Ubuntu

apt upgrade or aptautoremove failing with E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Asked by Rodivaldo Marcelo Raimundo

After run commands "sudo apt upgrade" and "sudo apt autoremove" the following is happening:

$ sudo apt upgrade
Upgrading packages that are needed to be...
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
2 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Setting up brave-browser (1.10.93) ...
update-alternatives: error: alternative link /usr/bin/x-www-browser is already managed by gnome-www-browser
dpkg: error processing package brave-browser (--configure):
 installed brave-browser package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 2
Setting up google-chrome-stable (83.0.4103.106-1) ...
update-alternatives: error: alternative link /usr/bin/x-www-browser is already managed by gnome-www-browser
dpkg: error processing package google-chrome-stable (--configure):
 installed google-chrome-stable package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 brave-browser
 google-chrome-stable
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
$
$ sudo apt autoremove -y
Removing unnecessary packages...
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
2 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Setting up brave-browser (1.10.93) ...
update-alternatives: error: alternative link /usr/bin/x-www-browser is already managed by gnome-www-browser
dpkg: error processing package brave-browser (--configure):
 installed brave-browser package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 2
Setting up google-chrome-stable (83.0.4103.106-1) ...
update-alternatives: error: alternative link /usr/bin/x-www-browser is already managed by gnome-www-browser
dpkg: error processing package google-chrome-stable (--configure):
 installed google-chrome-stable package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 brave-browser
 google-chrome-stable
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Did someone experienced this kind of failure? If yes, any way to fix it?

Thanks in advance very much.

My best regards.

Rod.

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Rodivaldo Marcelo Raimundo
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Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

What is the output of:

lsb_release -a; uname -a; apt-cache policy brave-browser

Thanks

Revision history for this message
Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said : 		#2

The error message indicates a conflict between different packages.
Apparently you can install only one package from the list
 brave-browser
 google-chrome-stable
 gnome-www-browser
a the same time.

To bring your package management system back into a sane status I recommend executing the command

sudo dpkg --purge brave-browser google-chrome-stable

Revision history for this message
Rodivaldo Marcelo Raimundo (rodivaldo) said : 		#3

Good morning @actionparsnip.

This is the commands output you asked for:

# lsb_release -a; uname -a; apt-cache policy brave-browser
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS
Release: 18.04
Codename: bionic
Linux ussdefiant 5.3.0-59-generic #53~18.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Thu Jun 4 14:58:26 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
brave-browser:
  Installed: 1.10.93
  Candidate: 1.10.93
  Version table:
 *** 1.10.93 500
        500 https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com stable/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1.10.90 500
        500 https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com stable/main amd64 Packages
     1.9.80 500
        500 https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com stable/main amd64 Packages
     1.9.76 500
        500 https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com stable/main amd64 Packages
     1.9.72 500
        500 https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com stable/main amd64 Packages
     1.8.96 500
        500 https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com stable/main amd64 Packages
     1.8.95 500
        500 https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com stable/main amd64 Packages
     1.8.90 500
        500 https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com stable/main amd64 Packages
     1.8.86 500
        500 https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com stable/main amd64 Packages
     1.7.98 500
        500 https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com stable/main amd64 Packages
#

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#4

As stated. I suggest you remove either Brave or Chrome and use the other

Revision history for this message
Kai Kasurinen (kai-kasurinen) said : 		#5

What is the output of:

update-alternatives --display x-www-browser
update-alternatives --display gnome-www-browser

Revision history for this message
Rodivaldo Marcelo Raimundo (rodivaldo) said : 		#6

Hello Kai Kasurinen.

This is the output you asked for:

# update-alternatives --display x-www-browser
update-alternatives: error: no alternatives for x-www-browser
# update-alternatives --display gnome-www-browser
gnome-www-browser - auto mode
  link best version is /usr/bin/firefox
  link currently points to /usr/bin/firefox
  link gnome-www-browser is /usr/bin/x-www-browser
/usr/bin/firefox - priority 40
#

Revision history for this message
Kai Kasurinen (kai-kasurinen) said : 		#7

somehow your gnome-www-browser alternative is broken/corrupted:
"link gnome-www-browser is /usr/bin/x-www-browser"
should be:
"link gnome-www-browser is /usr/bin/gnome-www-browser"

it may be fixable with update-alternative command or editing file /var/lib/dpkg/alternatives/gnome-www-browser by hand (second line on that file).

Revision history for this message
Rodivaldo Marcelo Raimundo (rodivaldo) said : 		#8

Hello Hello Kai Kasurinen.

I do apologize for the delay to respond.

I have replaced the line you pointed in the file /var/lib/dpkg/alternatives/gnome-www-browser, and all is now working fine.

I really appreciate your tip about that. Now all the erros have been suppressed.

Thanks very much one more time.

Rod.