[ubuntu-uk] Stuff appearing in Terminal, I dont know what it is......

[Grant Sewell]

On Sun, 06 Mar 2011 15:06:00 +0000
John MM wrote:

> On 06/03/11 14:50, Grant Sewell wrote:
> > Unfortunately /var/lib/dpkg/status is quite an important file and
> > (as far as I am aware) there is no real way to re-generate it.
> > Essentially it holds details of each package that's installed, and
> > those that have been installed and removed (but not purged), etc,
> > etc.
> >
> > You may be able to get back to a semi-usable system is the
> > file /var/lib/dpkg/status-old is still present - it is (obviously)
> > an older version of the file so it may not be completely up to
> > date, but if you duplicate that you*should*  get a usable system.
> >
> > Rule #1: Unless*you*  are 100% certain on what you are doing, never
> > *delete*  a file on your system that someone else tells you to
> > delete. Renaming the file is almost always good enough, and at
> > least if you rename it you have a chance of renaming it back again.
> >
> > So, try this:
> > $ sudo cp /var/lib/dpkg/status-old /var/lib/dpkg/status
> >
> > Grant
> 
> Hi, thank you for your message, I really appreciate it. Well, it
> looks like its not going to work, I used the command you gave me, and
> I still get the
> 
> 'InstallArchives failed'
> 
> I get this message when trying to install from synaptic.
> 
> 'E: Could not perform immediate configuration on 'libbz2-1.0'.Please
> see man 5 apt.conf under APT::Immediate-Configure for details. (2)
> 
> 
> I take it the only way now is to fresh install?

Now that would be daft!  I ran a Mandrake 9.1 system with a completely
borked rpm database for better part of a year!  I had to install my
updates from source, but since apt is (for the most part) better
than rpm, you're in safe(r) hands.

Worst case scenario, you have a blank status file and apt doesn't know
what's installed and what isn't - when you try to install an
application it'll just want to pull in a tonne of other packages that
you already have.

For example, I just renamed my status file (and then created a new,
blank one), ran apt-get update and apt-get install synaptic... since
apt doesn't know anymore what packages I have installed it prompted me
to install:

