I am using Linux Mint 12 and currently have the Mate desktop running. The icon in the upper right showed their were updates. Tried to do it and it said that The package system is brokenCheck if you are using third party repositories. If so disable them,  since they are a common source of problems. Furthermore run the  following command in a Terminal: apt-get install -fThe details are: The following packages have unmet dependencies:mint-artwork-gnome: Depends: gtk2-engines-clearlooks but it is a  virtual package                      Depends: mint-backgrounds-lisa but it is not installedsudo apt-get install -f gives this output:Reading package lists... Done   Building dependency tree  Reading state information... DoneCorrecting dependencies... Done The following extra packages will be installed:     mint-backgrounds-lisa  The following NEW packages will be installed:     mint-backgrounds-lisa  0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 32 not upgraded.   4 not fully installed or removed.   Need to get 0 B/3,003 kB of archives.  After this operation, 3,265 kB of additional disk space will be used.  Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y   (Reading database ... 482703 files and directories currently installed.)   Unpacking mint-backgrounds-lisa (from .../mint-backgrounds-lisa_1.1_all.deb) ...   dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/mint-backgrounds-lisa_1.1_all.deb (--unpack):   trying to overwrite '/usr/share/gnome-background-properties/linuxmint-lisa.xml', which is also in package mint-artwork-kde 2.0.1   dpkg-deb: error: subprocess paste was killed by signal (Broken pipe)   Errors were encountered while processing:   /var/cache/apt/archives/mint-backgrounds-lisa_1.1_all.deb  E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)If I try and install the latest version of Chromium by double-clicking the deb file is says:gdebi-gtk Broken DependenciesYour system has broken dependencies. This application cannot continue  until this is fixed. To fix it run 'gksudo synaptic' or 'sudo apt-get  install -f' in a terminal window.If I run 'gksudo synaptic' Synaptic comes up and says:(as superuser) You have 1 broken package on your system!Use the Broken filter to locate it.The Broken filter shows:Synaptic Broken       Installed Version   Latest Version    Description  mint-artwork-gnome    2.6.20              2.6.20           Default Artwork for Linux MintTrying to reinstall the above package gives:An error occurredThe following details are provided:E: /var/cache/apt/archives/mint-backgrounds-lisa_1.1_all.deb: trying  to overwrite  '/usr/share/gnome-background-properties/linuxmint-lisa.xml', which is  also in package mint-artwork-kde 2.0.1One easy solution is probably to not run Mate with Linux Mint (this is my first try), but just wondering if this is fixable.
Update is telling me my package system is broken - the instruction to fix it doesn't work - what to do?
linux mint;upgrade;dpkg
A quick and dirty fix, was hack the dpkg records,Since /usr/share/gnome-background-properties/linuxmint-lisa.xml belongs two packages, you're going to remove it from one,Goto /var/lib/dpkg/info/mint-artwork-kde.list, remove that xml filename from the file.And redo apt-get -f installNotice in the future this package conflicts will be solved by the packager (let's hope), and later updates will not be affected.