I've installed a number of 32bit libraries and their dev packages (to build 32 bit binaries on a 64bit host), but a handful of them effectively can't be installed without catastrophic harm to the system. Here's an example.
$ uname -a
Linux <hostname> 3.2.0-24-generic #37-Ubuntu SMP Wed Apr 25 08:43:22 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
$ cat /etc/issue
Ubuntu 12.04 LTS \n \l
$ sudo apt-get install libappindicator3-dev:i386
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
libopenal1:i386 sound-theme-freedesktop libsdl-ttf2.0-0:i386 libgconf-2-4 libgconf-2-4:i386 gconf2-common libstdc++5:i386
libqt4-declarative:i386 libgail18:i386 libldap-2.4-2:i386 libgphoto2-l10n libao-common libv4l-0:i386 liblcms1:i386
libqt4-qt3support:i386 libroken18-heimdal:i386 libunistring0:i386 libcupsimage2:i386 libgphoto2-port0:i386 libidn11:i386
libcaca0:i386 gtk2-engines:i386 libgudev-1.0-0:i386 libgconf2-doc libcdparanoia0:i386 libavc1394-0:i386
gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3:i386 qdbus glib-networking-common libaio1:i386 libsane:i386 odbcinst1debian2 odbcinst1debian2:i386
libqt4-test:i386 libqt4-script:i386 libqt4-designer:i386 libsdl-mixer1.2:i386 libqt4-network:i386 libqt4-dbus libqt4-dbus:i386
libcap2:i386 libproxy1 libproxy1:i386 ibus-gtk:i386 libtdb1:i386 libasn1-8-heimdal:i386 libspeex1:i386 libxslt1.1:i386
libgomp1:i386 libcapi20-3:i386 libibus-1.0-0:i386 libopenal-data odbcinst libgssapi3-heimdal:i386 libvisual-0.4-0:i386
libcanberra0:i386 gtk2-engines-murrine:i386 libwavpack1:i386 libqt4-opengl:i386 libsoup-gnome2.4-1:i386 libmysqlclient18:i386
libv4lconvert0:i386 gstreamer0.10-plugins-good:i386 libqt4-xmlpatterns:i386 gir1.2-gconf-2.0:i386 libiec61883-0:i386
libsdl-image1.2:i386 libwind0-heimdal:i386 libsdl1.2debian:i386 libxaw7:i386 libgdbm3:i386 libcurl3:i386 libqtcore4
libqtcore4:i386 libesd0:i386 libmikmod2:i386 oss-compat libpulse-mainloop-glib0:i386 libtheora0:i386 libaa1:i386
libieee1284-3:i386 libao4:i386 libxmu6:i386 libcanberra-gtk0:i386 libvorbisfile3:i386 libqt4-sql:i386 libsane-common
esound-common libxpm4:i386 libqt4-svg:i386 libusb-0.1-4:i386 libgail-common:i386 libhcrypto4-heimdal:i386 liborc-0.4-0:i386
libraw1394-11:i386 libshout3:i386 libdv4:i386 libhx509-5-heimdal:i386 libqt4-xml libqt4-xml:i386 gstreamer0.10-x:i386
libgettextpo0:i386 libxss1:i386 libgd2-xpm:i386 libheimbase1-heimdal:i386 libsdl-net1.2:i386 libvisual-0.4-plugins:i386
libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0:i386 libxtst6:i386 gtk2-engines-pixbuf:i386 gsettings-desktop-schemas libqtgui4:i386
libtag1c2a:i386 libssl0.9.8:i386 libmpg123-0:i386 libmad0:i386 libsasl2-2:i386 gtk2-engines-oxygen:i386 gconf-service
xaw3dg:i386 liboil0.3:i386 libheimntlm0-heimdal:i386 libpulsedsp:i386 libqt4-sql-mysql:i386 libodbc1:i386 libexif12:i386
libqt4-scripttools:i386 libglu1-mesa:i386 librtmp0:i386 libqtwebkit4:i386 glib-networking-services libgstreamer0.10-0:i386
libxp6:i386 libaudio2:i386 libxt6:i386 libxv1:i386 libsasl2-modules:i386 gstreamer0.10-plugins-base:i386 libmng1:i386 libltdl7
libltdl7:i386 libkrb5-26-heimdal:i386 libssl1.0.0:i386 glib-networking glib-networking:i386 gconf-service-backend
libsoup2.4-1:i386 libgphoto2-2:i386 libtag1-vanilla:i386 libaudiofile1:i386
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following extra packages will be installed:
debhelper dh-apparmor gettext gir1.2-atk-1.0:i386 gir1.2-gtk-2.0:i386 html2text indicator-application:i386 intltool-debian
