[Bug 980573] Re: apt-get fails at libc6 upgrade with "A copy of the C library was found in an unexpected directory" error message

[John Edwards]

This now effects one of my machines that was upgraded to Ubuntu 12.04
from 10.04 a few months ago.

I used aptitude to upgrade the kernel and libc packages released
yesterday (21 Oct 2013) which failed with similar errors to above. Below
is a dump of 'sudo apt-get install -f' ran afterwards:

$ sudo apt-get install -f
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
  linux-image-server
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following extra packages will be installed:
  libc6 linux-headers-3.2.0-55-generic-pae linux-headers-generic-pae
The following NEW packages will be installed
  linux-headers-3.2.0-55-generic-pae
The following packages will be upgraded:
  libc6 linux-headers-generic-pae
2 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 11 not upgraded.
2 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/4,923 kB of archives.
After this operation, 11.3 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? 
Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 
dpkg: warning: files list file for package `libc6' missing, assuming package has no files currently installed.
(Reading database ... 437713 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace libc6 2.15-0ubuntu10.4 (using .../libc6_2.15-0ubuntu10.5_i386.deb) ...

A copy of the C library was found in an unexpected directory:
  '/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc-2.15.so'
It is not safe to upgrade the C library in this situation;
please remove that copy of the C library or get it out of
'/lib/i386-linux-gnu' and try again.

dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.15-0ubuntu10.5_i386.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess new pre-installation script returned error exit status 1
No apport report written because MaxReports has already been reached
                                                                    Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.15-0ubuntu10.5_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/980573

Title:
  apt-get fails at libc6 upgrade with "A copy of the C library was found
  in an unexpected directory" error message

Status in “eglibc” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  I've upgraded to 12.04 since a couple of weeks ago, since then I've
  periodically updated/dist-upgraded my system.

  The latest attempt fails with the next behavior:

  apt-get update - all goes well

  When trying apt-get dist-upgrade I get this:
  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:
   libc6 : Depends: libc-bin (= 2.15-0ubuntu6)
           Breaks: libc6:i386 (!= 2.15-0ubuntu6) but 2.15-0ubuntu7 is installed
   libc6:i386 : Breaks: libc6 (!= 2.15-0ubuntu7) but 2.15-0ubuntu6 is installed
   libc6-dev : Depends: libc6 (= 2.15-0ubuntu7) but 2.15-0ubuntu6 is installed
   libc6-i386 : Depends: libc6 (= 2.15-0ubuntu7) but 2.15-0ubuntu6 is installed
  E: Unmet dependencies. Try using -f.

  
  When trying apt-get -f install I get this:
  A copy of the C library was found in an unexpected directory:
    '/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc-2.15.so'
  It is not safe to upgrade the C library in this situation;
  please remove that copy of the C library or get it out of
  '/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu' and try again.

  dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.15-0ubuntu7_amd64.deb (--unpack):
   subprocess new pre-installation script returned error exit status 1
  Errors were encountered while processing:
   /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.15-0ubuntu7_amd64.deb
  E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

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