Trouble installing iceweasel- dpkg-divert: Cannot divert directories

[keitho at strucktower.com]

Hi Mike-

Thanks for responding.

I'm new to Linux, and for-no-real-reason had mistakenly installed Firefox
into /usr/bin. With your comment I realized I needed to uninstall Firefox
from /usr/bin and reinstall into my home directory. Then, installing
Iceweasel went just fine.

Without your comment I would never have known that Iceweasel is only
diverting /usr/bin/firefox.

Thanks so much!

BTW- the reason I want to run both Firefox and Iceweasel is because I want
the "sync" function of Firefox- I have four computers that I want to keep
bookmarks and other profile info the same on, and with Firefox's sync
function I can do that easily. Since Iceweasel uses the same profile, I
just need to run Firefox at the times when I need to sync. If (when?)
Iceweasel adds that functionality I will no longer need to use Firefox.

Keith Ostertag


> On Wed, Aug 24, 2011 at 07:23:59PM -0700, keitho at strucktower.com wrote:
>> Can someone tell me how to get around this or what I am doing wrong?
>>
>> Here is the error apt-get message:
>>
>> root at EVE:/etc/apt# apt-get install -t squeeze-backports iceweasel
>> Reading package lists... Done
>> Building dependency tree
>> Reading state information... Done
>> The following extra packages will be installed:
>>   xulrunner-1.9.1
>> The following NEW packages will be installed:
>>   iceweasel xulrunner-1.9.1
>> 0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 86 not upgraded.
>> Need to get 8,363 kB of archives.
>> After this operation, 23.6 MB of additional disk space will be used.
>> Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
>> Get:1 http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates/main xulrunner-1.9.1
>> i386 1.9.1.16-9 [7,264 kB]
>> Get:2 http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates/main iceweasel i386
>> 3.5.16-9 [1,098 kB]
>> Fetched 8,363 kB in 7s (1,168 kB/s)
>> Selecting previously deselected package xulrunner-1.9.1.
>> (Reading database ... 132649 files and directories currently installed.)
>> Unpacking xulrunner-1.9.1 (from .../xulrunner-1.9.1_1.9.1.16-9_i386.deb)
>> ...
>> Unpacking iceweasel (from .../iceweasel_3.5.16-9_i386.deb) ...
>> dpkg-divert: Cannot divert directories
>>
>> Use --help for help about querying packages.
>> dpkg: error processing
>> /var/cache/apt/archives/iceweasel_3.5.16-9_i386.deb
>> (--unpack):
>>  subprocess new pre-installation script returned error exit status 2
>> configured to not write apport reports
>>                                       Processing triggers for man-db ...
>> Processing triggers for menu ...
>> Errors were encountered while processing:
>>  /var/cache/apt/archives/iceweasel_3.5.16-9_i386.deb
>> E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
>
> iceweasel is only diverting /usr/bin/firefox. I wouldn't expect that to
> normally be a directory. Is it one on your system?
>
> Mike
>