Unable to install 'wireguard'

Terence · 2025-11-02T15:40:45Z

I have a raspberry pi running "Armbian 25.11.0-trunk.38 trixie" - I want to use this as a gateway, including running wireguard. When I install 'wireguard' and 'wireguard-tools' I receive this error:

```

Summary:
Upgrading: 0, Installing: 0, Removing: 0, Not Upgrading: 2
2 not fully installed or removed.
Space needed: 0 B / 27.9 GB available

Setting up linux-image-6.12.48+deb13-rt-arm64 (6.12.48-1) ...
/etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools:
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.12.48+deb13-rt-arm64
WARNING: Unsupported initramfs version (6.12.48+deb13-rt-arm64) - skipping setup
NOTE: Manual boot configuration may be required
/etc/kernel/postinst.d/z50-raspi-firmware:
WARNING: Unsupported kernel version (6.12.48+deb13-rt-arm64) - skipping setup
NOTE: Manual boot configuration may be required
/etc/kernel/postinst.d/zzz-copy-new-files:
cp: cannot stat '/usr/lib/linux-image-6.12.48+deb13-rt-arm64//overlays': No such file or directory
run-parts: /etc/kernel/postinst.d/zzz-copy-new-files exited with return code 1
dpkg: error processing package linux-image-6.12.48+deb13-rt-arm64 (--configure):
installed linux-image-6.12.48+deb13-rt-arm64 package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-image-rt-arm64:
linux-image-rt-arm64 depends on linux-image-6.12.48+deb13-rt-arm64 (= 6.12.48-1); however:
Package linux-image-6.12.48+deb13-rt-arm64 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package linux-image-rt-arm64 (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
linux-image-6.12.48+deb13-rt-arm64
linux-image-rt-arm64

```

It looks like the linux-image-6.12.48+deb13-rt-arm64 (6.12.48-1 package is trying to install an overlay in '/usr/lib/linux-image-6.12.48+deb13-rt-arm64//overlays' but that directory does not exist.

The description of this package says: "This package depends on the latest Linux kernel and modules for use on 64-bit ARMv8 machines. "

```

ic linux-image-6.12.48+deb13-rt-arm64 6.12.48-1 arm64 Linux 6.12 for 64-bit ARMv8 machines (signed), PREEMPT_RT
ii linux-image-current-bcm2711 25.8.2 arm64 Armbian Linux current kernel image 6.12.56-current-bcm2711
rc linux-image-rt-arm64 6.12.48-1 arm64 Linux for 64-bit ARMv8 machines (meta-package)

```

Any suggestions on how to resolve this?

fastfetch output:

Werner · 2025-11-02T15:42:24Z

There is no need to install "wireguard" as all Armbian images come with this kernel module by default. All you need is the userspace tools (if not installed already) from "wireguard-tools".

If necessary try installing with "--no-install-recommends".

eselarm · 2025-11-02T18:27:27Z

Strange thing is that on Armbian Trixie (arm64), if I do 'apt install wireguard', I get as dependencies:

linux-image-6.12.48+deb13-rt-arm64 linux-image-rt-arm64 wireguard-tools

On vanilla Debian Tixie (arm64), only wireguard-tools

Even if I remove/disable all armbian sources, same problem.

Anyway the fix/cleanup that works for me (RK3588 platform):

apt purge linux-image-6.12.48+deb13-rt-arm64 linux-image-rt-arm64

apt-mark manual wireguard-tools

Terence · 2025-11-02T22:50:14Z

Installing 'wireguard' caused lots of problems, but wireguard-tools works after restart.

Werner · 2025-11-03T04:33:31Z

10 hours ago, eselarm said:

Strange thing is that on Armbian Trixie (arm64), if I do 'apt install wireguard', I get as dependencies:

linux-image-6.12.48+deb13-rt-arm64 linux-image-rt-arm64 wireguard-tools

Nothing strange there. The wireguard package comes from trixie which has dependency to debian's own kernel packages. The package cannot know that there is wireguard kernel-wise already in place or even know about Armbian kernel packages. So this is kind of expected.

However I think at some point Armbian kernel packages included a apt information that it provides wireguard. Not sure about the status there.