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After using command apt-get upgrade:

After this operation, 80.9 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Extracting templates from packages: 100%
Preconfiguring packages ...
dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 syntax error: unknown group 'crontab' in statoverride file
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)

after removing empathy and access prompt "for passwords and secrets" from the interface software updater not available on the sidebar or via search

Running 12.10.

kiri
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Amy
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1 Answers1

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Try to use statoverride-old file ,

sudo mv /var/lib/dpkg/statoverride /var/lib/dpkg/statoverride.bad
sudo cp /var/lib/dpkg/statoverride-old /var/lib/dpkg/statoverride
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
Avinash Raj
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  • so basically you are moving a file path around and cp means what? Can you explain what var means and what lib means and what dpkag means etc. because this is simple. Its like a stick of butter is equal to 1/2 cup of butter. Thank you for your response, but I need to understand it in plain language. I can do algebra, I can do solve chemistry equations, so this should be pie with just a little explanation. – Amy Jan 25 '14 at 05:41
  • I'm not trying to be difficult, I am just afraid to make a change at that level that I cannot undo. – Amy Jan 25 '14 at 06:32
  • don't afraid on that commands.Go into /var/lib/dpkg/ directory there contains your statoverride file which was correupted.So i renamed that corrupted statoverride file to statoverride.bad and the i copy the contents of statoverride-old file to the statoverride file.statoverride-old was a default one,which was used incase of your statusoverride file was damaged. – Avinash Raj Jan 25 '14 at 06:37
  • same situation occurs here but different file.see http://askubuntu.com/questions/410045/the-package-lists-or-status-file-could-not-be-parsed-or-opened – Avinash Raj Jan 25 '14 at 06:40
  • that seems to have worked, but I believe my browser is not secure. If I reset it, nothing changes. Also my installer is not available through search or on the sidebar, so I can't uninstall and reinstall from the interface. How do I fix this? – Amy Jan 27 '14 at 23:15
  • If it works then accept my answer and put the above comment as a new question. – Avinash Raj Jan 28 '14 at 03:49
  • this worked: sudo apt-get purge software-center

    sudo apt-get install software-center

     – Amy Jan 28 '14 at 03:53
  • before purging the software center,did the above commands works or not? – Avinash Raj Jan 28 '14 at 03:55
  • now that is upgrade is in process the window indicating what stages are occurring with check-boxs is shadowed over and stuck in preparing to configure desktop. Does it normally stay at this stage without the orange status bar creeping forward at all? – Amy Jan 28 '14 at 03:55
  • sorry i,didn't do an upgrade. – Avinash Raj Jan 28 '14 at 03:57
  • The topic of my original question and goal is to upgrade to a secure system – Amy Jan 28 '14 at 03:58
  • does this syntax error: unknown group 'crontab' in statoverride file error occurs or not after running the above commands? – Avinash Raj Jan 28 '14 at 03:59