Update manager will no longer install updates (12.04)

[The_Cougar_Kid]

I am having a problem on my wife's PC (Ubuntu 12.04). Update manager says there are 108 updates to install but when we try to install them it fails with this message:

installArchives() failed: Preconfiguring packages ...
Preconfiguring packages ...
Preconfiguring packages ...
Preconfiguring packages ...
dpkg: error: parsing file '/var/lib/dpkg/available' near line 0:
field name `../libindicator-messages-status-provider1/changelog.Debian.gz' must be followed by colon
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/locale: 0 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/man: 0 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/gnome/help: 0 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/omf: 0 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/doc/kde/HTML: 0 KiB

Total disk space freed by localepurge: 0 KiB

localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/locale: 0 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/man: 0 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/gnome/help: 0 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/omf: 0 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/doc/kde/HTML: 0 KiB

Total disk space freed by localepurge: 0 KiB

localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/locale: 0 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/man: 0 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/gnome/help: 0 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/omf: 0 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/doc/kde/HTML: 0 KiB

Total disk space freed by localepurge: 0 KiB

localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/locale: 0 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/man: 0 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/gnome/help: 0 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/omf: 0 KiB
localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/doc/kde/HTML: 0 KiB

Total disk space freed by localepurge: 0 KiB






Any ideas please?

[wladypauly]

Try
sudo dpkg-reconfigure libindicator-messages to reconfigure the package, then do the updates as usual and see if it solved the problem.

[The_Cougar_Kid]

Try
sudo dpkg-reconfigure libindicator-messages to reconfigure the package, then do the updates as usual and see if it solved the problem.

Thanks for responding

I tried that and it produced:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure libindicator-messages
[sudo] password for dorothy:
Package `libindicator-messages' is not installed and no info is available.
Use dpkg --info (= dpkg-deb --info) to examine archive files,
and dpkg --contents (= dpkg-deb --contents) to list their contents.
/usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure: libindicator-messages is not installed.

I tried instead
sudo dpkg-reconfigure libindicator-messages-status-provider1

which ran without reporting errors but the updates sill would not work. I am planning to reboot and see if it works then...

[The_Cougar_Kid]

It is still failing to install with the same message after a reboot....

[dannyboy79]

possible answer here: http://askubuntu.com/questions/55099/dpkg-error-parsing-file-var-lib-dpkg-available-near-line-0

[The_Cougar_Kid]

Briiliant - problem solved!! thanks very much

[dannyboy79]

Briiliant - problem solved!! thanks very much
awesome, use the thread tools and mark it solved.