dpkg: serious warning: file list file for package 'package' missing, assuming package has no files currently installed - can't install any packages

[Ryan Pugatch]

Andrew Farris wrote:
> sorry for the double post, but I found a link that might be helpful:
> 
> http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Debian/package-database-rebuild.html
> 
> I's about rebuilding /var w/o a package database. may be helpful for
> your issue...
> 
> also, near the end of that page, there was a command that supposedly
> re-registered all your packages. i suppose you could try it by itself
> before doing anything else drastic:
> 
> apt-get -u dselect-upgrade
> 
> 


I think I will have to give up on this now.  I think the only way to fix 
is to reinstall all of the packages (I can do a dpkg --get-selections to 
see what is installed).  But I can't reinstall all of the packages.. 
because stuff will break if I try.  Or it would take a lot of messing 
around to get some packages to reinstall.  apt-get -u dselect-upgrade 
did not work.  And anyway, now apt-get segfaults when I try to use it. 
I was doing something along the lines of "sudo apt-get --reinstall 
install `dpkg --get-selections | grep '[[:space:]]install' | cut -f1`" 
that I found via google.  A great idea, but messing with all of the 
packages angered something.  Time to reinstall.

Thanks all for the advice.


-- 
Ryan Pugatch
Systems Administrator, TripAdvisor