Ubuntu Firefox Package is totally fux0r3d!

Holy Crap! I have bad flashback to my Knoppix install days when you had to pray to the machine spitits before typing apt-get upgrade. Knoppix is essentially house of cards, when running from CD is works like magic, but the HD installs are temperamental. Every update means pain.

Today I experience the same creeping pain after trying to upgrade my Kubuntu:


Preparing to replace mozilla-firefox 1.0.6-1ubuntu1~5.04ubp1 (using .../mozilla-firefox_1.0.7-0ubuntu0.1_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement mozilla-firefox ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/mozilla-firefox_1.0.7-0ubuntu0.1_i386.deb (--unpack):
trying to overwrite `/var/lib/mozilla-firefox/extensions.d/00classic', which is also in package firefox
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)


What in the hell does that mean? WTF? WTF? WTF? This is stupid!

And guess what - after this error firefox doesn't work anymore. It just refuses start.

I'm about ready to kill someone at this point.

It seems that I have two packages here: firefox and mozilla-firefox. Apparently the first somehow interrupts the second one. So I decided to remove it:


root@inuyasha:~ # apt-get remove firefox
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
mozilla-firefox
Suggested packages:
mozilla-firefox-gnome-support latex-xft-fonts xprt-xprintorg
The following packages will be REMOVED:
firefox
The following packages will be upgraded:
mozilla-firefox
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/8802kB of archives.
After unpacking 672kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y

Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 88735 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace mozilla-firefox 1.0.6-1ubuntu1~5.04ubp1 (using .../mozilla-firefox_1.0.7-0ubuntu0.1_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement mozilla-firefox ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/mozilla-firefox_1.0.7-0ubuntu0.1_i386.deb (--unpack):
trying to overwrite `/var/lib/mozilla-firefox/extensions.d/00classic', which is also in package firefox
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/mozilla-firefox_1.0.7-0ubuntu0.1_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)


Uh, oh! Machine Spirit of my laptop is mad at me it seems. This is not going to work. Apt for some reason wants to upgrade and then remove - which is exactly the opposite from what I want to do...

This 00classic file seems to be causing all the trouble so let's try doing something to it:


root@inuyasha:~ # cd /var/lib/mozilla-firefox/extensions.d/
root@inuyasha:/var/lib/mozilla-firefox/extensions.d # mv 00classic 00classic.bak
root@inuyasha:/var/lib/mozilla-firefox/extensions.d # apt-get install mozilla-firefox
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Suggested packages:
mozilla-firefox-gnome-support latex-xft-fonts xprt-xprintorg
The following packages will be upgraded:
mozilla-firefox
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/8802kB of archives.
After unpacking 24.6MB of additional disk space will be used.

Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 88735 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace mozilla-firefox 1.0.6-1ubuntu1~5.04ubp1 (using .../mozilla-firefox_1.0.7-0ubuntu0.1_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement mozilla-firefox ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/mozilla-firefox_1.0.7-0ubuntu0.1_i386.deb (--unpack):
trying to overwrite `/var/lib/mozilla-firefox/extensions.d/00classic', which is also in package firefox
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/mozilla-firefox_1.0.7-0ubuntu0.1_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)


Same message. Damn! Removing the stupid file from extensions.d did not help either.

I'm out of ideas, so it's time to google... But of course Firefox doesn't work... Aaaaagh! And just look at this:


root@inuyasha:/var/lib/mozilla-firefox/extensions.d # ps -ax | grep fire
Warning: bad ps syntax, perhaps a bogus '-'? See http://procps.sf.net/faq.html
15605 ? Sl 0:01 /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/firefox-bin -a firefox
15721 pts/2 S+ 0:00 grep fire


There is a dead firefox process hiding in the background. Yet, killing it does not do anything. Next time I try to start firefox the same process respawns and dies. Crap! Thank god KDE has a built in browser :)

After a quick google I discovered that I was not alone with this problem. Basically this crap hit the whole Ubuntu community. Someone in the package dept. really fucked up on the newest Firefox release.

Anyways, after browsing that discussion for a bit, I decided to risk my extensions and remove firefox completely (some people indicated that this worked for them).


root@inuyasha:/var/lib/mozilla-firefox/extensions.d # apt-get remove mozilla-firefox
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
firefox mozilla-firefox
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 2 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives.
After unpacking 25.4MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
(Reading database ... 88734 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing firefox ...
Removing mozilla-firefox ...
root@inuyasha:/var/lib/mozilla-firefox/extensions.d # apt-get install mozilla-firefox
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Suggested packages:
mozilla-firefox-gnome-support latex-xft-fonts xprt-xprintorg
The following NEW packages will be installed:
mozilla-firefox
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/8802kB of archives.
After unpacking 24.7MB of additional disk space will be used.

Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously deselected package mozilla-firefox.
(Reading database ... 88274 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking mozilla-firefox (from .../mozilla-firefox_1.0.7-0ubuntu0.1_i386.deb) ...
Setting up mozilla-firefox (1.0.7-0ubuntu0.1) ...
Updating mozilla-firefox chrome registry...done.


Wohoo! It works! I was also able to retain all my settings, extensions and themes! This is awesome. I feel much better now.

Now there remains only one other problem:


root@inuyasha:/var/lib/mozilla-firefox # apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
linux-image-2.6.10-5-386
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/15.6MB of archives.
After unpacking 0B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y

Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 88733 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace linux-image-2.6.10-5-386 2.6.10-34.4 (using .../linux-image-2.6.10-5-386_2.6.10-34.5_i386.deb) ...
The directory /lib/modules/2.6.10-5-386 still exists. Continuing as directed.
Unpacking replacement linux-image-2.6.10-5-386 ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/linux-image-2.6.10-5-386_2.6.10-34.5_i386.deb (--unpack):
trying to overwrite `/lib/modules/2.6.10-5-386/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.ko', which is also in package ndiswrapper-modules-2.6.10-5-386
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub .
Testing for an existing GRUB menu.list file... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst .
Searching for splash image... none found, skipping...
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.10-5-386
Found kernel: /boot/memtest86+.bin
Updating /boot/grub/menu.lst ... done

Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/linux-image-2.6.10-5-386_2.6.10-34.5_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)


Something tells me that I will have to remove the fucking ndiswrapper package, recompile and reinstall it again. :( I hate this. I'm not even touching it today...

Tags: kubuntu, ubuntu, ubuntu firefox, ubuntu firefox package, ubuntu firefox package issue, mozilla-firefox package, mozilla-firefox issue, ubuntu packages, ubuntu package issues, apt-get, apt-get issues, firefox package broken, ndiswrapper, ndiswrapper issues