Hello,
I have installed Ubuntu 8.10 as a program on my Windows XP laptop. The Boot Manager works fine, and I have previously installed Ubuntu updates successfully. Now I can;t.

I receive the notification that I can install 88 updates. When I choose to install the updates, I get a message that says:

E:dpkg was interrupted. you must manually run
'dpkg -- configure -a" to correct the problem.
E:_cache-> open () failed. please report.

Can anyone tells what steps I must follow to correct this problem, so that I can install the 88 updates and get future updates for Ubuntu 8.10?

Thank you in advance.

Dwight Randall

you must manually run 'dpkg -- configure -a" to correct the problem.

1. Open terminal: applications > accessories > terminal
2. enter command sudo dpkg -- configure -a
3. wait for it to finish - read the messages while you wait.

Crash Course in Ubuntu gnu/linux. (pdf)

What about running
as suggested by the error message?

Hi Dwight Randall,

Welcome to LQ.org. The problem you are having is because a program that was being installed/updated was interrupted for one reason or another (you accidentally killed it, the system crashed, power failure, etc).

So, I have two suggestions:

#1 - If you know which program you were installing when the system went down, you can try either reinstalling it or running sudo dpkg-reconfigure <program your were installing>

#2 - Run sudo dpkg -- configure -a as the system suggested.

You need to run those command in a terminal. You will find one at Applications > Accessories > Terminal.

Regards!

Cool, 3 replies at the same timestamp

All posted in the same minute, and all say to follow instructions: it was an easy call ... tell us how it went.

Hello again, and thank you for your attempt to help.

I tries doing the following:

1. Open terminal: applications > accessories > terminal
2. enter command sudo dpkg -- configure -a
3. wait for it to finish - read the messages while you wait.

After I did suggestions #`1 and #2, the terminal program asked me to enter my password. But the keyboard had stopped working, and copy and paste wouldn't enter the password either. So I was foiled.

One attempt did not ask for the password and gave me some other messages, but they did not solve the problem, so I was foiled again.

Is there anything I can do so I can type in the password and get this problem fixed?

Thanks again in advance.

Dwight Randall

The sudo command is asking for a password.
What you type will not show up on the screen.
After you press enter, the command will run and keyboard use will return to normal.

Same problem with update error as Dwight Randall. When I run the command as directed I instantly get a list of command prompts for installing or uninstalling packages with no perceived resolution of error. Whatup?

Addendum to above: The aforementioned command entered was:
'dpkg -- configure -a'.

It can sometimes be a long process. Is there anything in the output which suggests there is anything untoward happening? Have you run that command to its conclusion?


Note - Dwight has yet to actually reported successfully running the command at all... so you are ahead of him so far.

As a newbie, I'm not sure what you mean. However, following the list of commands was this message: "Options marked[*] produce a lot of output - pipe it through `less' or `more' !" I'm also not sure what this message means. Thx

Hi Linux helpers,

Thank you for helping me fix this problem. I appreciate all the advice. I kept re-trying the sudo.... command, and finally it worked. I don't know why, but I'm glad it did. I got a few other errors along the way, but I kept on re-starting and re-trying, and finally it all worked. Now the message says my ubuntu installation is up to date.

So thanks again,

Dwight Randall

wlgoode has the same issue as I do. "sudo dpkg -- configure -a" comes up in terminal with "Options marked[*] produce a lot of output - pipe it through `less' or `more' !" I'm also not sure what this message means. Thx

Moved: This thread is more suitable in the Ubuntu forum and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.