I'm running into a problem with dist-upgrading on Sid. Openoffice (base and core) are broken. I can't seem to reinstall them, can't remove them and so I'm stuck.
Error: `/var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/preinst' can't be installed
Error: conflicting packages openoffice.org-core can't be installed

Should I force the removal of the openoffice suite and how? Or can I fix it in someway?

Regards

I'd say: Wait. Things can break in Sid - that's what "unstable" means. It should be fixed (hopefully) soon.

Such experiences are the main reason for me to use sidux - it's Sid, but with quality control in place, something Debian doesn't want and need to do, given the status of this flavour.

M.

Seems that the problem is install related. On other Sid laptop I have no problem. so I must have screwed something up. This is the error I get in synaptic:

E: /var/cache/apt/archives/openoffice.org-base_1%3a3.1.0-4_amd64.deb: can't (probably) new infofile `/var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/preinst' install
E: /var/cache/apt/archives/openoffice.org-core_1%3a3.1.0-4_amd64.deb: conflicting packages - openoffice.org-core won't be installed.

so updating or fixing won't work and neither is uninstalling. Anyway of forcing the uninstall...

Regards

Try deleting the file in /var/cache/apt/archives then run apt-get update apt-get install.

$ apt-cache policy openoffice.org-core
openoffice.org-core:
Installed: 1:3.1.0-4
Candidate: 1:3.1.0-4
Version table:
*** 1:3.1.0-4 0
990 http://ftp.nl.debian.org sid/main Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Tried it but still getting into the same loop....
Any other things I can try to get rid of OO? I hardly use it so if I could make deb believe it's gone and at least update the rest I'd be happy...

Just a thought - have you tried apt-get clean? Maybe there is an error in the archived debs.

Regards,
Stefan