Unable to add or remove software

You seem to have an impressively broken dpkg database. This isn't a bug, but somebody over in Answers might be able to help you.

Open a terminal and backup the current available file

sudo mv /var/lib/dpkg/available /var/lib/dpkg/available.broken

then move available-old to available

sudo mv /var/lib/dpkg/available-old /var/lib/dpkg/available

then try updating

Bhavani,

Thank you for your help. I tried the commands you suggested, but I am still having problems. Here is the output (I tried them twice).

Chris

chris@Compaq2580US:~$ sudo mv /var/lib/dpkg/available /var/lib/dpkg/available.broken
[sudo] password for chris:
Sorry, try again.
[sudo] password for chris:
chris@Compaq2580US:~$ sudo mv /var/lib/dpkg/available-old /var/lib/dpkg/available
mv: cannot stat `/var/lib/dpkg/available-old': No such file or directory
chris@Compaq2580US:~$ sudo mv /var/lib/dpkg/available /var/lib/dpkg/available.broken
mv: cannot stat `/var/lib/dpkg/available': No such file or directory
chris@Compaq2580US:~$ sudo mv /var/lib/dpkg/available-old /var/lib/dpkg/available
mv: cannot stat `/var/lib/dpkg/available-old': No such file or directory
chris@Compaq2580US:~$

________________________________
From: Bhavani Shankar <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2009 7:28:01 AM
Subject: Re: [Question #61893]: Unable to add or remove? software

Your question #61893 on dpkg in ubuntu changed:
https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dpkg/+question/61893

    Status: Open => Answered

Bhavani Shankar proposed the following answer:
Open a terminal and backup the current available file

sudo mv /var/lib/dpkg/available /var/lib/dpkg/available.broken

then move available-old to available

sudo mv /var/lib/dpkg/available-old /var/lib/dpkg/available

then try updating

--
If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
know that it is solved:
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Chris,

First try to create more hard disk room by deleting several files you put on disk and that you do not need anymore.... This way you create some space for updating your PC.

When ready with this,
connect to internet, and
open a terminal window and enter these commands (some asking for your password) :

   sudo apt-get autoclean

(Please reply the output here ...)

   sudo apt-get update

(Please reply the output here ...)

   sudo apt-get upgrade

What are you coping when doing this ?!?

Please also give us the result of this terminal commands:

df -h

Thank you

Marcobra,

Here is the output you requested. I really appreciate everyone's help.

chris@Compaq2580US:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda5 13G 9.5G 2.3G 81% /
tmpfs 220M 0 220M 0% /lib/init/rw
varrun 220M 220K 219M 1% /var/run
varlock 220M 0 220M 0% /var/lock
udev 220M 2.7M 217M 2% /dev
tmpfs 220M 256K 219M 1% /dev/shm
lrm 220M 2.0M 218M 1% /lib/modules/2.6.27-11-generic/volatile
/dev/scd0 2.8G 2.8G 0 100% /media/cdrom0
/dev/sda1 24G 24G 226M 100% /media/disk
chris@Compaq2580US:~$

Chris

________________________________
From: marcobra <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
Sent: Monday, February 23, 2009 12:43:22 PM
Subject: Re: [Question #61893]: Unable to add or remove? software

Your question #61893 on dpkg in ubuntu changed:
https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dpkg/+question/61893

marcobra requested for more information:
Please also give us the result of this terminal commands:

df -h

Thank you

--
To answer this request for more information, you can either reply to
this email or enter your reply at the following page:
https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dpkg/+question/61893

You received this question notification because you are a direct
subscriber of the question.

You have the 24 gigabytes partition /dev/sda1 mounted under the /media/disk near to be full

Please also copy and paste the result of this terminal command...

Open a Terminal from the menu Applications → Accessories → Terminal and type:
(if the system ask you a password give your user password, you will not see nothing when you type it, then press enter)

sudo fdisk -l

the -l is the lowercase of "-L"

Thank you

p.s. Please don't reply via mail to launchpad mail notification but visit directly your question Launchpad site link.
Replying via mail to launchpad message might expose your email address to the net and you will give a lot of
spam.

