Ubuntu

Synaptic package manager error

Asked by Jeffrey

A dialog box opened with this message:
Unable to write mmap - msyn (5 Input/output error)
The package lists or status file could not be passed or opened.
-cache->open()failed, please report.

I had used Update manager and had updated a number of packages. I saved those packages to my usb disk. So that I do not have to download those again if I have to reinstall for any reason. I had to reinstall so I started updating from the usb drive. After updating certain files I got this error. So I am reporting this here. Is this the place to report this problem. I am sorry if this is the wrong place to report. Where should I report problems I encounter? Is this solvable by me a newbie?

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Prashant Vaibhav (mercurysquad) said : 		#1

This seems to be a disk read error. mmap, msync and open are kernel calls used when accessing files. It could either be caused by a USB drive error, or a bad harddrive sector.

There are a few things you could try:

Please check whether your harddrive or the partition containing the system root has adequate free space.
Copy all the packages from the USB to your harddrive and install from there. If the problem is caused by a USB read error, you will find out here.
Please check your harddrive for errors. You can do so by typing in a terminal : fsck /dev/sda1 (the exact partition might differ for your system).

Hope this helps.

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Jeffrey (jeff0stella) said : 		#2

I did sudo fsck /dev/sda1 and then tried to install using dpkg now I have this Message from syslog
jeffrey-desktop kernel: [3445.017133] journal commit I/O error.

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Prashant Vaibhav (mercurysquad) said : 		#3

Hi Jeffrey,
This definitely appears to be a disk error. Usually it should be scanned fixed at next startup, however you can try cheking again. Please reboot using the live CD and make sure your harddrive does not get mounted (if it is, right click it and Unmount). Then, from the terminal, run sudo fsck -p /dev/sda1 (or the proper partition). This will attempt to detect and repair any errors on your disk.

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Jeffrey (jeff0stella) said : 		#4

On rebooting the m/c everything began to work proper as before. I am not sure what did it. But thank God. Thank you Prashant for your answers and help.