0

I was installing a package from source and checkinstall produced

dpkg:error: reading package info file '/usr/local/var/lib/dpkg/status': Is a directory

The "status" directory was missing i went and made the directory but dont know how to make the info file. I may have some backups but not sure which one to use. From what i've been reading I think dpkg has been corrupted sort of. 

phantom@AsusK53E:~$ tree -d /usr/local/var/lib/dpkg
/usr/local/var/lib/dpkg
├── alternatives
├── info
├── methods
│   ├── disk
│   ├── floppy
│   ├── ftp
│   ├── mnt
│   └── multicd
├── parts
├── status
└── updates

11 directories

Copied the status and availalbe files from /var/lib/dpkg to /usr/local/var/lib/dpkg and the checkinstall completed without error.

m0ng00se
  • 71
  • 2
    You did something wrong, usually DPKG-cache is located in top-level - /var/lib/dpkg/status. And deb-files created with checkinstall are saved to this database. Please add output of tree -d /usr/local/var/lib/dpkg to the question. – N0rbert May 26 '18 at 09:30

1 Answers1

1

Just creating a directory called status won't get you what you need. /var/lib/dpkg/status is supposed to be a file, not a directory as seen below:

ll /var/lib/dpkg/status
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3466281 May 26 06:17 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Provided all you've done wrong is delete the status file and attempt to replace it with a directory you should be able to simply issue the following commands:

rmdir /var/lib/dpkg/status

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

if you've somehow managed to move the entire /var/lib/dpkg branch and graft it to the /usr/local branch you'll need to move it back first.

the /var/lib/dpkg branch typically looks like this:

tree -d  /var/lib/dpkg
/var/lib/dpkg
├── alternatives
├── info
├── parts
├── triggers
└── updates

Source: shamelessly modified from this answer to this question.

Elder Geek
  • 36,023
  • 25
  • 98
  • 183
  • /var/lib/dpkg/status is present. The error from checkinstall shows the file is missing from this path usr/local/var/lib/dpkg/status – m0ng00se May 26 '18 at 20:13
  • cp the status-old to /usr/local/var/lib/dpkg/status it checkinstall completed without error – m0ng00se May 26 '18 at 20:58
  • @m0ng00se I'm glad my answer was helpful to you! Cheers! – Elder Geek May 31 '18 at 16:24
  • @ElderGeek, How to move it back to /var/lib/dpkg if I accidentally managed it to /usr/local. I already create new dir in /var/lib/dpkg, but it still gives me error when installing software: update-alternatives: error: cannot append to '/usr/local/var/log/alternatives.log': No such file or directory. – sugab Aug 08 '18 at 00:22
  • @bagustris If you have a different question feel free to ask and link to this one if you feel it provides context. There are many answers here on how to move a file. – Elder Geek Aug 09 '18 at 15:15