[Wylug-help] apt/dpkg woes

[Dave Fisher]

Hi,

I want to update one of my Ubuntu systems to get several security
patches, but dpkg seems to have got its knickers in a twist.

Any attempt to update a package produces the following:

    (Reading database ... dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/login_1%3a4.0.3-30.7ubuntu9_i386.deb (--unpack):
     failed in buffer_read(fd): files list for package `libvideo-ivtv-perl': Invalid argument
    Errors were encountered while processing:
     /var/cache/apt/archives/login_1%3a4.0.3-30.7ubuntu9_i386.deb

The login .deb is just an example, any package update produces the same
result.

I get exactly the same error if I try to remove the package
`libvideo-ivtv-perl', which seems to be causing the problem.

I've tried:

  * cleaning the cache
  * excising the libvideo-ivtv-perl repository from my sources.list
  * removing all references to unstable or unofficial repositories
  * increasing the value of dpkg --abort-after

I've also spent a lot of time nosing around the various dpkg and apt man
pages, but can't find anything that helps me diagnose the problem
properly, still less resolve it.


Dave