dselect: unable to open/create access method lockfile

[Brian C <brianwc@berkeley.edu>]

Hi,

You may recall that I destroyed my /var partition earlier this month 
trying to learn how to use dd to clone a hard drive. See:

http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2005/12/msg00612.html

I have, surprisingly, managed to mostly recover from backups. However, I 
did not have a full /var backup and keep coming across sub-directories 
of /var that some program or other cannot find. A full hierarchy of /var 
from a clean minimal Sarge installation would be welcome.

My most immediate problem is that dselect won't let me upgrade anything 
because when I tell it to update, it replies:

dselect: unable to open/create access method lockfile

I've tried creating several /var subdirectories that I think dselect 
might be looking for, including:

/var/cache/apt/archives/
/var/cache/apt/archives/partial/
/var/lib/apt/lists
/var/lib/apt/lists/partial/

but I still get the same error. Can anyone explain how to allow dselect 
to create the lockfile it wants to?

Thanks,
Brian