Package operation failed `icon-tropical-theme'?

sudo apt-get --purge remove icon-tropical-theme

May do it

almost but it still stuck. I think i hosed it when I removed the file with nautilus. Here is how it played out:

Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
(Reading database ... 55% (two min passed here) dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 failed to read on buffer copy for files list for package `icon-tropical-theme': Input/output error
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)

thanks again

jd

Open a Terminal from the menu Applications->Accessories->Terminal

**Tip: right click with mouse on the top terminal windows title caption and select the menu item "Always on Top"
doing this you will force the terminal window to stay on top of the other windows and you will find very easy
to copy single row from this web page into the terminal...
Something more about using the terminal https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UsingTheTerminal

Then type or better copy and paste a row a time then press enter:
(Tip: select the single row to copy from this page then right click and select copy then click into the terminal window
and to quick paste click with middle button of mouse )

Copy and paste the rows below, copy and paste one row a time (see the **Tip) then press enter:

sudo cp -arf /var/lib/dpkg /var/lib/dpkg.backup
sudo cp /var/lib/dpkg/status-old /var/lib/dpkg/status
sudo cp /var/lib/dpkg/available-old /var/lib/dpkg/available
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/dpkg/updates/*; sudo rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists
sudo mkdir /var/lib/apt/lists; sudo mkdir /var/lib/apt/lists/partial
sudo apt-get clean; sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo apt-get update
sudo dpkg --clear-avail; sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt-get install -f
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

give your user password when requested, you don't see nothing when you type it, then press enter.

Thank you Marco,
I still got some errors The first line : "sudo cp -arf /var/lib/dpkg /var/lib/dpkg.backup"
returned with " cp: reading `/var/lib/dpkg/info/icon-tropical-theme.list': Input/output error"

Subsequent lines seemed to run fine until i got to "sudo apt-get update" which returned a couple errors:

W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/slicer/ppa/ubuntu/dists/maverick/main/source/Sources.gz 404 Not Found

W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/slicer/ppa/ubuntu/dists/maverick/main/binary-amd64/Packages.gz 404 Not Found

E: Some index files failed to download, they have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

The final "sudo apt-get dist-upgrade" line returned the following:

The following packages will be upgraded:
  compiz compiz-core compiz-gnome compiz-plugins empathy empathy-common firefox firefox-branding firefox-gnome-support icedtea-6-jre-cacao icedtea6-plugin libdecoration0 nautilus-sendto-empathy
  openjdk-6-jre openjdk-6-jre-headless openjdk-6-jre-lib ttf-symbol-replacement-wine1.3 wine1.3 xulrunner-1.9.2
19 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 70.4MB of archives.
After this operation, 889kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-wine/ppa/ubuntu/ maverick/main ttf-symbol-replacement-wine1.3 all 1.3.6-0ubuntu1~maverickppa1 [40.5kB]
Get:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates/main libdecoration0 amd64 1:0.8.6-0ubuntu9.1 [51.6kB]
Get:3 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-wine/ppa/ubuntu/ maverick/main wine1.3 amd64 1.3.6-0ubuntu1~maverickppa1 [11.8MB]
Get:4 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates/main compiz-gnome amd64 1:0.8.6-0ubuntu9.1 [88.5kB]
Get:5 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates/main compiz-plugins amd64 1:0.8.6-0ubuntu9.1 [546kB]
Get:6 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates/main compiz-core amd64 1:0.8.6-0ubuntu9.1 [247kB]
Get:7 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates/main compiz all 1:0.8.6-0ubuntu9.1 [31.4kB]
Get:8 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates/main nautilus-sendto-empathy amd64 2.32.0.1-0ubuntu1 [439kB]
Get:9 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates/main empathy amd64 2.32.0.1-0ubuntu1 [997kB]
Get:10 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates/main empathy-common all 2.32.0.1-0ubuntu1 [449kB]
Get:11 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates/main firefox-gnome-support amd64 3.6.12+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.10.10.1 [83.6kB]
Get:12 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates/main firefox-branding amd64 3.6.12+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.10.10.1 [211kB]
Get:13 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates/main firefox amd64 3.6.12+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.10.10.1 [12.6MB]
Get:14 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates/main xulrunner-1.9.2 amd64 1.9.2.12+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.10.10.1 [10.4MB]
Get:15 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates/main icedtea6-plugin amd64 6b20-1.9.1-1ubuntu3 [83.4kB]
Get:16 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates/main icedtea-6-jre-cacao amd64 6b20-1.9.1-1ubuntu3 [433kB]
Get:17 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates/main openjdk-6-jre-lib all 6b20-1.9.1-1ubuntu3 [6,155kB]
Get:18 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates/main openjdk-6-jre-headless amd64 6b20-1.9.1-1ubuntu3 [25.5MB]
Get:19 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates/main openjdk-6-jre amd64 6b20-1.9.1-1ubuntu3 [267kB]
Fetched 70.4MB in 25s (2,746kB/s)
Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 55%dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 failed to read on buffer copy for files list for package `icon-tropical-theme': Input/output error
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)

This almost feels like a virus!

Thank you again,

jd

oh boy...
running a file system check from the disk utility under System>Administration>Disk Utility returned with Attribute ID 197 "Current Pending Sector Count" :( and the results of the self test : FAILED (READ)

Let's hope you've got backups for your most important files. Given that
most likely your disk or even motherboard is defect, there's not much
you can do but to replace the defective parts.

Thank you all.
Yes, everything is backed up. This computer is just for fun anyway, nothing serious on it.

Thanks Torsten Spindler, that solved my question.