Comment 2 for bug 115107

I had a similar problem installing gnuplot 4.2 on Feisty:

(Reading database ... 132385 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking gnuplot (from .../gnuplot_4.2.0-1_i386.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /home/***/Sources/gnuplot4.2/gnuplot-4.2.0/gnuplot_4.2.0-1_i386.deb (--install):
 trying to overwrite `/usr/share/texmf/ls-R', which is also in package tex-common
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /home/***/Sources/gnuplot4.2/gnuplot-4.2.0/gnuplot_4.2.0-1_i386.deb
/var/tmp/XPOHLAMWPQVpCeHYohHVX/dpkginstall.log (END)

From a newbie point of view, and following the directions in http://whiterosecreations.nl/linux/index.php (an explanation is offered there) i did:

$ sudo dpkg --force-overwrite -i /home/***/Sources/gnuplot4.2/gnuplot-4.2.0/gnuplot_4.2.0-1_i386.deb
$ auto-apt run ./configure
$ make
$ sudo checkinstall -D

It worked for me, hope it helps.