failure of gconf2 install ... resolved

[Michael Rasmussen]

Seth Hasani wrote:
> > How do I correct this situation?  Attempting to remove gconf2-common
> > also errors out.
> 
> Oh God I hate when that happens! Sometimes on certain dist-upgrades apt
> needs a kick. What I did to resolve it was running:
>     dpkg -i --force-overwrite /var/cache/apt/archives/$badpackage.deb
> where $badpackage.deb was whatever package was giving problems. After that,
> dist-upgrade usually goes on without a hitch. Use --force-overwrite with
> caution though.

Seth had it correct.  I had to do a --force-overwrite with two packages 
followed by "apt-get -f install" (yes, with no packages listed) to flush
out some other lingering dependencies.

The update is now chugging along nicely.

Note about his word of caution:  --force-overwrite could install
incompatible to the point of deadly versions of files.  I went ahead
with it because the files in question were Gnome related and I knew this
system would remain in console mode until after I completed a full and
successful upgrade.  I could work knowing that anything broken in Gnome
wouldn't bring down the system.

-- 
    Michael Rasmussen, Portland Oregon  
  Be appropriate && Follow your curiosity
        http://www.patch.com/words/
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