[SOLVED] mint-artwork-common > dpkg error - attn: DEVS [SOLVED]

[red03golf]

While trying to install an available update via Terminal - "mint-artwork-common_1.8.9.2_all.deb" - I got the following error, terminal exited back to prompt.

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dpkg-deb: error: archive '/var/cache/apt/archives/mint-artwork-common_1.8.9.2_all.deb' has premature member 'control.tar.xz' before 'control.tar.gz', giving up
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/mint-artwork-common_1.8.9.2_all.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess dpkg-deb --control returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/mint-artwork-common_1.8.9.2_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
A package failed to install.  Trying to recover:

Any thoughts?

[Cosmo.]

What is your version of Mint and what is the desktop environment? Which kernel and which architecture? If you don't know open a terminal and enter:

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inxi -Sz

Paste the output here.

You need to give this information for every help request in every thread.
Do not forget this in the future.

Also: From which source to you try to update?

Fact is: All Mint 18.x come with version 2.x of this package (so you must be on Mint 17.x), and for Mint 17.3 version 1.8.9.1 is the latest available.

[smurphos]

18.x just had an update today to 2.1.8.1 - so an update for 17.x wouldn't be surprise. Probably updated Firefox artwork to go with version 59 which also dropped on the same update.

[Sir Charles]

You could give this a try:

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sudo apt-get clean

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sudo apt-get update

[red03golf]

Thanks for the reply. This wasn't so much a help request as it was informing of an issue which could affect others. I, myself, don't fret much about bugs as they're usually corrected quickly.

I'll make sure I supply inxi output with future posts.

inxi -Sz output:
System:

• Host: user-pc
• Kernel: 4.4.0-116-generic x86_64 (64 bit)
• Desktop: Cinnamon 2.8.8
• Distro: Linux Mint 17.3 Rosa

[Sir Charles]

I came across this one https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic ... #p1446552 related to the same update.

[red03golf]

You could give this a try:

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sudo apt-get clean

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sudo apt-get update

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried aptitude clean / update before posting and it didn't help.

It's probably just a dev's typo and will be fixed shortly ;o)

[Sir Charles]

It's probably just a dev's typo and will be fixed shortly ;o)

Alright. Let's hope so!
Cheers

[Cosmo.]

Mint 17.2 with package version 1.8.7.2 is equally affected.

EDIT: In a second attempt it run through.

[Cosmo.]

In the meantime I have updated this package on 2 systems with LM 17.3, in both cases without any issue. So it does not appear to be a problem with the package itself.

[karlchen]

Oh, this seems to make the difference. (No, it does not. Hypothesis replaced by a better one, see second half below)
Each Mint 17.x release seems to receive a different package.
Mint 17.1 received mint-artwork-common 1.8.4.2. It installed without issues here.

Mint 17.0: mint-artwork-common 1.8.1.2
Mint 17.1: mint-artwork-common 1.8.4.2
Mint 17.2: mint-artwork-common 1.8.7.2
Mint 17.3: mint-artwork-common 1.8.9.2

--
Could it be those who experience the reported problem when updating to the most recent mint-artwork-common have not installed the most recent dpkg update? dpkg 1.17.5ubuntu5.8?!

xenopeek mentioned something to the effect that the most recent dpkg is needed to support .xz archives inside .deb software packages here.
Admittedly, his post has been written in Dutch. But we all read Dutch fluently, don't we?!

Voor Linux Mint 17.x moet je ook de update voor dpkg installeren. De vorige versie van dpkg op Linux Mint 17.x werkt niet samen met nieuwe xz pakket formaat.

For Linux Mint 17.x, you will have to install the dpkg update as well. The previous dpkg version on Linux Mint 17.x does not support the new .xz package format.

[red03golf]

Could it be those who experience the reported problem when updating to the most recent mint-artwork-common have not installed the most recent dpkg update? dpkg 1.17.5ubuntu5.8?!

My version of dpkg:

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user@user-pc ~ $ dpkg --version
Debian `dpkg' package management program version 1.17.5 (amd64).
This is free software; see the GNU General Public License version 2 or
later for copying conditions. There is NO warranty.

The package manager says:

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Version: 1.17.5ubuntu5.7

I tried:

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sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude install dpkg=1.17.5ubuntu5.8

result:

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Unable to find a version "1.17.5ubuntu5.8" for the package "dpkg"
Unable to find a version "1.17.5ubuntu5.8" for the package "dpkg"
No packages will be installed, upgraded, or removed.
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 5 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B of archives. After unpacking 0 B will be used.

I then tried with enabling source repos but received the same result.

I then found the ubuntu download page, below, downloaded the dpkg_1.17.5ubuntu5.8_amd64.deb package, and tried to install it:
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/d/dpkg/

Result:


And, that's where I'm stopped at as I'm not sure what to do with that error information.
.

[red03golf]

.
After checking this thread I tried this (assuming I'm doing it correctly):

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sudo aptitude safe-upgrade mint-artwork-common

Result (same):

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The following packages will be upgraded: 
  mint-artwork-common 
1 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 4 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/2,097 kB of archives. After unpacking 1,024 B will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] y
dpkg-deb: error: archive '/var/cache/apt/archives/mint-artwork-common_1.8.9.2_all.deb' has premature member 'control.tar.xz' before 'control.tar.gz', giving up
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/mint-artwork-common_1.8.9.2_all.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess dpkg-deb --control returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/mint-artwork-common_1.8.9.2_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
A package failed to install.  Trying to recover:

I then tried this:

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sudo aptitude safe-upgrade

Result:

