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I received this error after trying to download the icedtea plugin. After trying

sudo apt-get upgrade

I got the same exact error:

Preconfiguring packages ...
dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 unable to open files list file for package `linux-sound-base': No such device or address
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)

I've already tried looking for solutions, but each one seems to be unique to the issue. Any suggestions?

David Foerster
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TheUnicornCow
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3 Answers3

11

Try first:

sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/available 
sudo touch /var/lib/dpkg/available  
sudo sh -c 'for i in /var/lib/apt/lists/*_Packages; do dpkg --merge-avail "$i"; done'

Dangerous, if previous instruction does not solve the problem...

sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt-get -f install
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Last may cause huge traffic load.

flickerfly
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Croll
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    Tried that, but I still got the same error. Should I paste something from the terminal? – TheUnicornCow Mar 02 '15 at 15:11
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    I did get an error "rm: cannot remove ‘/var/cache/apt/archives/partial’: Is a directory". Updated and upgraded but still received the same error – TheUnicornCow Mar 02 '15 at 15:18
  • I got an error "ls: cannot access /var/cashe/apt/archives: No such file or directory" which kind of concerned me. I go back a bit to find that /var/cashe doesn't exist. I don't have anything terribly important saved on the hard drive, would it just be easier to reinstall lubuntu? – TheUnicornCow Mar 02 '15 at 15:27
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    Please explain why have you suggested sudo rm /var/cache/apt/archives/*? – heemayl Mar 02 '15 at 15:38
  • @heemayl @user1940477 clean actually does that.. But i was not right, you should not do that, as people on the net say. SORRY – Croll Mar 02 '15 at 21:04
  • Nothing seems to have worked. Any last suggestions? – TheUnicornCow Mar 04 '15 at 00:20
  • just reboot your system and then execute apt-get -f install – Arjun Thakur Sep 28 '15 at 11:27
  • Worked. Can you explain the answer or share a link so that I will get an overview of this. – user2688323 Oct 14 '20 at 10:43
4

I know this is an old post but I got the same error. I fixed the problem with this command:

sudo dpkg --configure -a
TallChuck
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Qudor Eng
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1

I've Tried this from a German link (attached):

Download and start available.ksh. Then run:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo dpkg --clear-avail
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

(Source)

Nguyen Truong
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thelonwolfpac
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