Huge Problem On Software Updates Ubuntu 11.10.

Are you able to gain full access to your Ubuntu installation at the moment? If so, I would suggest rescuing any data that you will need. Please do that before trying anything else. You can then try cleaning up the installation as follows:
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get -f install

If you get error messages during that process, they might help solve the problem. At least if things go wrong, you will have all your data backed up. Moving to 12.04 is not an update, it is a version upgrade, and therefore not guaranteed to be data-safe.

I forgot to ask: is Ubuntu the only operating system? If you also have a version of Microsoft Windows installed, are you using a wubi installation? If wubi, make sure you can re-install Windows and have Windows data backed up as well.

Thanks for your quick reply mate ,
Yes , Ubuntu 11.10 64b is the only OS I am running now , no dual boot.
I have Windows XP installed on VMware software only if that matters, but not using it much.
I am running the OS from an External Maxtor HDD because my Internal failed.
As for the installation cleaning methods above I tried them and still get the same error
at "sudo apt-get autoremove" it gives me this:
(Reading database ... 50%dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 reading files list for package 'libxmlrpc-core-c3-0': Is a directory

I can't understand why I get this error 'libxmlrpc-core-c3-0': Is a directory??
It can't access that directory or it doesn't exist ?
I have full access on system as "root"
Thanks Again.

I can honestly say I have no idea. Someone else might have. If it were me, I'd just chicken out and do a clean install because it will save hours. Personally I've never used Ubuntu on an external HDD but I can't see that this would cause any problem. Please try booting from a live-DVD and using the 'Try Ubuntu' option. If everything runs OK, at least you will know that your hardware is compatible with 12.04. With regard to the error: try a search from nautilus for 'libxmlrpc-core-c3-0' If you find a directory of that name has somehow got created, delete it (from root) and try again.

I searched for " libxmlrpc-core-c3-0 " from nautilus and found 3 results for directories.
I delete all of them and then tried to Update software, but I got this,

"Fetched 125 MB in 1min 37s (1280 kB/s)
Extracting templates from packages: 100%
Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ...
dpkg: warning: files list file for package `libxmlrpc-core-c3-0' missing, assuming package has no files currently installed.
(Reading database ... 50%dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 reading files list for package 'mistelix': Is a directory
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)"

I think you are right , format would save many hours of searching :(
I will try a little more and if no luck , I'll have to format.
I 'm just trying to avoid this because I'll have to backup many files
and there isn't any HDD available. :( so I'll lose my files again.

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