dpkg: unable to access dpkg status area: Read-only file system

Please open a terminal from menu Applications→Accessories→Terminal and copy and paste here the result of:

mount

command, thank you.

Sorry, you must have different menu to open terminal (you are using Kubuntu).

Please open a terminal from your kde kubuntu menu copy and paste here the result of:

mount

command, thank you.

when I try to empty my trash I get the error "/home/david/.kde/share/config/kio_trashrc" not writable

When I try to access my home folder with dolphin I get the error "The process for the file protocol died unexpectedly"

I have 2 harddrives in my computer, I had kubuntu on one and windows xp on the other. About 2 weeks ago the harddrive with xp on it, died. I heard a clicking noise and my computer wouldn't recognize either drive. When I removed the bad drive I was able to use kubuntu again and I bought a new drive to replace the old one. I fear that if I were to restart my computer I would find that error with my other old hard drive.

root@wintermute:~# mount
/dev/sdb1 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
tmpfs on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
/proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
varrun on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
varlock on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=620)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
lrm on /lib/modules/2.6.27-9-generic/volatile type tmpfs (rw,mode=755)
/dev/sdg1 on /media/disk type fuseblk (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=512)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
/dev/sdh1 on /media/disk2 type fuseblk (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=4096)

Might be your / filesystem mounted in read only mode because it contain error...

Do you have the Ubuntu live install cd...?

You can boot from this cd and make a filesystem check from terminal

sudo fsck /dev/sdb1

Or using the gparted partition "check" option (right click on a partition), menu System→Administration→Partition editor

Select the /dev/sdb hard-disk from gparted top right list box...

Please note: your device name might be diffrent from what i used before in this answer...

Hope this helps

I don't have a disk on me, and I don't think I will be able to download anything.
I can probably ask one of my friends to do it for me.

The closest application I could find in my system menu was Disk management. When try to run it I get the error, there are no file systems which you are allowed to mount/unmount.

I'm not sure I'm in readonly mode. Before I started getting these errors I was downloading things to my desktop. I didn't restart my computer but I did have to restart my x-server at one point. I'm fairly certain I did it before I was downloading things to my desktop. Now that I think about it, some error text flashed across the screen before the login screen reappeared.

This may be unrelated but I had to restart my x-server because there are rare occurrences where my mouse pointer stops working. I can move it around but clicking does nothing and the pointer graphic doesn't change when I mouse over things where it normally would.

well I was right about restarting my computer. I wasn't my choice to, I woke up and my screens were black. When I restarted it I got a lot of errors most containing the text
ata5.00: STATUS (DRDY ERR)
I/O error on sdb5 logical block 3

there were a lot of other errors but my cellphone doesnt want to email me the pictures.

I restarted my computer with my other partition, the one on sda, I got a ton of those errors again. More logical block errors 3 and more. But this one was able to boot up.

These are common partition hard disk errors... (i think hardware errors) please consider to reformat the failed disk or partition... and it is strongly suggested to replace the damaged device...

Hope this helps