Debian Bug report logs - #667843
dpkg: error "ambiguous package name" during upgrade to multiarch package

Toggle useless messages

Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Flavio Stanchina <flavio@stanchina.net>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: dpkg: error "ambiguous package name" during upgrade to multiarch package

Date: Sat, 07 Apr 2012 00:33:44 +0200

Package: dpkg
Version: 1.16.2
Severity: normal

I'm trying this multiarch stuff. The plan was to find a couple of packages
that I don't normally use, with a small set of dependencies, and try to
install the i386 version of those packages on amd64. The packages I chose
were mboxgrep and pcregrep because I already installed libpcre3:i386 as a
first test. Here's the result, notice how it wants to upgrade libbz2 which
was still the non-multiarch version from squeeze:

# apt-get install -t testing mboxgrep:i386 pcregrep:i386 bzip2
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  libbz2-1.0:i386 libbz2-1.0
Suggested packages:
  bzip2-doc
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libbz2-1.0:i386 mboxgrep:i386 pcregrep:i386
The following packages will be upgraded:
  bzip2 libbz2-1.0
2 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 812 not upgraded.
Need to get 191 kB of archives.
After this operation, 95.2 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? 
Get:1 http://aptproxy/debian/ wheezy/main bzip2 amd64 1.0.6-1 [49.4 kB]
Get:2 http://aptproxy/debian/ wheezy/main libbz2-1.0 amd64 1.0.6-1 [45.4 kB]
Get:3 http://aptproxy/debian/ wheezy/main libbz2-1.0 i386 1.0.6-1 [45.8 kB]
Get:4 http://aptproxy/debian/ squeeze/main mboxgrep i386 0.7.9-1 [25.6 kB]
Get:5 http://aptproxy/debian/ wheezy/main pcregrep i386 1:8.30-4 [25.1 kB]
Fetched 191 kB in 1s (142 kB/s)     
Reading changelogs... Done
apt-listchanges: Do you want to continue? [Y/n] 
(Reading database ... 234572 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace bzip2 1.0.5-6+squeeze1 (using .../bzip2_1.0.6-1_amd64.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement bzip2 ...
Preparing to replace libbz2-1.0 1.0.5-6+squeeze1 (using .../libbz2-1.0_1.0.6-1_amd64.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libbz2-1.0:amd64 ...
Selecting previously unselected package libbz2-1.0:i386.
Unpacking libbz2-1.0:i386 (from .../libbz2-1.0_1.0.6-1_i386.deb) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
dpkg: error: --configure needs a valid package name but 'libbz2-1.0' is not: ambiguous package name 'libbz2-1.0' with more than one installed instance

Type dpkg --help for help about installing and deinstalling packages [...]
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)


I tried the next command to see if the problem would fix itself (a simple
"apt-get install" would probably have had the same effect):

# apt-get install -t testing bzip2
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
bzip2 is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 812 not upgraded.
3 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? 
dpkg: error: --configure needs a valid package name but 'libbz2-1.0' is not: ambiguous package name 'libbz2-1.0' with more than one installed instance

Type dpkg --help for help about installing and deinstalling packages [...]
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)


Next I tried to purge libbz2-1.0:i386 and this did the trick, as there was
then only one instance of the package to configure:

# apt-get purge libbz2-1.0:i386
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  libbz2-1.0:i386*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 6 not upgraded.
3 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 116 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? 
(Reading database ... 234573 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing libbz2-1.0:i386 ...
Purging configuration files for libbz2-1.0:i386 ...
Setting up libbz2-1.0:amd64 (1.0.6-1) ...
Setting up bzip2 (1.0.6-1) ...


At this point, the next apt-get completed without error:

# apt-get install -t testing mboxgrep:i386 pcregrep:i386 


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 6.0.4
  APT prefers stable-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable'), (400, 'testing'), (99, 'unstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 3.2.0-2-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages dpkg depends on:
ii  libbz2-1.0                1.0.6-1        high-quality block-sorting file co
ii  libc6                     2.13-27        Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libselinux1               2.1.9-2        SELinux runtime shared libraries
ii  tar                       1.23-3         GNU version of the tar archiving u
ii  xz-utils                  5.0.0-2        XZ-format compression utilities
ii  zlib1g                    1:1.2.6.dfsg-2 compression library - runtime

dpkg recommends no packages.

Versions of packages dpkg suggests:
ii  apt                           0.8.15.10  Advanced front-end for dpkg

-- no debconf information

Message #10 received at 667843@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>

To: Flavio Stanchina <flavio@stanchina.net>

Cc: 667843@bugs.debian.org, apt@packages.debian.org

Subject: Re: dpkg: error "ambiguous package name" during upgrade to multiarch package

Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2012 22:58:03 -0500

reassign 667843 apt 0.8.15.10
forcemerge 665727 667843
quit

Hi,

Flavio Stanchina wrote:

>                                  The plan was to find a couple of packages
> that I don't normally use, with a small set of dependencies, and try to
> install the i386 version of those packages on amd64. The packages I chose
> were mboxgrep and pcregrep because I already installed libpcre3:i386 as a
> first test. Here's the result, notice how it wants to upgrade libbz2 which
> was still the non-multiarch version from squeeze:
>
> # apt-get install -t testing mboxgrep:i386 pcregrep:i386 bzip2
[...]
> Preparing to replace libbz2-1.0 1.0.5-6+squeeze1 (using .../libbz2-1.0_1.0.6-1_amd64.deb) ...
> Unpacking replacement libbz2-1.0:amd64 ...
> Selecting previously unselected package libbz2-1.0:i386.
> Unpacking libbz2-1.0:i386 (from .../libbz2-1.0_1.0.6-1_i386.deb) ...
> Processing triggers for man-db ...
> dpkg: error: --configure needs a valid package name but 'libbz2-1.0' is not: ambiguous package name 'libbz2-1.0' with more than one installed instance
>
> Type dpkg --help for help about installing and deinstalling packages [...]
> E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)
>
> I tried the next command to see if the problem would fix itself (a simple
> "apt-get install" would probably have had the same effect):
>
> # apt-get install -t testing bzip2
[...]
> dpkg: error: --configure needs a valid package name but 'libbz2-1.0' is not: ambiguous package name 'libbz2-1.0' with more than one installed instance
[...]
> Next I tried to purge libbz2-1.0:i386 and this did the trick, as there was
> then only one instance of the package to configure:

Good catch.  Reassigning to apt.

I suspect this is fixed in experimental already.

Hope that helps,
Jonathan

Message #29 received at 667843@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Raphael Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org>

To: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>, 667843@bugs.debian.org

Cc: Flavio Stanchina <flavio@stanchina.net>

Subject: Re: Bug#667843: dpkg: error "ambiguous package name" during upgrade to multiarch package

Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2012 09:10:05 +0200

affects 665727 dpkg
thanks

On Fri, 06 Apr 2012, Jonathan Nieder wrote:
> > dpkg: error: --configure needs a valid package name but 'libbz2-1.0' is not: ambiguous package name 'libbz2-1.0' with more than one installed instance
> [...]
> > Next I tried to purge libbz2-1.0:i386 and this did the trick, as there was
> > then only one instance of the package to configure:
> 
> Good catch.  Reassigning to apt.
> 
> I suspect this is fixed in experimental already.

Yes. It's the reason why I'm trying to get the apt transition done ASAP.
See http://bugs.debian.org/665969

Cheers,
-- 
Raphaël Hertzog ◈ Debian Developer

Pre-order a copy of the Debian Administrator's Handbook and help
liberate it: http://debian-handbook.info/liberation/

Send a report that this bug log contains spam.