Re: /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)

[Alan Chandler <alan@chandlerfamily.org.uk>]

On Sunday 07 January 2007 17:14, J Toll wrote:
> Hi,
>
> For the past few weeks I've been unable to upgrade any packages.  The
> process fails with the following message.  I can't tell if this is a
> problem with dpkg, debconf, or libkrb53.  Any suggestions on how to
...

> dpkg: parse error, in file `/var/lib/dpkg/available' near line 2
> package `libkrb53':
> value for `status' field not allowed in this context

Personally I would go and explore the file mentioned and look for 
corruption.  It seems to imply line 2 so it should be near the 
beginning.  Perhaps there is a blank line or something near the 
beginning.

Did you run out of disk space sometime recently?

There should be a /var/lib/dpkg/available-old file too (at least I have 
one)

Disclaimer: I don't know what I am talking about.


-- 
Alan Chandler
http://www.chandlerfamily.org.uk