debian apt-get problem

[XerXis]

After doing an apt-get upgrade i'm left with a serious problem

whenever i trie installing something or updating my system using apt-get i receive the following message

apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies.
  vim: Depends: vim-common (= 1:7.1-138+1) but 1:6.4-007+1 is installed
	   Depends: vim-runtime (= 1:7.1-138+1) but 1:6.4-007+1 is installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try using -f.

when I follow the suggestion

apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Correcting dependencies...Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  vim vim-common vim-runtime
Suggested packages:
  ctags vim-doc vim-scripts
The following packages will be upgraded:
  vim vim-common vim-runtime
3 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 95 not upgraded.
193 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B/6388kB of archives.
After unpacking 9212kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
(Reading database ... 27648 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace vim-common 1:6.4-007+1 (using .../vim-common_1%3a7.1-175+2_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement vim-common ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/vim-common_1%3a7.1-175+2_i386.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite `/usr/share/vim/vimcurrent', which is also in package vim-runtime
dpkg: considering removing vim-common in favour of vim ...
dpkg: no, cannot proceed with removal of vim-common (--auto-deconfigure will help):
 vim depends on vim-common (= 1:7.1-138+1)
  vim-common is to be removed.
dpkg: regarding .../vim_1%3a7.1-175+2_i386.deb containing vim:
 vim conflicts with vim-common (<< 1:7.1-175+1)
  vim-common (version 1:6.4-007+1) is installed.
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/vim_1%3a7.1-175+2_i386.deb (--unpack):
 conflicting packages - not installing vim
Preparing to replace vim-runtime 1:6.4-007+1 (using .../vim-runtime_1%3a7.1-175+2_all.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement vim-runtime ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/vim-runtime_1%3a7.1-175+2_all.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite `/usr/share/man/man1/vimtutor.1.gz', which is also in package vim-common
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/vim-common_1%3a7.1-175+2_i386.deb
 /var/cache/apt/archives/vim_1%3a7.1-175+2_i386.deb
 /var/cache/apt/archives/vim-runtime_1%3a7.1-175+2_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

and now i have no idea what to do, so mark jenssen, where are you, i need help? :D

[Barney T. Administrators]

Topic moved here

And what did you upgrade from -> to? Did you check your repositories to make sure that they are pointing to the right ones after the upgrade? That would be my first thought....

[markwolfe Veteran]

  XerXis said:

and now i have no idea what to do, so mark jenssen, where are you, i need help? :D

Sorry. :( MarkJensen has no magic. :no:

Since vim seems to be the problem, try removing it and upgrade (did you mean update?). If it works without vim, then re-add it after the upgrade.

[XerXis]

my sources.list point to unstable release (it's a system we mainly used for testing back in the days when mono was still in the unstable rep)

doing apt-get remove vim gives me the exact same result, as does apt-get upgrade, apt-get dist-upgrade or apt-get install vim.

The only thing that still works is apt-get update.

I was hoping to solve this without having to reformat the entire server :( (even if it is only a testing server, it's located in a datacenter and I would have to go there just to insert the cd)

[ichi]

Try with sudo dpkg -i --force-all /var/cache/apt/archives/vim_1%3a7.1-175+2_i386.deb

[XerXis]

thanks, that solved my problem :D