[SOLVED] Unmet dependencies error with libstdc++6-armhf-cross. How to fix it?

Issue

How do I fix the unmet dependencies in this case? I followed a lot of articles that asked me to do the following. But nothing works! I do not understand how to manually fix the problem.

sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo apt-get -f install

Nothing happens! I still get the error.

sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt-get -f install

Still the same error!

  The following extra packages will be installed:
      libstdc++6-armhf-cross
    The following packages will be upgraded:
      libstdc++6-armhf-cross
    1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
    4 not fully installed or removed.
    Need to get 0 B/210 kB of archives.
    After this operation, 77.8 kB of additional disk space will be used.
    Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y
    (Reading database ... 519436 files and directories currently installed.)
    Preparing to unpack .../libstdc++6-armhf-cross_4.8.4-2ubuntu1~14.04.1cross0.11.1_all.deb ...
    Unpacking libstdc++6-armhf-cross (4.8.4-2ubuntu1~14.04.1cross0.11.1) over (4.8.2-16ubuntu4cross0.11) ...
    dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/libstdc++6-armhf-cross_4.8.4-2ubuntu1~14.04.1cross0.11.1_all.deb (--unpack):
     trying to overwrite '/usr/share/gcc-4.8/python/libstdcxx/__init__.py', which is also in package libstdc++6:i386 4.8.4-2ubuntu1~14.04.1
    Errors were encountered while processing:
     /var/cache/apt/archives/libstdc++6-armhf-cross_4.8.4-2ubuntu1~14.04.1cross0.11.1_all.deb
    E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Can anyone help me figure out how to fix this? I need to install some packages and this error does'nt allow me to install it!

Solution

Use the following command

sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq <package_name>

to forcefully remove the package that has the unmet dependencies.

Then list all the installed packages:

dpkg --get-selections | grep -v deinstall

Now, when I inspected the problem causing packages; in this case cpp libraries for the arm cross compilation tool.

There were gcc versions from 4.6-4.9 which had the respective arm cross compilers! Not to mention gcc for amd64 and i386!

These were installed at different times for old projects, so I removed all the old versions.

This fixed the problem and I could update to the latest arm cross compiler

Answered By - user4089193

Answer Checked By - Gilberto Lyons (WPSolving Admin)