Can't install packages

[Bas Cancrinus <bascancr@gmail.com>]

Dear list,

When I try to install an arbitrary package with apt-get or dselect I always receive the following error:

...
Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/xyz.deb (--unpack):
 files list file for package `sysv-rc' is missing final newline
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/xyz.deb
Processing was halted because there were too many errors.
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
...

What could be wrong with the sysv-rc package? Its version is 2.86.ds1-1.

Thanks in advance,
Bas