dpkg: error processing <..>

Question

# dpkg -i /var/cache/apt/archives/pve-firmware_1.0-14_all.deb (Reading database ... 39867 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking pve-firmware (from .../pve-firmware_1.0-14_all.deb) ... dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/pve-firmware_1.0-14_all.deb (--install): trying to overwrite '/lib/firmware/RTL8192SU/rtl8192sfw.bin', which is also in package firmware-realtek 0.28+squeeze1 dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe) Errors were encountered while processing: /var/cache/apt/archives/pve-firmware_1.0-14_all.deb 

The installation of Debian 6 (amd64) is clean. How to investigate the problem deeper?

Solved by removing package firmware-realtek.

Answer 1

Your question is quite vague, but the problem is in this:

dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/pve-firmware_1.0-14_all.deb (--install): trying to overwrite '/lib/firmware/RTL8192SU/rtl8192sfw.bin', which is also in package firmware-realtek 0.28+squeeze1 

This means that the file /lib/firmware/RTL8192SU/rtl8192sfw.bin is part of these packages:

• pve-firmware_1.0-14_all
• firmware-realtek 0.28+squeeze1

If you don't need the alternate, just remove it:

apt-get remove firmware-realtek 0.28+squeeze1 

Be careful when you try this: look at anything else that APT wants to remove, in case it is a set of important items like GNOME or worse.

Otherwise, you can force the package to overwrite the file with:

apt-get -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-overwrite" install pve-firmware_1.0-14_all 

Note that this will overwrite the file, and if you rely on the package firmware-realtek 0.28+squeeze1 working and being intact, it might not. Your "new" version of the file might be older or newer and things may react badly; only do this last command if you know what you are doing.