So many error messages!

[Inkstand]

Hi there,

Before I start, I suppose I better mention that I have an Eee PC running Ubuntu via Easy Peasy (also I'm VERY new to Linux).

Lately I've been downloading items from Synaptic Package Manager (after asking how to achieve that in a previous post, thanks to the guys who helped then) and was going fine until now. When I open Synaptic, it comes up with an error message telling me that I must manually run "sudo dpkg --configure -a", which I have done. That gives me a seperate error message telling me that while trying to write a status report on such and such (a program I've downloaded from Synaptic I think) to var/lib/dkpg/status. Following that I investigated this so called file and discovered that the folder DPKG had about 6000 files in it, most of which were located in INFO (of which a lot of them I recognised once again from Synaptic).

The problem is, I can't delete any of them. When I go to delete a game that I previously downloaded, it says it can't move to trash, would I like to delete it outright, to which I say yes, top which it says no (it can't). Please let me know how I can make space, or get past this problem. It's really bugging me at the moment, as will need to download a program very shortly.

Thanks heaps,
Inkstand.

[jmadero]

you should never have to delete things manually from /var/lib/dpkg

you can remove programs with the command

sudo apt-get remove packagename

also when you should run these commands:

sudo apt-get autoremove

sudo apt-get clean

lastly, when you boot in grub how many linux kernels do you show? These take up quite a bit of space so if you are in need that's a good place to go. Delete old kernels if you're not using them. I think each one clears about 250 megs if you go into synaptic and remove all the old ones, then run

sudo apt-get clean

from terminal

[devils casper]

/var/lib/dkpg/status contains info files only and these files are necessary for Synaptic Package Manager to work properly.
You can clean cache of Package Manager to free space.

sudo apt-get clean all

Regular users don't have access to folders other than their /home/user_id folders. You can delete folders/files outside /home using sudo but its not recommended. Use Synaptic Package Manager to remove/uninstall packages.

Execute this

sudo apt-get update

Post exact error message here, if any.

[Inkstand]

When I type in "sudo dpkg --configure -a" it gives this error message.
"dpkg: parse error, in file `/var/lib/dpkg/updates/0023' near line 1:
newline in field name `#padding' "
And I've tried the apt-get clean and clean all but update doesn't work as it gives the error that I must execute dpkg --configure -a.

[jmadero]

Try this:

su
cd /var/lib/dpkg
rm available
touch available

usually su isn't used in Ubuntu and instead we use sudo but I think it's a bit faster this way. Just as soon as you're done get out of su mode since it is super user mode.

[Inkstand]

I'm afraid that didn't work. Thanks for trying though

[Sunnyside]

I just checked two Ubuntu Intrepid installations, one is a VM in Windows doing updates, the other is a stand alone installation on my laptop. Both have nothing in the /var/lib/dpkg/updates directory. Maybe you should delete this "0023" file, maybe everything in that directory.
Issue command: sudo nautilus to open a file browser as super user, navigate to the /var/lib/dpkg/updates directory and copy whatever is in there to a folder in your home directory as backup. Then move everything to the trash and try the sudo dpkg --configure -a command again.
If it reconfigures without error, open synaptic and hit the reload switch to update the lists of available packages and updates.
Also, in synaptic, click on Setting/Preferences/Files at top left menus. In the Temporary Files section are three choices for handling the cache. The first is "Leave all downloaded packages in the cache", if the radio button is on this selection the cache (/var/cache/apt/archives) will hold all packages you install and eventually use up all free space. You can leave the radio button there and hit the "Delete Cached Package Files" button once in a while to clean out the cache. I leave the radio button here on my laptop as I do updates on a high speed wireless connection, then I copy all the update packages from there to my VM Ubuntu's cache which is on dial-up. This way I don't have to spend hours on dial-up downloading the same packages, just put them in the cache and apply the updates right pronto. After copying out of my laptop, I hit the "Delete Cached Package Files" button to get rid of them.
The next selection is "Delete downloaded packages after installation", this selection will automatically clear the cache all the time.
The third selection is "Only delete packages which are no longer available", this will keep all current version packages you've downloaded for updates and installing new apps. etc., but will delete old versions where there is a new version available in Ubuntu archives.
Since you're familliar with synaptic, this is probably the best way for you to manage the cache.

[Inkstand]

First off, when I go into Synaptic, it comes up with this error:

E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem
E: _cache->open() failed, please report.

It then closes, and won't allow me to change any settings in Synaptic. Following that, I enter dpkg --configure -a into the terminal, and I get this error message:

dpkg: parse error, in file `/var/lib/dpkg/updates/0023' near line 1:
newline in field name `#padding'

When I try sudo apt-get update I get the same first part of the Synaptic error. Also, if it helps, when I opened file 0023 it was filled with "#padding" on about 20 lines before information on a package I installed was entered. Is there anyway I could remove the package without using Synaptic or the terminal? Removing a package via the terminal also gets the Synaptic error.

Please help, it's really frustrating not being able to download the appropriate programs, let alone remove the ones that seem to be causing the problem.

[devils casper]

Its a BUG in Ubuntu.

Press Alt+F2 and type this

gksu gedit /var/lib/dpkg/updates/0023

It will open 0023 file in Gedit with root privileges.
Search and delete all lines having #padding word.

[Inkstand]

I now have another error message, but it seems I've solved the padding problem, thanks. After deleting all the #padding, I now get the error:

"dpkg: failed to write status record about `libfftw3-3' to `/var/lib/dpkg/status'
: No space left on device"

I've gotten this error before, and I fixed the problem then, but I'm not sure how. I've tried deleting unused files on my system but it doesn't make a difference. Any ideas?

Thanks.