How do I resolve this GStreamer codec update fault?

Question

I recently installed KUbuntu on a Lenovo Ideapad laptop. It's functioning fine aside from a problem that came up with a recent update—after updating all packages, three remained:

GStreamer Multimedia Codecs
libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-0
libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0

With the message that:

Package failed to install:

Error while installing package: trying to overwrite '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gstreamer-1.0/libgstcamerabin.so', which is also in package gstreamer1.0-plugins-good

This is very strange. The only things I've added on to the system have been Krita, Blender (as a direct download, nothing fidgety), and OpenToonz through Snap.

Attempting sudo apt upgrade from the terminal gives me this output:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt --fix-broken install' to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 gstreamer1.0-libav : Depends: libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0 (>= 1.22.3) but 1.22.1-1ubuntu1 is installed
 gstreamer1.0-plugins-base : Depends: libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0 (>= 1.22.3) but 1.22.1-1ubuntu1 is installed
                             Breaks: gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad (< 1:1.16.0) but 1.22.1-1ubuntu1 is installed
 gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly : Depends: libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0 (>= 1.22.3) but 1.22.1-1ubuntu1 is installed
 gstreamer1.0-x : Depends: libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0 (>= 1.22.3) but 1.22.1-1ubuntu1 is installed
 libgstreamer-gl1.0-0 : Depends: libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0 (>= 1.22.3) but 1.22.1-1ubuntu1 is installed
                        Breaks: libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-0 (< 1:1.16.0) but 1.22.1-1ubuntu1 is installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt --fix-broken install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

If I go ahead and use apt --fix-broken install, the problem persists, and no changes are made:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  libbdplus0 libdca0 libdirectfb-1.7-7 libfaad2 liblrdf0 libmjpegutils-2.1-0 libmpeg2-4 libmpeg2encpp-2.1-0 libmplex2-2.1-0 libneon27 libopenni2-0 libpocketsphinx3 libsidplay1v5 libsphinxbase3 libssh-gcrypt-4 libvidstab1.1
  linux-headers-6.2.0-20 linux-headers-6.2.0-20-generic linux-image-6.2.0-20-generic linux-modules-6.2.0-20-generic linux-modules-extra-6.2.0-20-generic pocketsphinx-en-us
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following additional packages will be installed:
  gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-0 libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0
Suggested packages:
  frei0r-plugins libvisual-0.4-plugins
The following packages will be upgraded:
  gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-0 libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0
3 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
148 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/4,619 kB of archives.
After this operation, 700 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
(Reading database ... 261983 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad_1%3a1.22.3-dmo1+deb12u1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad:amd64 (1:1.22.3-dmo1+deb12u1) over (1.22.1-1ubuntu1) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad_1%3a1.22.3-dmo1+deb12u1_amd64.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gstreamer-1.0/libgstcamerabin.so', which is also in package gstreamer1.0-plugins-good:amd64 1.22.1-1ubuntu1
Preparing to unpack .../libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-0_1%3a1.22.3-dmo1+deb12u1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-0:amd64 (1:1.22.3-dmo1+deb12u1) over (1.22.1-1ubuntu1) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-0_1%3a1.22.3-dmo1+deb12u1_amd64.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgstbasecamerabinsrc-1.0.so.0', which is also in package libgstreamer-plugins-good1.0-0:amd64 1.22.1-1ubuntu1
dpkg: regarding .../libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0_1.22.3-dmo1+deb12u2_amd64.deb containing libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0:amd64:
 libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0:amd64 conflicts with libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-0 (<< 1:1.16.0)
  libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-0:amd64 (version 1.22.1-1ubuntu1) is present and installed.

dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0_1.22.3-dmo1+deb12u2_amd64.deb (--unpack):
 conflicting packages - not installing libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0:amd64
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad_1%3a1.22.3-dmo1+deb12u1_amd64.deb
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-0_1%3a1.22.3-dmo1+deb12u1_amd64.deb
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0_1.22.3-dmo1+deb12u2_amd64.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I'm very hesitant to an autoremove with a broken package, and have held off on that. The bigger problem is that I can't seem to install anything, or remove anything, with this broken package issue.

I would be all for simply removing and—strictly if necessary—reinstalling whatever uses GStreamer from a stable system, but apparently I can't even do that.

Can someone kindly help me correct this strange dependency issue?

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 16 '23 at 17:29

So, I figured it out. Sort of.

Initially I just started to remove every package that was having an issue. The list grew quite long, and kept bringing up a snake-eating-its-tail issue in dependencies:

sudo apt remove gstreamer1.0-libav gstreamer1.0-plugins-base gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad gstreamer1.0-plugins-good gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly gstreamer1.0-pulseaudio gstreamer1.0-x libgstreamer-gl1.0-0 phonon4qt5-backend-gstreamer gstreamer1.0-gl libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-0 libgtk-4-media-gstreamer libqt5multimediagsttools5 libqt5multimedia5-plugins elisa

Eventually I had to stop when phonon started bringing up a whole new issue. I finally went back to my LiveUSB and attempted a fresh install, preserving as many of my old files as possible.

Configuration files and media were preserved, and so was Blender, as I simply downloaded the binary directly, as is my custom. Krita was installed through the Discover Software Center and immediately had all of my previous settings and files, which was nice. OpenToonz may have been the issue.

So, I started by adding the flathub repo to flatpak:

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

Then I simply ran:

flatpak install flathub io.github.OpenToonz

The installation took a small time, but, ditching Snap for Flatpak, I now have a fully functioning KUbuntu system with no dependency issues. I already had a few ethical concerns about Snap, but I suspect there may be deeper technical issues as well.

Hopefully this will help someone else out in the future.

How do I resolve this GStreamer codec update fault?

1 Answers1