Unmet dependencies error?

[JohnnyDohable]

Hello,

I'm relatively new to Ubuntu. I've looked around for problems like mine, but haven't really found one. It's been sort of an evolving process.

First thing that happened is that I could not use Firefox. Later, other programs would not work. I can't run Software Center and a few other programs. Now, I have a red circle in the top right hand corner that says "An error occurred, please run Package Manager from the right-click menu or apt-get in a terminal to see what is wrong. The error message was: 'Error: Opening the cache (E:Read error - read (5: Input/output error), E:The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.)'This usually means that your installed packages have unmet dependencies"

When I run Synaptic Package Manager, it loads for a while, then displays an error box that says a similar thing to this. When I try apt-get in Terminal, it says it can't do something because of a lock open file. "13: Permission denied"

Thanks if someone knows about this

[searchfgold6789]

In a terminal:

sudo apt-get -f check

Type in your password which will not appear and press enter.
Read us the output.

[JohnnyDohable]

Thanks I typed in the command in terminal.

It said "Reading package lists..." It stopped at 6% for a while. This was followed by an error message:

"E: Read error - read (5: Input/output error)
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened."

[JohnnyDohable]

I don't know if this is relevant, but I have a dual boot... I have Ubuntu and Windows XP. My Windows XP has been showing the blue screen of death lately. It will start up fine, but then freezes up and going to the blue screen and says I should disable my BIOS shadowing or caching... or something like that. I doubt that the two problems are related, but I am not sure.

[sikander3786]

Try using an older status file.

Backup the existing one:

sudo mv /var/lib/dpkg/status /var/lib/dpkg/status.bad

Setup the old one to be used:

sudo cp /var/lib/dpkg/status-old /var/lib/dpkg/status

And then post the output of this command.

sudo apt-get update

[JohnnyDohable]

On the second instruction, terminal says that the file /var/lib/dpkg/status doesn't exist.

[sikander3786]

Post the complete output of this one.

ls /var/lib/dpkg

[JohnnyDohable]

"ls /var/lib/dpkg
alternatives cmethopt info statoverride statusold
available diversions lock statusoverride-old triggers
available-old diversions-old parts status.bad updates
"

[sikander3786]

I don't know why it is named statusold instead of staus-old as it normally does.

Anyhow, try these commands.

sudo cp /var/lib/dpkg/statusold /var/lib/dpkg/status

sudo apt-get update

[JohnnyDohable]

Well this doesn't seem to make sense, because I saw your logic. After I entered the first line into terminal it said:
"cp: cannot stat '/var/lib/dpkg/statusold': No such file or directory"

I tried to go on ahead with the second line you gave me and it didn't work, saying something similar.