Having a directory-1.1.0.0 in your user package database and in your global package database looks a bit fishy. If it were me, since there are so few packages installed at all, I'd probably do some sequence like this: 1. rm -rf ~/.ghc # get a clean slate 2. cabal install xmonad-contrib # this will pull in xmonad all by itself Let us know if that doesn't work, or if you want a more precise fix. (rm -rf ~/.ghc is a pretty big hammer, but it can probably be refined if you don't mind learning a bit about Haskell's dependency management.) ~d Quoting RCY :

Hi, On my Ubuntu 11.10, I installed xmonad using 'cabal install xmonad' However 'cabal install xmonad-contrib' failed with the errors shown below. I have also listed the output from 'ghc-pkg list'. I would appreciate help in fixing this problem. Thanks, Recif

%cabal install xmonad-contrib Resolving dependencies... Configuring xmonad-contrib-0.9.2... Warning: This package indirectly depends on multiple versions of the same package. This is highly likely to cause a compile failure. package process-1.0.1.5 requires directory-1.1.0.0 package haskell98-1.1.0.1 requires directory-1.1.0.0 package xmonad-contrib-0.9.2 requires directory-1.1.0.0 package xmonad-0.9.2 requires directory-1.1.0.0 package process-1.0.1.5 requires directory-1.1.0.0 package haskell98-1.1.0.1 requires process-1.0.1.5 package xmonad-contrib-0.9.2 requires process-1.0.1.5 package xmonad-0.9.2 requires process-1.0.1.5 package process-1.0.1.5 requires unix-2.4.2.0 package directory-1.1.0.0 requires unix-2.4.2.0 package xmonad-contrib-0.9.2 requires unix-2.5.0.0 package xmonad-0.9.2 requires unix-2.5.0.0 package process-1.0.1.5 requires unix-2.5.0.0 package directory-1.1.0.0 requires unix-2.5.0.0 Preprocessing library xmonad-contrib-0.9.2... Building xmonad-contrib-0.9.2... <command line>: cannot satisfy -package-id directory-1.1.0.0-ec90bcfb4e24c74a65b384bc1d58afa8: directory-1.1.0.0-ec90bcfb4e24c74a65b384bc1d58afa8 is shadowed by package directory-1.1.0.0-393d8e95f1c0dd6ee908e122f924ac85 (use -v for more information) cabal: Error: some packages failed to install: xmonad-contrib-0.9.2 failed during the building phase. The exception was: ExitFailure 1

%ghc-pkg list /var/lib/ghc-7.0.3/package.conf.d Cabal-1.10.1.0 X11-1.5.0.0 X11-xft-0.3 array-0.3.0.2 base-4.3.1.0 bin-package-db-0.0.0.0 bytestring-0.9.1.10 containers-0.4.0.0 directory-1.1.0.0 extensible-exceptions-0.1.1.2 filepath-1.2.0.0 ghc-7.0.3 ghc-binary-0.5.0.2 ghc-prim-0.2.0.0 haskell2010-1.0.0.0 haskell98-1.1.0.1 hpc-0.5.0.6 integer-gmp-0.2.0.3 mtl-2.0.1.0 old-locale-1.0.0.2 old-time-1.0.0.6 pretty-1.0.1.2 process-1.0.1.5 random-1.0.0.3 rts-1.0 syb-0.3 template-haskell-2.5.0.0 time-1.2.0.3 transformers-0.2.2.0 unix-2.4.2.0 utf8-string-0.3.6 xmonad-0.9.2 xmonad-contrib-0.9.2 /home/rc/.ghc/x86_64-linux-7.0.3/package.conf.d directory-1.1.0.0 process-1.0.1.5 strict-0.3.2 unix-2.5.0.0 xdg-basedir-0.2.1 xmonad-0.9.2