upgrade

So it would seem that there are other factors in play.

A filed bug 1015616 as a dup of this earlier, there someone found out that adding
Multi-Arch: same
to the amd64 package resolves this.

Dear original reporter,

Can you possible tar up and attach /var/backups/dpkg* ?

Regards,
Dmitrijs

Attaching /var/backups/dpkg*

Here it looks like this:

alex-mayorga@VPCCW1FFXL:~$ sudo apt-get -f install
[...]
Get:22 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/main virtuoso-opensource-6.1-common amd64 6.1.4+dfsg1-1ubuntu2 [47.1 kB]
Fetched 11.7 MB in 5s (2,205 kB/s)
Preconfiguring packages ...
dpkg: error: parsing file '/var/lib/dpkg/status' near line 2497 package 'skype':
 multiple non-coinstallable package instances present
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)
alex-mayorga@VPCCW1FFXL:~$ lsb_release
No LSB modules are available.
alex-mayorga@VPCCW1FFXL:~$ uname -a
Linux VPCCW1FFXL 3.2.0-27-generic #43-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jul 6 14:25:57 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Anything I should collect?

How do I fix this?

I believe this is affecting me to Tried to upgrade to Quantal errored out pretty quickly after downloaded the packages.

From then onwards the update-manger and disrubtion upgrade would continue to fail..

going to command line...

lzeus@Katana:~$ 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:
  libopenal1 ttf-umefont gnome-exe-thumbnailer libunity6 odbcinst1debian2
  libglew1.5 libdee-1.0-1 libcapi20-3 libmozjs185-1.0 libopenal-data
  libcouchdb-glib-1.0-2 odbcinst lib32gcc1 unixodbc lib32asound2 wine-gecko1.4
  winetricks icoutils libmpg123-0 lib32stdc++6 libdesktopcouch-glib-1.0-2
  libodbc1 libglewmx1.5 libtiff5 libjbig0
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following extra packages will be installed:
  dmsetup libjbig0 libtiff5
The following packages will be REMOVED
  ia32-libs skype wine wine1.3 wine1.4 wine1.4-amd64 wine1.4-common
The following NEW packages will be installed
  libjbig0 libtiff5
The following packages will be upgraded:
  dmsetup
1 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 7 to remove and 1332 not upgraded.
30 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/233 kB of archives.
After this operation, 140 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
dpkg: error: parsing file '/var/lib/dpkg/status' near line 51120 package 'libesd0:i386':
 mixed non-coinstallable and coinstallable package instances present
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)

I tried the Mult-arch fix but doesn't seem get further

Sorry my bad the Multi-Arch thing actually worked.

Is there any working workaround for this issue?
I hit it with upgrade to alpha3 today.

Still a problem today trying to upgrade from precise:

dpkg: error: parsing file '/var/lib/dpkg/status' near line 22586 package 'liboil0.3:i386':
 mixed non-coinstallable and coinstallable package instances present
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)

This messed up my upgrade from 12.04 -> 12.10 pretty badly today. After:

..
Preparing to replace dpkg 1.16.1.2ubuntu7 (using .../dpkg_1.16.7ubuntu3_amd64.deb) ...^M
Unpacking replacement dpkg ...^M
Processing triggers for ureadahead ...^M
Processing triggers for man-db ...^M
dpkg: error: parsing file '/var/lib/dpkg/status' near line 78310 package 'libesd0:i386':^M
 mixed non-coinstallable and coinstallable package instances present^M
dpkg: error: parsing file '/var/lib/dpkg/status' near line 78310 package 'libesd0:i386':^M
 mixed non-coinstallable and coinstallable package instances present^M
...
for the rest of the terminal log.

A really cheap woraround would be:

=== modified file 'lib/dpkg/parse.c'
--- lib/dpkg/parse.c 2012-09-26 12:16:34 +0000
+++ lib/dpkg/parse.c 2012-09-26 12:28:49 +0000
@@ -307,7 +307,8 @@
   if (pkg->status == stat_notinstalled)
      return;

- if (pkgbin->multiarch == multiarch_same)
+ // mvo: consider stat_configfiles multiarch to prevent LP: #1015567
+ if (pkgbin->multiarch == multiarch_same || pkg->status == stat_configfiles)
     count->multi++;
   else
     count->single++;

My status file after the upgrade, the important part is just:

Package: libesd0
Status: deinstall ok config-files
Priority: optional
Section: libs
Installed-Size: 80
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <email address hidden>
Architecture: amd64
Source: esound
Version: 0.2.41-9
Config-Version: 0.2.41-9
Depends: libasound2 (>> 1.0.24.1), libaudiofile0 (>= 0.2.3-4), libc6 (>= 2.4), esound-common (= 0.2.41-9)
Suggests: pulseaudio-esound-compat
Conflicts: esound-clients (<< 0.2.36-1), libesd-alsa0
Description: Enlightened Sound Daemon - Shared libraries
 This program is designed to mix together several digitized
 audio streams for playback by a single device.
 .
 This package contains the shared library.