libappindicator3-1:i386 libatk1.0-dev:i386 libcroco3 libdbusmenu-glib-dev:i386 libdbusmenu-glib4:i386 libdbusmenu-gtk3-4:i386
libgettextpo0 libgtk-3-0 libgtk-3-0:i386 libgtk-3-bin libgtk-3-common libgtk2.0-dev:i386 libindicator3-7:i386
libmail-sendmail-perl libsys-hostname-long-perl libunistring0 libxcomposite-dev:i386 libxcursor-dev:i386 libxdamage-dev:i386
libxfixes-dev:i386 libxi-dev:i386 libxinerama-dev:i386 libxml2-utils libxrandr-dev:i386 po-debconf python3 python3-minimal
python3.2 python3.2-minimal x11proto-composite-dev x11proto-damage-dev x11proto-fixes-dev x11proto-randr-dev
x11proto-xinerama-dev
Suggested packages:
dh-make gettext-doc librsvg2-common libgtk2.0-doc:i386 libmail-box-perl python3-doc python3-tk python3.2-doc binfmt-support
Recommended packages:
python:i386 debhelper:i386
The following packages will be REMOVED:
apparmor apt-xapian-index bluez bluez-alsa:i386 byobu command-not-found gconf2 gdb ia32-libs ia32-libs-multiarch:i386
landscape-common language-selector-common libcanberra-gtk-module:i386 libgconf2-dev:i386 libpython2.7 lsb-release python
python-apport python-apt python-apt-common python-chardet python-crypto python-dbus python-debian python-gdbm
python-gnupginterface python-httplib2 python-keyring python-launchpadlib python-lazr.restfulclient python-lazr.uri
python-minimal python-newt python-oauth python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources python-problem-report python-serial
python-simplejson python-twisted-bin python-twisted-core python-wadllib python-xapian python-zope.interface python2.7
python2.7-minimal ubuntu-minimal ubuntu-standard ufw unattended-upgrades update-manager-core update-notifier-common vim
The following NEW packages will be installed:
debhelper dh-apparmor gettext gir1.2-atk-1.0:i386 gir1.2-gtk-2.0:i386 html2text indicator-application:i386 intltool-debian
libappindicator3-1:i386 libappindicator3-dev:i386 libatk1.0-dev:i386 libcroco3 libdbusmenu-glib-dev:i386 libdbusmenu-glib4:i386
libdbusmenu-gtk3-4:i386 libgettextpo0 libgtk-3-0:i386 libgtk2.0-dev:i386 libindicator3-7:i386 libmail-sendmail-perl
libsys-hostname-long-perl libunistring0 libxcomposite-dev:i386 libxcursor-dev:i386 libxdamage-dev:i386 libxfixes-dev:i386
libxi-dev:i386 libxinerama-dev:i386 libxml2-utils libxrandr-dev:i386 po-debconf python3 python3-minimal python3.2
python3.2-minimal x11proto-composite-dev x11proto-damage-dev x11proto-fixes-dev x11proto-randr-dev x11proto-xinerama-dev
The following packages will be upgraded:
libgtk-3-0 libgtk-3-bin libgtk-3-common
WARNING: The following essential packages will be removed.
This should NOT be done unless you know exactly what you are doing!
python-minimal python2.7-minimal (due to python-minimal)
3 upgraded, 40 newly installed, 54 to remove and 69 not upgraded.
Need to get 16.6 MB of archives.
After this operation, 5,869 kB disk space will be freed.
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Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. It seems that your bug report is not filed about a specific source package though, rather it is just filed against Ubuntu in general. It is important that bug reports be filed about source packages so that people interested in the package can find the bugs about it. You can find some hints about determining what package your bug might be about at https:/
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