dpkg failure -problems in /var/lib/dpkg
Hi all,
Today I came across a weird thing: dpkg and apt are not working
anymore.
Only two days ago I have been installing some packages and I did not
notice anything strange then -all went well.
Today, on doing an apt-get update I got the error that it couldn't read
the package list:
Reading Package Lists... Error!
E: Could not open file /var/lib/dpkg/status - open (19 No such device)
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
In the /var/lib/dpkg directory it shows some weirdness:
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 1024 Jan 9 22:11 .
drwxr-xr-x 29 root root 1024 Dec 26 13:31 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Jan 5 21:24 alternatives
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6319846 Jan 9 22:11 available
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6319846 Jan 9 22:11 available-old
-rw-r--r-x 1 root root 8 Nov 4 19:53 cmethopt
c--xrw---- 29811 1634428001 1701276020 88, 82 Aug 15 2027
diversions
?r----x-wT 25978 980640613 1814063443 1852795252 Aug 15 2027
diversions-old
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 78848 Jan 9 22:11 info
-rw-r----x 1 root root 0 Jan 12 12:59 lock
-rw-r----x 1 root root 0 Jan 12 12:58 methlock
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 1024 Oct 4 2000 methods
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 104 Dec 9 17:44 statoverride
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 66 Dec 9 17:44 statoverride-old
c--xr--r-x 11890 1886347632 1769235828 115, 100 Jul 26 2010 status
br-xr-sr-- 29793 1819895149 174417001 115, 101 Sep 17 2028 status-old
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Jan 9 22:11 updates
I have no clue how to solve this. I can do a 'touch -m' to correct the timestamp(just tried om status-old) but the ownership and file permissions I cannot change -no permission. These numbers do not appear my /etc/passwd or /etc/group file.
I am running woody with a 2.4.16 kernel (my first home-made).
Please advice,
thanks
Chris
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