apt steam-devices dpkg error

Question

Tried to run sudo apt update; sudo apt upgrade the other day and got an error regarding dpkg which I've not seen before and google doesn't appear to be much help either.

I will just paste the output as I have no idea what is going on:

sudo apt upgrade

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt --fix-broken install' to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 steam:i386 : Depends: steam-devices:i386
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt --fix-broken install' with no packages (or specify a solution).


sudo apt --fix-broken install

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  hunspell-bn hunspell-bs hunspell-gu hunspell-hi hunspell-is hunspell-si hunspell-te
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following additional packages will be installed:
  steam-devices
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  steam-devices
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 98 not upgraded.
20 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/26.0 kB of archives.
After this operation, 79.9 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
(Reading database ... 531568 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../steam-devices_1.0.0.59-2_all.deb ...
Unpacking steam-devices (1.0.0.59-2) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/steam-devices_1.0.0.59-2_all.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite '/lib/udev/rules.d/60-steam-input.rules', which is also in package steam-launcher 1.0.0.59
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/steam-devices_1.0.0.59-2_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Could someone more familiar with apt and package management than myself explain what these errors mean and how I might go about diagnosing / fixing the problem. Literally no clue where to start with this.

System is debian 9 (I think)

Answer 1

I've had the same problem these days, after receiving a missing dependencies notification from Steam on my Debian 9, so I looked for a workaroung. I had Synaptic package manager installed on it (you might have it by default too), so I managed to remove the broken package from there:

1. On the left side of the interface packages are categorised by status: installed, not installed, broken...). You'll need to check the broken one and click "Apply" button.
2. I then upgraded Debian from Synaptic ("Mark all upgrades" and then "Apply")
3. And then installed steam-devices:i386 from Terminal as usual.
4. I followed all the recommendations from apt (installed all the recommended packages for my graphics driver and so) and got my Steam working.

In case you are new to Synaptic, you need to know that you need to be root to use it (it will ask), and you won't be able to use apt from command line while Synaptic is open.