--START OF PACKAGE LISTING--
adduser apt apt-utils apt-xapian-index base-files base-passwd
busybox-initramfs ca-certificates consolekit coreutils cpio cpp cpp-4.4
dbus dbus-x11 debconf debconf-i18n debianutils defoma dmsetup
docbook-xml dosfstools dpkg e2fslibs e2fsprogs esound-clients
esound-common file findutils fontconfig fontconfig-config fuse-utils
gamin gawk gcc-4.4-base gconf2 gconf2-common ghostscript gksu
gnome-keyring gnome-mime-data gnupg gnupg-curl gpgv gsfonts gvfs
gvfs-backends hdparm hicolor-icon-theme ifupdown indicator-application
initramfs-tools initramfs-tools-bin initscripts insserv iso-codes
klibc-utils launchpad-integration libacl1 libappindicator0 libarchive1
libart-2.0-2 libasound2 libatasmart4 libatk1.0-0 libatk1.0-data
libattr1 libaudiofile0 libavahi-client3 libavahi-common-data
libavahi-common3 libavahi-glib1 libblkid1 libbluetooth3 libbonobo2-0
libbonobo2-common libbonoboui2-0 libbonoboui2-common libbz2-1.0
libc-bin libc6 libc6-i686 libcairo-perl libcairo2 libcap2 libcdio-cdda0
libcdio-paranoia0 libcdio10 libck-connector0 libcomerr2 libcups2
libcupsimage2 libcurl3-gnutls libdatrie1 libdb4.8 libdbus-1-3
libdbus-glib-1-2 libdbusmenu-glib1 libdbusmenu-gtk1 libdevmapper1.02.1
libdirectfb-1.2-0 libdrm-intel1 libdrm-nouveau1 libdrm-radeon1 libdrm2
libeggdbus-1-0 libept0 libesd0 libexif12 libexpat1 libffi5
libfontconfig1 libfontenc1 libfreetype6 libfribidi0 libfuse2 libgail18
libgamin0 libgcc1 libgconf2-4 libgcr0 libgcrypt11 libgdbm3 libgdu0
libgksu2-0 libglade2-0 libglib-perl libglib2.0-0 libglib2.0-data
libgmp3c2 libgnome-keyring0 libgnome2-0 libgnome2-canvas-perl
libgnome2-common libgnome2-perl libgnome2-vfs-perl libgnomecanvas2-0
libgnomecanvas2-common libgnomeui-0 libgnomeui-common libgnomevfs2-0
libgnomevfs2-common libgnomevfs2-extra libgnutls26 libgomp1 libgp11-0
libgpg-error0 libgphoto2-2 libgphoto2-port0 libgpm2 libgs8
libgssapi-krb5-2 libgtk2-perl libgtk2.0-0 libgtk2.0-bin
libgtk2.0-common libgtop2-7 libgtop2-common libgudev-1.0-0
libgvfscommon0 libhal-storage1 libhal1 libice6 libidl0 libidn11
libimobiledevice0 libindicator0 libjasper1 libjpeg62 libjson-glib-1.0-0
libk5crypto3 libkeyutils1 libklibc libkrb5-3 libkrb5support0
liblaunchpad-integration1 liblcms1 libldap-2.4-2 liblocale-gettext-perl
libltdl7 liblzma1 libmagic1 libmagickcore2 libmagickwand2 libmpfr1ldbl
libncurses5 libncursesw5 libnewt0.52 libnih-dbus1 libnih1 libntfs-3g75
libntfs10 libopenobex1 liborbit2 libpam-ck-connector
libpam-gnome-keyring libpam-modules libpam-runtime libpam0g
libpango-perl libpango1.0-0 libpango1.0-common libpaper-utils libpaper1
libparted0debian1 libpcre3 libpixman-1-0 libplist1 libplymouth2
libpng12-0 libpolkit-agent-1-0 libpolkit-backend-1-0
libpolkit-gobject-1-0 libpopt0 libproxy0 libpython2.6 librarian0
libreadline6 libsasl2-2 libsasl2-modules libselinux1 libsepol1
libsgutils2-2 libslang2 libsm6 libsmbclient libsoup-gnome2.4-1
libsoup2.4-1 libsqlite3-0 libss2 libssl0.9.8 libstartup-notification0
libstdc++6 libsysfs2 libtalloc2 libtasn1-3 libtext-charwidth-perl
libtext-iconv-perl libtext-wrapi18n-perl libthai-data libthai0 libtiff4
libts-0.0-0 libudev0 libusb-0.1-4 libusb-1.0-0 libusbmuxd1 libuuid1
libvte-common libvte9 libwbclient0 libx11-6 libx11-data libxapian15
libxau6 libxcb-atom1 libxcb-aux0 libxcb-event1 libxcb-render-util0
libxcb-render0 libxcb1 libxcomposite1 libxcursor1 libxdamage1 libxdmcp6
libxext6 libxfixes3 libxfont1 libxft2 libxi6 libxinerama1 libxml2
libxmuu1 libxrandr2 libxrender1 libxt6 lsb-base lsb-release lzma make
makedev mime-support module-init-tools mount mountall mtools
ncurses-bin net-tools netbase ntfs-3g ntfsprogs obex-data-server
openssl passwd perl perl-base perl-modules plymouth
plymouth-theme-ubuntu-text policykit-1 policykit-1-gnome powermgmt-base
procps psfontmgr psmisc python python-apt python-cairo python-central
python-dbus python-debian python-glade2 python-gnupginterface
python-gobject python-gtk2 python-minimal python-software-properties
python-support python-xapian python2.6 python2.6-minimal rarian-compat
readline-common scrollkeeper sed sensible-utils sgml-base sgml-data
shared-mime-info software-properties-gtk sudo synaptic sysv-rc
sysvinit-utils tsconf ttf-dejavu-core tzdata ubuntu-keyring ucf udev
udisks unattended-upgrades upstart usbmuxd util-linux uuid-runtime
whiptail x-ttcidfont-conf x11-common xauth xfonts-encodings
xfonts-utils xml-core zlib1g
--END OF PACKAGE LISTING--

Grant.