apt-get … Segmentation Faulty Tree

I have tried to use both Synaptic and apt-get, Running apt-get install (anything) from the command line (as root) yeilds this result:

root@dean-laptop:/# apt-get install netselect
Reading package lists… Done
Segmentation faulty tree… 0%

I’ve done some GOOGLING and it seems this bug has been seen before,
but no intelligent handling has been added to apt. See bug Bug#84277
where Jason Gunthorpe writes:

> apt-get segfaults w/out (in my opinion) any reason:

This has always been traced back to file corruption in /var/cache/apt/*.bin

If you can erase those files and run the apt command and have it work then
that is definately the problem.

Nobody has ever been able to reproduce it, unless they have buggy hardware
:>

Jason

So I suspect corrupted data files. delete /var/cache/apt/*.bin followed by “apt-get update” to reset apt.Which indeed fixed this error condition.

but that’s very strange,My Laptop does not not have buggy hardware, apt-get has been working fine from the start.

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19 Comments »

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mifa On September 27th, 2009 at 6:06 am (#)

Thanks this worked on my 9.04 tablet system. Had some disk issues and cleaning up the system messed the package managers up. removing the *.bin files fixed the issue

Mauricio Roman On January 8th, 2009 at 5:19 pm (#)

The /var/cache/apt/*.bin files were not present in my system (Ubuntu 8.04.1) however, I ran apt-get update to see what would happen and . . . voila! solved. Like a charm. Thank you.

Talkwards » Blog Archive » links for 2008-12-15 On December 16th, 2008 at 7:06 am (#)

[...] apt-get … Segmentation Faulty Tree : DEAN LEE:/DEV/BLOG apt-get … Segmentation Faulty Tree (tags: apt-get) [...]

Erik On December 16th, 2008 at 2:56 am (#)

This fix (deleting the /var/cache/apt/*.bin files) also works on Ubuntu 8.04.

I wish “clean” would do just that. Seems logic to me that clean would remove the cache too… since it’s supposed to remove the archive files (apparently stored in the “archives” folder at the same place as the cache.)

But then again, who am I to complain? apt-get has worked as a charm for me since somewhere around 2005 or so… before that I used urpmi (I think) in mandrake and it was a *pain*.

Again, thanks a load for the fix!

harry On September 5th, 2008 at 9:56 am (#)

thank you very much,its very helpful

xafer On August 9th, 2008 at 9:58 pm (#)

Thanks man, I’ve already started cursing my eagerness to update!

Dai Fu On August 7th, 2008 at 12:49 am (#)

Very helpful hint. I got this problem after updating files.

Thanks.

NoS On February 19th, 2008 at 10:37 pm (#)

It also resolved my apt problem, on ubuntu 7.10.
Thx for the hint :>

rbih On October 11th, 2007 at 9:14 pm (#)

worked like a charm…i dont htink i have buggy HW…happened to me for the first time in many months…on a Virtual Machine (if that matters)

Jnew On August 17th, 2007 at 6:03 pm (#)

Thanks so much. I don’t know how I found this in my searching, but all of a sudden I wasn’t able to install or remove anything in ubuntu feisty, and your suggestion to delete those bin files completely solved my problem. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

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