Package manager doesn't work

[Leevi]

I have succeeded to get the Synaptic Package manager blocked in my Ubuntu 8.10. The following error messages are received when starting the application. I have tried to recover the problem via different kernels without any results.

E: Unable to parse package file /var/lib/dpkg/status (1)
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
E: _cache->open() failed, please report.

Any tips

br
Leevi

[devils casper]

Hi and Welcome !

Execute this in Terminal :

sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt-get update

Post error message here, if any.

[Leevi]

I got the following error message
dpkg: parse error, in file `/var/lib/dpkg/status' near line 1:
field name `iagno' must be followed by colon

[Leevi]

And this from ..update
Reading package lists... Error!
E: Unable to parse package file /var/lib/dpkg/status (1)
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

[devils casper]

Post the contents of /var/lib/dpkg/status file here.

cat /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Leevi]

The commad generates a huge amount of cryptical data (like Chinese font).

Are there any way to correct the package manager or should I re-install the Ubuntu?

Leevi