On Sun, 06 Mar 2011 15:06:00 +0000 John MM wrote: > On 06/03/11 14:50, Grant Sewell wrote: > > Unfortunately /var/lib/dpkg/status is quite an important file and > > (as far as I am aware) there is no real way to re-generate it. > > Essentially it holds details of each package that's installed, and > > those that have been installed and removed (but not purged), etc, > > etc. > > > > You may be able to get back to a semi-usable system is the > > file /var/lib/dpkg/status-old is still present - it is (obviously) > > an older version of the file so it may not be completely up to > > date, but if you duplicate that you*should* get a usable system. > > > > Rule #1: Unless*you* are 100% certain on what you are doing, never > > *delete* a file on your system that someone else tells you to > > delete. Renaming the file is almost always good enough, and at > > least if you rename it you have a chance of renaming it back again. > > > > So, try this: > > $ sudo cp /var/lib/dpkg/status-old /var/lib/dpkg/status > > > > Grant > > Hi, thank you for your message, I really appreciate it. Well, it > looks like its not going to work, I used the command you gave me, and > I still get the > > 'InstallArchives failed' > > I get this message when trying to install from synaptic. > > 'E: Could not perform immediate configuration on 'libbz2-1.0'.Please > see man 5 apt.conf under APT::Immediate-Configure for details. (2) > > > I take it the only way now is to fresh install?
Now that would be daft! I ran a Mandrake 9.1 system with a completely borked rpm database for better part of a year! I had to install my updates from source, but since apt is (for the most part) better than rpm, you're in safe(r) hands. Worst case scenario, you have a blank status file and apt doesn't know what's installed and what isn't - when you try to install an application it'll just want to pull in a tonne of other packages that you already have. For example, I just renamed my status file (and then created a new, blank one), ran apt-get update and apt-get install synaptic... since apt doesn't know anymore what packages I have installed it prompted me to install: --START OF PACKAGE LISTING-- adduser apt apt-utils apt-xapian-index base-files base-passwd busybox-initramfs ca-certificates consolekit coreutils cpio cpp cpp-4.4 dbus dbus-x11 debconf debconf-i18n debianutils defoma dmsetup docbook-xml dosfstools dpkg e2fslibs e2fsprogs esound-clients esound-common file findutils fontconfig fontconfig-config fuse-utils gamin gawk gcc-4.4-base gconf2 gconf2-common ghostscript gksu gnome-keyring gnome-mime-data gnupg gnupg-curl gpgv gsfonts gvfs gvfs-backends hdparm hicolor-icon-theme ifupdown indicator-application initramfs-tools initramfs-tools-bin initscripts insserv iso-codes klibc-utils launchpad-integration libacl1 libappindicator0 libarchive1 libart-2.0-2 libasound2 libatasmart4 libatk1.0-0 libatk1.0-data libattr1 libaudiofile0 libavahi-client3 libavahi-common-data libavahi-common3 libavahi-glib1 libblkid1 libbluetooth3 libbonobo2-0 libbonobo2-common libbonoboui2-0 libbonoboui2-common libbz2-1.0 libc-bin libc6 libc6-i686 libcairo-perl libcairo2 libcap2 libcdio-cdda0 libcdio-paranoia0 libcdio10 libck-connector0 libcomerr2 libcups2 libcupsimage2 libcurl3-gnutls libdatrie1 libdb4.8 libdbus-1-3 libdbus-glib-1-2 