Thank you, again.

Disk /dev/sda: 40.0 GB, 40007761920 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4864 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xae32ae32

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 3071 24667776 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 3072 4864 14402272+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 3072 4712 13181301 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 4713 4864 1220908+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
chris@Compaq2580US:~$

________________________________
From: marcobra <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
Sent: Monday, February 23, 2009 3:43:49 PM
Subject: Re: [Question #61893]: Unable to add or remove? software

Your question #61893 on dpkg in ubuntu changed:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dpkg/+question/61893

    Status: Open => Answered

marcobra proposed the following answer:
You have the 24 gigabytes partition /dev/sda1 mounted under the
/media/disk near to be full

Please also copy and paste the result of this terminal command...

Open a Terminal from the menu Applications → Accessories → Terminal and type:
(if the system ask you a password give your user password, you will not see nothing when you type it, then press enter)

sudo fdisk -l

the -l is the lowercase of "-L"

Thank you

p.s. Please don't reply via mail to launchpad mail notification but visit directly your question Launchpad site link.
Replying via mail to launchpad message might expose your email address to the net and you will give a lot of
spam.

--
If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
know that it is solved:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dpkg/+question/61893/+confirm?answer_id=7

If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
following page to enter your feedback:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dpkg/+question/61893

You received this question notification because you are a direct
subscriber of the question.

The 24 gigabytes partition /dev/sda1 mounted under the /media/disk near to be full is not a ext3 partition related to Ubuntu.
The /dev/sda1 partition is a Windows NTFS partition.
And you have enough space to make updates and upgrades to your Ubuntu system.
Your Ubuntu partition is the /dev/sda5 with 2.3G available

Please consider to increase the size /dev/sda5 13 GigaBytes partition (you can do it using the Ubuntu live cd)

By the way, now using a terminal::

Please open a Terminal from the menu Applications → Accessories → Terminal and type:
(when requested by the system: please give your user password, you don't see nothing when you type it, then press enter)

sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/available
sudo touch /var/lib/dpkg/available

Then try to upade your Ubuntu..., type:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get clean

Hope this helps

Thank you for staying in touch with me. I appreciate your help. I missed the message from Menting (I don't think I got an email). That output is below, also.

I did clean up my NTFS partition and allocated more space to Ubuntu. Now both NTFS and /dev/sda5 have 5GB+ of free space. Here is the output that you requested.

chris@Compaq2580US:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda5 16G 9.6G 5.0G 66% /
tmpfs 220M 0 220M 0% /lib/init/rw
varrun 220M 220K 219M 1% /var/run
varlock 220M 0 220M 0% /var/lock
udev 220M 2.8M 217M 2% /dev
tmpfs 220M 104K 220M 1% /dev/shm
lrm 220M 2.0M 218M 1% /lib/modules/2.6.27-11-generic/volatile

Looks like I had trouble with the upgrade and the dist-upgrade.

chris@Compaq2580US:~$ sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/available
chris@Compaq2580US:~$

chris@Compaq2580US:~$ sudo touch /var/lib/dpkg/available
chris@Compaq2580US:~$

chris@Compaq2580US:~$ sudo apt-get update
Hit http://packages.medibuntu.org intrepid Release.gpg
Ign http://packages.medibuntu.org intrepid/free Translation-en_US
Hit http://archive.canonical.com intrepid Release.gpg
Ign http://archive.canonical.com intrepid/partner Translation-en_US
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security Release.gpg
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/restricted Translation-en_US
Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net intrepid Release.gpg
Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net intrepid/main Translation-en_US
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid Release.gpg
Ign http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://packages.medibuntu.org intrepid/non-free Translation-en_US
Hit http://packages.medibuntu.org intrepid Release
Hit http://archive.canonical.com intrepid Release
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/universe Translation-en_US
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/multiverse Translation-en_US
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security Release
Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net intrepid Release
Ign http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/universe Translation-en_US
Ign http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/multiverse Translation-en_US
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates Release.gpg
Ign http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/universe Translation-en_US
Ign http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/multiverse Translation-en_US
Hit http://packages.medibuntu.org intrepid/free Packages
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid Release
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates Release
Hit http://archive.canonical.com intrepid/partner Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/main Packages
Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net intrepid/main Packages
Hit http://packages.medibuntu.org intrepid/non-free Packages
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/restricted Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/main Sources
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/restricted Sources
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/universe Packages
Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net intrepid/main Packages
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/restricted Packages
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Sources
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/restricted Sources
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/universe Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/universe Sources
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/multiverse Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/multiverse Sources
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/universe Sources
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/multiverse Packages
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/multiverse Sources
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/main Packages
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/restricted Packages
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/main Sources
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/restricted Sources
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/universe Packages
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/universe Sources
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/multiverse Packages
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/multiverse Sources
Reading package lists... Done
chris@Compaq2580US:~$

