Cannot install or remove packages( terminal, synaptic or software center)

Question

dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
reading files list for package 'libxml2:i386': Input/output error
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)

Answer 1

Unable to install any updates through update manager/apt-get upgrade Check it

So the solution is the following:

1. Go into the /var/lib/dpkg directory
2. Make a backup of the status file
3. Edit the status file
4. Search the package that gave the error

5. Just delete the lines from this package (but let all other lines that concern other packages even if they contains the broken package in their "Replaces" or "Depends" fields)

   […]
   

6. Save changes in the status file

7. Run: sudo dpkg --configure -a

8. Force the re-installation of missing dependencies (because now, there are some):

   sudo apt-get -f install

I think that if the broken package does not depend on any other package (could be rare), just reinstall it:

sudo apt-get install the_package

1. Everything is fine now can update, upgrade, or install new packages!