A Strange Error In Ubuntu
Joe M posted in Home Support on April 20th, 2010
I was running my Update Manager in Ubuntu, Karmic Koala, over the weekend.
I was faced with:
(Reading database … 75% dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
failed in buffer_read(fd): files list for package `XYZ-package’: Input/output error
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)
For the past couple of days…
I have been searching forums, blogs and help sites.
I found several postings that suggested running an assortment of commands.
I tried them, but to no avail.
One post in a forum suggested that it would be necessary to re-install Ubuntu.
(That was pretty much NOT going to happen. There HAD to be an easier way.)
Then, I found a website that suggested the following commands:
sudo mv /var/lib/dpkg/status /var/lib/dpkg/status.bad
sudo cp /var/lib/dpkg/status-old /var/lib/dpkg/status
I tried them… but still, no help.
The ‘Reading database… ‘ portion of the display kept freezing at 75%.
Then, I got a brainstorm.
I pulled up /var/lib/dpkg/status in gedit.
I searched for ‘XYZ-package’.
I found two references, within the status file.
I selected both blocks of text, describing ‘XYZ-package’ and deleted them both.
I ran
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get autoremove
I then ran Update Manager, and it ran with no problems!
I am glad that I stuck to my guns, and kept looking beyond the suggestion to re-install.
Like Windows, Ubuntu and other variants of Linux have their Total Cost of Ownership…
But I would much rather spend a little time doing research… than having to re-install my OS every few months.