Package: libesd0
Status: install ok installed
Priority: optional
Section: libs
Installed-Size: 72
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <email address hidden>
Architecture: i386
Multi-Arch: same
Source: esound
Version: 0.2.41-10build3
Depends: libasound2 (>= 1.0.23), libaudiofile1, libc6 (>= 2.15), esound-common (= 0.2.41-10build3)
Pre-Depends: multiarch-support
Suggests: pulseaudio-esound-compat
Conflicts: libesd-alsa0
Description: Enlightened Sound Daemon - Shared libraries
 This program is designed to mix together several digitized
 audio streams for playback by a single device.
 .
 This package contains the shared library.

Alternatively to the above patch I guess we could count state_conffigfiles differently as its own count: { single, multi, total } -> { single, multi, confonly, total}

Fwiw, the upgrade worked just fine with the above patch, I did not encounter any other issues.

But as a user who will not compile the whole thing, how can we have this patch applied, or we need to wait until you guys pushed this update to public?

To add more details to such problem, I tried to revert the source as:

   sudo sed -i.dist 's,quantal,precise,' /etc/apt/sources.list

and then did the update and dist-upgrade. The same error persist:

dpkg: error: parsing file '/var/lib/dpkg/status' near line 75249 package 'libstdc++5:i386':
 mixed non-coinstallable and coinstallable package instances present
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)
root@bkgovsrv1:~#

On 26 September 2012 17:52, Tom K. C. Chiu <email address hidden> wrote:
> To add more details to such problem, I tried to revert the source as:
>
> sudo sed -i.dist 's,quantal,precise,' /etc/apt/sources.list
>
> and then did the update and dist-upgrade. The same error persist:
>
> dpkg: error: parsing file '/var/lib/dpkg/status' near line 75249 package 'libstdc++5:i386':
> mixed non-coinstallable and coinstallable package instances present
> E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)
> root@bkgovsrv1:~#
>

Changing source lines, does not downgrade packages. You are still
running dpkg from quantal.

On 26 September 2012 13:47, Michael Vogt <email address hidden> wrote:
> Alternatively to the above patch I guess we could count
> state_conffigfiles differently as its own count: { single, multi, total
> } -> { single, multi, confonly, total}
>

I'm not sure this is needed. The check is counting installed packages:
* if there is only 1 version of the package installed it can be either
multi/single
* if there is 2 version installed we can have:
- OK both multi-arch
- OK one multi-arch the other one confonly
- OK both are single and confonly simultaniously (FREAKY)
- FAIL both are single and installed (VERY FREAKY)

But I do hope that it is hard to trick dpkg into having two
non-multiarch versions of the same package installed simultaneously,
at the start of a dpkg run when it is trying to find slots in the
database. I guess we could make it safer and count {single:installed,
single:conf, multi:installed, multi:conf, total} and add more asserts.
To me that would be excessive.

I have run your patch through my test/mock script to recreate this
state and it worked ok. Thanks.

As per IRC, I have opened
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dpkg/+bug/1057367 to
actually upgrade the database as per original infinity's solution,
instead of keeping this workaround forever.

Regards,

Dmitrijs.

This bug was fixed in the package dpkg - 1.16.7ubuntu4

---------------
dpkg (1.16.7ubuntu4) quantal; urgency=low

  * Apply a workaround from mvo to consider RC packages as multiarch,
    during the dpkg consistency checks. (LP: #1015567). Opened bug 1057367
    to upgrade status database.
 -- Dmitrijs Ledkovs <email address hidden> Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:40:47 +0100

So how do I fetch the newly fixed dpkg? I just tried

sudo apt-get install dpkg
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
dpkg is already the newest version.
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 ia32-libs : Depends: ia32-libs-multiarch but it is not installable
 libc6-dev : Depends: libc6 (= 2.15-0ubuntu17) but 2.15-0ubuntu10 is to be installed
 nspluginwrapper : Depends: nspluginviewer (= 1.4.4-0ubuntu4) but it is not installable
 skype : Depends: skype-bin but it is not installable
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

which where I have been for the past couple of months

@vograno
You do not seem to be affect by this dpkg bug, instead you have just regular dependency problems.
Try dist-upgrade, try removing and installing newer skype from skype.com, or something like that.

