On 6 March 2011 14:50, Grant Sewell <dcg...@thymox.co.uk> 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. >
Having run Ubuntu+1 for a few years, manually clearing out /var/lib/dpkg has saved my install on a number of occasions. After doing a 'sudo rm -fR /var/lib/dpkg' package managers will complain about missing files and directories; it's a simple matter to mkdir and touch them back into place. After I update my sources (e.g. aptitude update) both aptitude and synaptic find the packages I already have installed and I'm up and running again. > 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. Agreed. Jonathon -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/