libdbusmenu-glib1 libdbusmenu-gtk1 libdevmapper1.02.1 libdirectfb-1.2-0 libdrm-intel1 libdrm-nouveau1 libdrm-radeon1 libdrm2 libeggdbus-1-0 libept0 libesd0 libexif12 libexpat1 libffi5 libfontconfig1 libfontenc1 libfreetype6 libfribidi0 libfuse2 libgail18 libgamin0 libgcc1 libgconf2-4 libgcr0 libgcrypt11 libgdbm3 libgdu0 libgksu2-0 libglade2-0 libglib-perl libglib2.0-0 libglib2.0-data libgmp3c2 libgnome-keyring0 libgnome2-0 libgnome2-canvas-perl libgnome2-common libgnome2-perl libgnome2-vfs-perl libgnomecanvas2-0 libgnomecanvas2-common libgnomeui-0 libgnomeui-common libgnomevfs2-0 libgnomevfs2-common libgnomevfs2-extra libgnutls26 libgomp1 libgp11-0 libgpg-error0 libgphoto2-2 libgphoto2-port0 libgpm2 libgs8 libgssapi-krb5-2 libgtk2-perl libgtk2.0-0 libgtk2.0-bin libgtk2.0-common libgtop2-7 libgtop2-common libgudev-1.0-0 libgvfscommon0 libhal-storage1 libhal1 libice6 libidl0 libidn11 libimobiledevice0 libindicator0 libjasper1 libjpeg62 libjson-glib-1.0-0 libk5crypto3 libkeyutils1 libklibc libkrb5-3 libkrb5support0 liblaunchpad-integration1 liblcms1 libldap-2.4-2 liblocale-gettext-perl libltdl7 liblzma1 libmagic1 libmagickcore2 libmagickwand2 libmpfr1ldbl libncurses5 libncursesw5 libnewt0.52 libnih-dbus1 libnih1 libntfs-3g75 libntfs10 libopenobex1 liborbit2 libpam-ck-connector libpam-gnome-keyring libpam-modules libpam-runtime libpam0g libpango-perl libpango1.0-0 libpango1.0-common libpaper-utils libpaper1 libparted0debian1 libpcre3 libpixman-1-0 libplist1 libplymouth2 libpng12-0 libpolkit-agent-1-0 libpolkit-backend-1-0 libpolkit-gobject-1-0 libpopt0 libproxy0 libpython2.6 librarian0 libreadline6 libsasl2-2 libsasl2-modules libselinux1 libsepol1 libsgutils2-2 libslang2 libsm6 libsmbclient libsoup-gnome2.4-1 libsoup2.4-1 libsqlite3-0 libss2 libssl0.9.8 libstartup-notification0 libstdc++6 libsysfs2 libtalloc2 libtasn1-3 libtext-charwidth-perl libtext-iconv-perl libtext-wrapi18n-perl libthai-data libthai0 libtiff4 libts-0.0-0 libudev0 libusb-0.1-4 libusb-1.0-0 libusbmuxd1 libuuid1 libvte-common libvte9 libwbclient0 libx11-6 libx11-data libxapian15 libxau6 libxcb-atom1 libxcb-aux0 libxcb-event1 libxcb-render-util0 libxcb-render0 libxcb1 libxcomposite1 libxcursor1 libxdamage1 libxdmcp6 libxext6 libxfixes3 libxfont1 libxft2 libxi6 libxinerama1 libxml2 libxmuu1 libxrandr2 libxrender1 libxt6 lsb-base lsb-release lzma make makedev mime-support module-init-tools mount mountall mtools ncurses-bin net-tools netbase ntfs-3g ntfsprogs obex-data-server openssl passwd perl perl-base perl-modules plymouth plymouth-theme-ubuntu-text policykit-1 policykit-1-gnome powermgmt-base procps psfontmgr psmisc python python-apt python-cairo python-central python-dbus python-debian python-glade2 python-gnupginterface python-gobject python-gtk2 python-minimal python-software-properties python-support python-xapian python2.6 python2.6-minimal rarian-compat readline-common scrollkeeper sed sensible-utils sgml-base sgml-data shared-mime-info software-properties-gtk sudo synaptic sysv-rc sysvinit-utils tsconf ttf-dejavu-core tzdata ubuntu-keyring ucf udev udisks unattended-upgrades upstart usbmuxd util-linux uuid-runtime whiptail x-ttcidfont-conf x11-common xauth xfonts-encodings xfonts-utils xml-core zlib1g --END OF PACKAGE LISTING-- Grant. -- [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
