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

[Tim]

On Sat, Mar 15, 2003 at 06:23:29PM -0800, Walter G. da Cruz wrote:
> 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.

There is a backup in /var/lib/dpkg/status-old, and some older backups in
/var/backups/dpkg.status.*.  It's just a text file, so if there was some
corruption, maybe you could find it by visual inspection or doing some
diff's.  Or you could even revert to an older version.. though I don't
know exactly what the consequences of doing that might be.  I guess
you'd just lose the installed state of some packages.  If you can figure
out which ones, maybe just reinstall them.

Maybe you should wait for a responce from someone with more Debian
experience than I.

   - Tim