[SOLVED] pve-firmware package error when installing Proxmox 8 over Debian 12 Bookworm

[chicagonyc]

Hello. I'm aiming to install Proxmox 8 over a Debian 12.1 install. This is a machine running a Ryzen 3700X on a B350 motherboard with 64Gb RAM and an NVME boot drive. I have previously ran Linux without any issues on this computer. And the new Debian 12 Bookworm install works perfectly: can access the network, display works, drives show up, no problems.

I am following the official tutorial about install Proxmox over a new Debian install that is fully upgraded. The instructions are actually for Bullseye but the updates I thought would be pretty straightforward for Bookworm.

I successfully edited /etc/hosts, added the repositories, added the GPG key.

The part I'm having a problem with is installing PVE kernel 6.2 (apt install pve-kernel-6.2). Most of the packages installed fine, but not pve-firmware. I'm getting the following inscrutable error:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
pve-firmware
Suggested packages:
linux-image
The following NEW packages will be installed:
pve-firmware
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
3 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/76.0 MB of archives.
After this operation, 240 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
(Reading database ... 274131 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../pve-firmware_3.7-1_all.deb ...
Unpacking pve-firmware (3.7-1) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/pve-firmware_3.7-1_all.de
b (--unpack):
trying to overwrite '/lib/firmware/ath9k_htc/htc_7010-1.4.0.fw', which is also
in package firmware-ath9k-htc 1.4.0-108-gd856466+dfsg1-1.3
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/pve-firmware_3.7-1_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I'm not quite sure why there's some sort of conflict here, and what to do about it.

I did try to uninstall firmware-ath9k-htc which doesn't apply to me (I don't have a Wireless USB adapter -- I'm using wired ethernet). But that doesn't work either:

apt remove firmware-ath9k-htc
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:
proxmox-kernel-6.2 : Depends: pve-firmware but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt --fix-broken install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

And trying apt --fix-broken install just starts the same results as above. I seem to be stuck.

Update: Figured it out. The key was removing firmware-ath9k-htc. But I needed to force that removal. Once I did that, apt --fix-broken-install worked perfectly.

 

[hitchhooker]

anyone wrestling with this.
```
sudo dpkg --purge --force-all firmware-ath9k-htc
sudo apt --fix-broken install
```

 

[radnation]

Thank you! This absolutely saved my a$$ on a Lenovo P520

 

[redjohn]

Hello everyone,

I have just found this entry. Very good, I was able to solve it with two installations. Will this be fixed in the next Proxmox version? Is it a bug? I have now had the problem on two completely independent Debian 12 systems!

Thank you!

 

[Shrug9177]

Same problem here on Debian 12 Bookworm, but didn't see this error on LMDE Faye, both were on Cinnamon. The above fixed it, so thanks to @hitchhooker