Update lists not working

[glin22]

Hm, looks like /var/lib/dpkg/status got messed up
There are backups of this file
To list the backups use

Code:

ls -l /var/backups/dpkg.status.*

Now copy /var/backups/dpkg.status.0 to /var/lib/dpkg/status

Code:

sudo cp /var/backups/dpkg.status.0 /var/lib/dpkg/status

And try to run the updates.

If that doesn't help try to use the other backup files
but as you see the files are compressed

Code:

ls  /var/backups/dpkg.status.*
/var/backups/dpkg.status.0     /var/backups/dpkg.status.4.gz
/var/backups/dpkg.status.1.gz  /var/backups/dpkg.status.5.gz
/var/backups/dpkg.status.2.gz  /var/backups/dpkg.status.6.gz
/var/backups/dpkg.status.3.gz

so you have to unpack them first
For example /var/backups/dpkg.status.1.gz

Code:

sudo gunzip /var/backups/dpkg.status.1.gz

Then you can copy to /var/lib/dpkg/status

Code:

sudo cp /var/backups/dpkg.status.1 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Hope this helps 

Thanks a bunch for your ideas and taking the time to help me !

I got an error when I tried your suggestion, it said no such file exists, so I took a peek at /var/backups/    there are no files there whatsoever, I wonder if the best thing is for me to reinstall to set things straight ? It does seem a shame though to have to go through all of that again. I can get into a terminal on the machine but when I try to use either firefox or chrome, they don't work correctly, that is how the system stands right now. I can't get anything cleared up because I can't do any updates. If you have any other ideas on how I can correct my problem without reinstalling, let me know.

Glin22