dpkg error upgr libc6: A copy of the C library was found in an unexpected directory

[dj_palindrome]

The following is from a flash-based persistent install of Knoppix 6.4 (I believe this is what you call a poor man's install). According to the Debian BTS, this bug in libc6 is "fixed", but it is not fixed for me.

Since now I can't install reportbug (or anything else), I can't report this "bug" to Debian even if I wanted to.

root@Microknoppix:/home/knoppix# apt-get -f install

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
libc6 libc6-i686
Suggested packages:
glibc-doc
The following packages will be upgraded:
libc6 libc6-i686
2 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 95 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/5136 kB of archives.
After this operation, 32.8 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
Reading changelogs...
(Reading database ... 348874 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace libc6 2.13-7 (using .../libc6_2.13-20_i386.deb) ...

A copy of the C library was found in an unexpected directory:
'/UNIONFS/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc-2.13.so'
It is not safe to upgrade the C library in this situation;
please remove that copy of the C library or get it out of
'/UNIONFS/lib/i386-linux-gnu' and try again.

dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.13-20_i386.deb (--unpack):
subprocess new pre-installation script returned error exit status 1
configured to not write apport reports
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.13-20_i386.deb
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/locale: 0 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/man: 0 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/gnome/help: 0 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/omf: 0 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/doc/kde/HTML: 0 KiB

Total disk space freed by localepurge: 0 KiB

E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)


root@Microknoppix:/home/knoppix# dpkg -i --force-all /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.13-20_i386.deb
(Reading database ... 348874 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace libc6 2.13-7 (using .../libc6_2.13-20_i386.deb) ...

A copy of the C library was found in an unexpected directory:
'/UNIONFS/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc-2.13.so'
It is not safe to upgrade the C library in this situation;
please remove that copy of the C library or get it out of
'/UNIONFS/lib/i386-linux-gnu' and try again.

dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.13-20_i386.deb (--install):
subprocess new pre-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.13-20_i386.deb


root@Microknoppix:/home/knoppix# dpkg --configure -a

dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libc6-dev:
libc6-dev depends on libc6 (= 2.13-20); however:
Version of libc6 on system is 2.13-7.
dpkg: error processing libc6-dev (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
libc6-dev

root@Microknoppix:/home/knoppix#

[klaus2008]

Did you try the installation of the new libc6 package inside a chroot jail?
I would try something like the following in a root terminal or console.

mkdir /tmp/root
mount --bind /UNIONFS/ /tmp/root/
chroot /tmp/root
dpkg -i /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.13-20_i386.deb
exit
umount /tmp/root

[dj_palindrome]

Thank you so very much; I just could not have put all the pieces together without your help.
And I've made a concerted effort to understand the reason for every line in the Code section so, as a newcomer, I can take away something in terms of self-education.