chris@Compaq2580US:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Setting up libchipcard-tools (4.1.3-2) ...
chown: cannot access `/var/run/chipcard': No such file or directory
dpkg: error processing libchipcard-tools (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 libchipcard-tools
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
chris@Compaq2580US:~$

chris@Compaq2580US:~$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Setting up libchipcard-tools (4.1.3-2) ...
chown: cannot access `/var/run/chipcard': No such file or directory
dpkg: error processing libchipcard-tools (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 libchipcard-tools
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
chris@Compaq2580US:~$

chris@Compaq2580US:~$ sudo apt-get clean
chris@Compaq2580US:~$

chris@Compaq2580US:~$ sudo apt-get autoclean
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done

chris@Compaq2580US:~$ sudo apt-get update
Hit http://archive.canonical.com intrepid Release.gpg
Ign http://archive.canonical.com intrepid/partner Translation-en_US
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid Release.gpg
Ign http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Translation-en_US
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security Release.gpg
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/main Translation-en_US
Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net intrepid Release.gpg
Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net intrepid/main Translation-en_US
Hit http://packages.medibuntu.org intrepid Release.gpg
Hit http://archive.canonical.com intrepid Release
Ign http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/universe Translation-en_US
Ign http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/multiverse Translation-en_US
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates Release.gpg
Ign http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/universe Translation-en_US
Ign http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/multiverse Translation-en_US
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/universe Translation-en_US
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/multiverse Translation-en_US
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security Release
Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net intrepid Release
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid Release
Ign http://packages.medibuntu.org intrepid/free Translation-en_US
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates Release
Hit http://archive.canonical.com intrepid/partner Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/main Packages
Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net intrepid/main Packages
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Packages
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/restricted Packages
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Sources
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/restricted Sources
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/restricted Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/main Sources
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/restricted Sources
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/universe Packages
Ign http://packages.medibuntu.org intrepid/non-free Translation-en_US
Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net intrepid/main Packages
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/universe Packages
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/universe Sources
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/multiverse Packages
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/multiverse Sources
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/main Packages
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/restricted Packages
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/main Sources
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/restricted Sources
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/universe Sources
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/multiverse Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/multiverse Sources
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/universe Packages
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/universe Sources
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/multiverse Packages
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/multiverse Sources
Hit http://packages.medibuntu.org intrepid Release
Hit http://packages.medibuntu.org intrepid/free Packages
Hit http://packages.medibuntu.org intrepid/non-free Packages
Reading package lists... Done

chris@Compaq2580US:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Setting up libchipcard-tools (4.1.3-2) ...
chown: cannot access `/var/run/chipcard': No such file or directory
dpkg: error processing libchipcard-tools (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 libchipcard-tools
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I ran across this...https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libchipcard/+bug/283925/comments/4...
It sounded similar to my problem and the solution seemed pretty harmless to try (making a directory) so I gave it a try.

After doing this, I was able to successfully execute the following terminal commands.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get clean

I have also been able to successfully remove and add software.

Do you think I am in good shape now, or might there still a problem lurking?

Thank you very much for all of your help. I am using Ubuntu more and more and Windows less and less.

Sincerely,

Chris

Thanks marcobra, that solved my question.