dpkg - how to install pre-dependency?

Question

I need to install apt package on a Western Digital DL4100 NAS running a Linux DL4100 distribution where the only package system is dpkg. To do so, I have to install multiarch-support, it depends on libc6 which depends on libgcc1. But libgcc1 pre-depends on multiarch-support.

There is no file containing yum, pacman, apt, aptitude, portage, dselect, emerge or zypp in its name on the disc. I have found only dpkg in /var/lib/dpkg and /usr/bin/dpkg.

How can I install these packages where one package depends on another package which pre-depends on the first one?

# dpkg -i /path/to/libc6.deb /path/to/multiarch-support.deb /path/to/libgcc1.deb

returns

dpkg: package libgcc1 pre-depends on multiarch-support, which is not installed or flagged to be installed

There is no package installed under dpkg:

# dpkg -l
    Name           Version
+++-==============-==============

Answer 1

In theory, on a dpkg-managed system, you should be able to install multiple packages in a single operation; this will allow installation of packages with a dependency loop. Assuming you have the appropriate packages downloaded:

dpkg -i libc6_*deb multiarch-support_*deb libgcc1_*deb

will install libc6, multiarch-support and libgcc1.

On a Western Digital NAS though, even if the operating system is based on Debian (there are some indications that it is), installed software isn't managed using dpkg, and fixing that is both quite difficult, and quite likely to break your system further down the line. To install software on your NAS, you should use the features available in MyCloud.

(A dpkg-managed system should never require the above packages to be forcefully installed, since they are dependencies of dpkg itself.)

Answer 2

You can try to install the packages using some of the --force-... flags of dpkg, use --force-help to list them. The ultimate way is the --force-all flag.

It could be needed that you need to unpack some of the packages manually, and trying the installation again. Having a look at debootstrap, which need to solve the same problem, can also be helpful.

Answer 3

1. sudo dpkg --force-all -i <.deb filename>
2. sudo apt install -f

These two commands worked flawlessly and will work on all softwares.

Answer 4

Find a machine where apt-get is installed and run the follow command:

apt-get --print-uris --yes install YourTargetPackage | grep ^\' | cut -d\' -f2 | xargs wget

It will download all dependencies to your machine.

Then you can copy this dependencies on your machine with dpkg-only and download all dependencies:

dpkg -i pathToFolderWithDeps/*

Then install your app:

dpkg -i YourTargetPackage.deb