synaptic error: unable to open files: mktemp

Try install it manually using the command line tools:

"sudo apt-get install kpovmodeler" or

"sudo aptitude install kpovmodeler"

If you get any errors post them here.

Thanks for the response. Here's what happens:

$ sudo apt-get install kpovmodeler
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Suggested packages:
  khelpcenter povray
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  kpovmodeler
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 51 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/2252kB of archives.
After unpacking 6578kB of additional disk space will be used.
(Reading database ... dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/kpovmodeler_4%3a3.5.8-0ubuntu1_i386.deb (--unpack):
 unable to open files list file for package `mktemp': Input/output error
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/kpovmodeler_4%3a3.5.8-0ubuntu1_i386.deb
Processing was halted because there were too many errors.
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
:~$

New information: Both synaptic and command line apt-get are failing on _all_ attempts to install _any_ new file. Cannot install updates. Same mktemp error in all cases.

Are you behind a proxy? If yes you will need to configure it correctly for apt to work.

Edit "/etc/envionment" ans append the lines:
http_proxy=http://proxy.yourdomain.dom:<port>
ftp_proxy=http://proxy.yourdomain.dom:<port>

No, not behind a proxy.

A major clue: mktemp.list was missing from /var/lib/dpkg/info/ In fact, mktemp.md5sums was the only mktemp* present. An attempt to cp a backup mktemp.list into that directory failed. Further inspection showed other files in that directory with only *.md5sums and no other variants, in particular no *.list files. There were question marks in all columns except the filename, for many files in that directory.

I forced an fsck on the partition containing /var/lib/dpkg/info/ , and it failed in automatic. I ran a manual fsck and found about 150 errors. An intensive search of the logs found no evidence of any hard disk failures, so this is probably caused somehow by software.

After the manual fsck, I was able to copy a replacement mktemp.list in the /var/lib/dpkg/info/ directory. Then the "apt-get install kpovmodeler" got past the mktemp error, and issued an error about module-init-tools:

After unpacking 6578kB of additional disk space will be used.
(Reading database ... dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/kpovmodeler_4%3a3.5.8-0ubuntu1_i386.deb (--unpack):
 files list file for package `module-init-tools' contains empty filename
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/kpovmodeler_4%3a3.5.8-0ubuntu1_i386.deb
Processing was halted because there were too many errors.

I'm at the point now where I think I'll just "punt," blow away Gutsy and do a fresh install of Hardy. Hate to give up, but it looks like one of those endless problems you can sometimes chase.

If anybody has an idea, I don't plan to do the new install until around 9:00 am (UDT -5.0), so holler.

Thanks.

Thanks Theodotos Andreou, that solved my question.