Ubuntu-mate-desktop failing to install

Support & Help Requests
1

So I've had this work before, but hitting a problem early on on a new VM.

Ok, here 's my setup. I have a "AWS Workspace" that came preloaded with
Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS

First thing, I want to get on mate of course.

I ran these commands

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install  ubuntu-mate-desktop -y

Part way through I get the typical "lightdm or gdm" I selected light dm

Then during that "apt install" apt bombs out with

Errors were encountered while processing:
 /tmp/apt-dpkg-install-Vbp70x/391-ubuntu-mate-default-settings_22.04.14_all.deb

Ok, that is fun. So I tried sudo apt upgrade jsut to see what state it was in and got

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:
 mate-session-manager : Depends: mint-mate-default-settings but it is not installable or
                                 ubuntu-mate-default-settings but it is not installed or
                                 debian-mate-default-settings (>= 1.26.0-1ubuntu1) but it is not installed
 ubuntu-mate-core : Depends: ubuntu-mate-default-settings but it is not installed
 ubuntu-mate-desktop : Depends: ubuntu-mate-default-settings but it is not installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt --fix-broken install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

The sudo apt --fix-broken install
Output

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  ubuntu-mate-default-settings
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  ubuntu-mate-default-settings
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
5 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/38.8 kB of archives.
After this operation, 256 kB of additional disk space will be used.
(Reading database ... 391715 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../ubuntu-mate-default-settings_22.04.14_all.deb ...
Unpacking ubuntu-mate-default-settings (22.04.14) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/ubuntu-mate-default-settings_22.04.14_all.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite '/etc/firefox/policies/policies.json', which is also in package amazon-workspaces-theme 1.0-200204.0
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/ubuntu-mate-default-settings_22.04.14_all.deb
needrestart is being skipped since dpkg has failed
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

So, not sure if this is a bug, but gives more intesesting info> Some confict here. See there have been other issues this in the past.

As it stands now I can't get apt really happy anymore. Not a big deal I can wipe this and start over and skip my primary first step of "install MATE" but that will make me sad.. :>

Any ideas? Thanks

1 Like
2

Hi, @matobinder and welcome to the Ubuntu MATE Community!

1 Like
3

So I just realized that that "conflicting" package is the danged AWS stuff
"amazon-workspaces-theme" so its not part of ubuntu-mate base

2 Likes
4

Makes sense, since Ubuntu MATE has a personalised Start Page default in ubuntu-mate-default-settings for Firefox but AWS had the same idea in amazon-workspaces-theme. Both packages can't install a file to the same place: /etc/firefox/policies/policies.json

Suppose the options are:

  1. Force it with dpkg --force-conflicts - :warning: bad idea since it'll be a problem on every update.
  2. Uninstall amazon-workspaces-theme (if it's unimportant).
  3. Install MATE packages only without Ubuntu MATE defaults (mate-desktop metapackage?)
  4. Modify one of the packages somehow to remove the conflicting file.
3 Likes
5

Yep, I tested this all out this morning, and this method provides the MATE desktop (on AWS WOrkspace "version" of Ubuntu 22.04)

How to get ubuntu-mate-desktop working on Ubuntu 22.04 when using an AWS Desktop.

These commands work starting from a "default/clean" build

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt remove  amazon-workspaces-theme
sudo apt install ubuntu-mate-core -y

# Since AWS worksapces use "autologin" do this
# Change "Session:" to "Session:mate" in this file
sudo vi /var/lib/AccountsService/users/<yourusername>

Reboot, and your good

NOTE: I just stuck with gdm3 during the ubunti-mate-core change.
I want to try to go lightdm again, but I need to get some work done today and just continuing to rebuild my workspace will prevent that... :>

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