Ubuntu 12.04 - confirm unmet dependencies

Question

I want to install Oracle XE 10g AND Shorewall on Ubuntu 12.04

Problem: Oracle XE 10g needs "bc:i386" and Shorewall needs "bc" (both are dependencies....)

I think it is not possible to have both bcs...... As Oracle XE 10g only needs "bc:386" for configure (and not for running the database after configure) - the idea is following:

1. install Oracle XE 10g with "bc:386"
2. deinstall "bc:i386" (database still runs - bc:i386 was only needed for configure) with command: "dpkg -r --force-depends bc:i386"
3. install shorewall (and "bc") and everyone is happy.

problem: when I want to use apt-get after "dpkg -r --force-depends bc:i386" it is complaining about unmet dependencies.

apt-get install shorewall
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree 
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 oracle-xe-universal:i386 : Depends: bc:i386 but it is not going to be installed
 shorewall : Depends: bc but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

How can I solve this problem? And please remember - I want to use Oracle XE 10g AND shorewall - so please no answers like "use mysql instead of oracle" and so on ;-)

thank you!

Answer 1

A similar problem seemed to be handled in this post

My first advice is as in that post: install the amd64 variant bc and ignore the bc:i386 package.

Also it is not clear to me if you tried the suggested solution apt-get -f -install and if so what happened.

In general it is no good great help to mix up dpkg and apt-get for manipulating the package database except you know exactly what you do.

Another variant you could try is to specify oracle and shorewall in one apt-get install call and go through all the resolver suggestions. (Take care: this can be a time consuming hard way to go, especially with the option --full-resolver enabled)