hi,
I just did a netinstall of debian sarge on my pc.
after the install I tried to apt-get install some packages but, rather than install, they get stored on /var/cache/apt/archives.
I tried dpkg in order to install the packages from that dir but it complains about:

dpkg parse error in file /var/lib/dpkg/status near line 1558 package 'mdetect' missing version

I opened the status file with nano and at the line just appears mdetect without any version number, just as any other package listed there.
also i tried dselect-upgrade and it gives the same error message as above.
is this a known bug and is there a way to fix it cos, the way it is, i cant seem to be able to apt-get install anything.

Hi,

Can you publish your /etc/apt/sources.list file here ?
Can you try other sources, like:
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ sarge main contrib non-free

Have you tried apt-get update before doing apt-get install ?

Cheers,

tibob

hi,
I dont think the problems is with the sources, as the download part of the precess happens normally.
the packages all apperas in the /var/cache/apt/archives directory.
the problem arises when te install part of the procees begins.
then dpkg complain about the error mentioned above.

You're right, the status file seems to be corrupt. Have a look at http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/.../msg14958.html where the same problem is explained.

Good luck,

tibob

thanks for the tip.
I'll try the solution suggested in the link and post again to let everyone know how/if it worked