On my x86_64 12.10 system, when I try to

apt-get install libssl-dev:i386

apt wants to remove a bunch of things:

The following packages will be REMOVED:

  build-essential dkms g++ g++-multilib gcc gcc-multilib hardening-wrapper nvidia-current

The following NEW packages will be installed:

  libc6-dev:i386 libssl-dev:i386 linux-libc-dev:i386 zlib1g-dev:i386

Why does this happen? How can I install libssl-dev:i386 without losing gcc?

I noticed that libssl-dev and libssl-dev:i386 have no "Multiarch" field reported by apt-cache show, which I think means they cannot coexist. ( https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MultiarchSpec )