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The following packages will be upgraded: 
  google-chrome-stable libtiff5 libtiff5:i386 mint-artwork-common python-paramiko 
5 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 52.5 MB/54.6 MB of archives. After unpacking 13.3 kB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] y
Get: 1 http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable/main google-chrome-stable amd64 65.0.3325.181-1 [52.1 MB]
Get: 2 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-security/main libtiff5 i386 4.0.3-7ubuntu0.8 [146 kB]
Get: 3 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-security/main libtiff5 amd64 4.0.3-7ubuntu0.8 [146 kB]
Get: 4 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-security/main python-paramiko all 1.10.1-1git1ubuntu0.1 [106 kB]
Fetched 52.5 MB in 10s (4,976 kB/s)                                                                                   
(Reading database ... 230940 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../libtiff5_4.0.3-7ubuntu0.8_amd64.deb ...
De-configuring libtiff5:i386 (4.0.3-7ubuntu0.7) ...
Unpacking libtiff5:amd64 (4.0.3-7ubuntu0.8) over (4.0.3-7ubuntu0.7) ...
Preparing to unpack .../libtiff5_4.0.3-7ubuntu0.8_i386.deb ...
Unpacking libtiff5:i386 (4.0.3-7ubuntu0.8) over (4.0.3-7ubuntu0.7) ...
Preparing to unpack .../google-chrome-stable_65.0.3325.181-1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking google-chrome-stable (65.0.3325.181-1) over (65.0.3325.162-1) ...
dpkg-deb: error: archive '/var/cache/apt/archives/mint-artwork-common_1.8.9.2_all.deb' has premature member 'control.tar.xz' before 'control.tar.gz', giving up
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/mint-artwork-common_1.8.9.2_all.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess dpkg-deb --control returned error exit status 2
Preparing to unpack .../python-paramiko_1.10.1-1git1ubuntu0.1_all.deb ...
Unpacking python-paramiko (1.10.1-1git1ubuntu0.1) over (1.10.1-1git1build1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.6.7.1-1ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.22-1ubuntu1.1) ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.10.1-0ubuntu2) ...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.54ubuntu1.1) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/mint-artwork-common_1.8.9.2_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
A package failed to install.  Trying to recover:
Setting up libtiff5:amd64 (4.0.3-7ubuntu0.8) ...
Setting up libtiff5:i386 (4.0.3-7ubuntu0.8) ...
Setting up google-chrome-stable (65.0.3325.181-1) ...
Setting up python-paramiko (1.10.1-1git1ubuntu0.1) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.19-0ubuntu6.14) ...
/sbin/ldconfig.real: /usr/lib/nvidia-384/libEGL.so.1 is not a symbolic link

/sbin/ldconfig.real: /usr/lib32/nvidia-384/libEGL.so.1 is not a symbolic link

                                         
Current status: 1 update [-4].

It appears there were a few (other) upgrades hiding in the shadows, but the mint-artwork-common package still did not install.

stopped again (for now).

EDIT:

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user@user-pc ~ $ firefox --version
Mozilla Firefox 59.0.1

.

[fidokomik]

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dpkg-deb: error: archive '/var/cache/apt/archives/mint-artwork-common_1.8.9.2_all.deb' has premature member 'control.tar.xz' before 'control.tar.gz', giving up
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/mint-artwork-common_1.8.9.2_all.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess dpkg-deb --control returned error exit status 2

I taked look to /var/cache/apt/archives/mint-artwork-common_1.8.9.2_all.deb and this file look like corruped.

[karlchen]

Hello, fidokomik.

Sometimes it pays to read a thread from top to bottom completely.
For Mint 17.x there has been a dpkg update recently. This dpkg update enables dpkg to install .deb packages which have got an .xz archive inside.
The current mint-artwork-common update brings along such an internal .xz archive.
In case you have not got the recent dpkg update on your Mint 17.3, then dpkg will simply fail to understand the mint-artwork-common .deb package.
Cf. xenopeek's explanation, quoted in this post above: here

The solution is making sure that your Mint 17.3 has got the most recent dpkg version. Then try again updating mint-artwork-common. Should work. Worked correctly on my Mint 17.1. Installed the dpkg update first, the mint-artwork-common update second. All steps done through Update-Manager. No wild manual fiddling around. No issues.

HTH,
Karl

[Cosmo.]

The real cause of the problem for the OP seems to be, that he does not only not have the latest version of dpkg been offered (in this case I would advice to switch the mirror for the repositories), but this strange message in the gdebi window (see here). What does this message mean? It does not make any sense to me. I wonder, if this might be a conflict between the databases of apt-get and aptitude. I don't know also, but it is the only idea, which comes into my mind.

[FenderGuy]

In Linux Mint 17.3, I typically perform all updates for Levels 1 and 2; however, to resolve THIS issue, I installed all the Level 3 updates that were noted as "safe for download" (i.e., in Update Manager, TYPE = down arrow).

Problem solved!

[Cosmo.]

For Mint 17 up to 18.1 generally not applying level 3 updates is not a good idea.

[red03golf]

Yep, level 3 was already enabled:

[cwky42]

I had this same problem and was able to resolve it by updating dpkg. After that mint-artwork-common installed as it should.
inxi -Sz
System: Host: MintDuoBox17-3 Kernel: 3.19.0-32-generic x86_64 (64 bit)
Desktop: Cinnamon 2.8.8 Distro: Linux Mint 17.3 Rosa
Car: red91golf

The reason my dpkg was out of date was apparently because the Official Repository mirror(s) I had been using was also out of date. I switched mirrors (to a school I dropped out of in 1975, coincidentally...) and on the refresh, Update Manager offered me the ...5.8 version of dpkg. I unchecked mint-artwork, dpkg updated normally, and after the refresh mint-artwork-common did also. Problem solved!