[svlug] help: /var/lib/dpkg/status file broken

[Walter G. da Cruz]

I am using Debian Testing (sarge). About a week ago, dselect command 
stopped upgraging packages with the following error:


# dselect
Hit http://ftp.de.debian.org testing/main Packages
Hit http://ftp.de.debian.org testing/main Release
Hit http://ftp.de.debian.org testing/contrib Packages
Hit http://ftp.de.debian.org testing/contrib Release
Hit http://ftp.de.debian.org testing/non-free Packages
Hit http://ftp.de.debian.org testing/non-free Release
Reading Package Lists... Error!
E: Unable to parse package file /var/lib/dpkg/status (1)
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

update available list script returned error exit status 1.

The file seems to be in good condition:

ls -la /var/lib/dpkg/
...
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root      1649853 Mar 15 17:43 status
...

If I try to fix with the following command:

/etc/apt# apt-get install dpkg apt debconf
Reading Package Lists... Error!
E: Unable to parse package file /var/lib/dpkg/status (1)
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.


/etc/apt#apt-get --fix-broken --show-upgraded --simulate dist-upgrade | 
pager

Reading Package Lists... Error!
E: Unable to parse package file /var/lib/dpkg/status (1)
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.


My /etc/apt/sources.list says:

deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian testing main contrib non-free


Reinstalling the OS is my last alternative.  If there is a problem with 
the staus file, I would like to rebuild the list, if is possible.  Any 
help, suggestion will be sincerely appreciate it.

		TIA, Walter

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