@xnox
I tried dist-upgrade, but it failed too. Note it's not just Skype, it's libc6-dev and some other packages.
Not sure if this is an appropriate place for discussions not related to the bug, but it all started when I upgraded to quantal and at this point I have no clue how to get out of this mess.
any advice?

$ apt-get -f dist-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... failed.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 ia32-libs : Depends: ia32-libs-multiarch but it is not installable
 libc6-dev : Depends: libc6 (= 2.15-0ubuntu17) but 2.15-0ubuntu10 is installed
 nspluginwrapper : Depends: nspluginviewer (= 1.4.4-0ubuntu4) but it is not installable
 skype : Depends: skype-bin but it is not installable
E: Error, pkgProblemResolver::Resolve generated breaks, this may be caused by held packages.
E: Unable to correct dependencies

I am sorry but I cannot provide support. My time is better spend
fixing really tough bugs.

Try one of the support methods listed here:
http://www.ubuntu.com/support/community

Regards,

Dmitrijs.

On 29 September 2012 00:05, Vadim Ogranovich <email address hidden> wrote:
> @xnox
> I tried dist-upgrade, but it failed too. Note it's not just Skype, it's libc6-dev and some other packages.
> Not sure if this is an appropriate place for discussions not related to the bug, but it all started when I upgraded to quantal and at this point I have no clue how to get out of this mess.
> any advice?
>
> $ apt-get -f dist-upgrade
> Reading package lists... Done
> Building dependency tree
> Reading state information... Done
> Correcting dependencies... failed.
> The following packages have unmet dependencies:
> ia32-libs : Depends: ia32-libs-multiarch but it is not installable
> libc6-dev : Depends: libc6 (= 2.15-0ubuntu17) but 2.15-0ubuntu10 is installed
> nspluginwrapper : Depends: nspluginviewer (= 1.4.4-0ubuntu4) but it is not installable
> skype : Depends: skype-bin but it is not installable
> E: Error, pkgProblemResolver::Resolve generated breaks, this may be caused by held packages.
> E: Unable to correct dependencies
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are a bug assignee.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1015567
>
> Title:
> upgrade failed: mixed non-coinstallable and coinstallable package
> instances present
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dpkg/+bug/1015567/+subscriptions

Dmitrijs,

The problem is that people who tripped over this bug cannot use the normal methods to upgrade to get the fix. We greatly appriciate that the bug is now fixed so this won't trash everyone else's systems, but the question is how to fix the systems that this bug already trashed.

I got out of it by editing /var/lib/dpkg/status to add an arch entry when one wasn't present.

However, most people are not going to be comfortable doing that, so what can they do?

I suspect that this is going to require downloading a fixed dpkg binary from somewhere, and then running something with that to get the fix properly.

I could find the package, download it, extract it, and replace the binary, but there is probably a much cleaner way to do this, but it will take someone who knows the debian packaging internals better than I do to identify what is the minimum safe thing to do.

David Lang

I updated the bug description with recovery pointers.

This bug is not fixed! I just tried to upgrade from Precise to Quantal. do-release-upgrade failed for some reason, and now dpkg fails with:

dpkg: error: parsing file '/var/lib/dpkg/status' near line 29257 package 'odbcinst':
 mixed non-coinstallable and coinstallable package instances present

It won't LET me purge the package, because of that error!

dpkg:
  Installed: 1.16.7ubuntu6
  Candidate: 1.16.7ubuntu6
  Version table:
 *** 1.16.7ubuntu6 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

The Perl script linked in the bug description doesn't help--all it does is tell me to purge that package with dpkg, which doesn't work!

I knew I shouldn't have tried to upgrade. Every time I upgrade from one Ubuntu release to another, I encounter a weird problem that is worse than the last time I upgraded Ubuntu.

The worst part of all? This bug has been on Launchpad for over 6 months, and was reported on the Debian lists last March, but it's still not fixed, and Quantal was released like this! I've been using Ubuntu since Warty, and it didn't used to be like this! What is happening to Ubuntu?!