How to reinstall dpkg

I always get this error when I attempt to install a package using apt-get. I would appreciate help. This seems a common problem with every other package, but I've never encountered a problem with the dpkg itself.

2 Answers

Ubuntu dpkg recovery

Recover dpkg status file

cp /var/backups/dpkg.status.0 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Reinstall - dpkg

cd /var/cache/apt/archives/
dpkg --force-depends -i dpkg_*.deb

Reinstall - apt

cd /var/cache/apt/archives/
dpkg --force-depends -i apt_*.deb
dpkg --force-depends -i apt-utils_*.deb
apt-get update

Missing files in /var/lib/dpkg/info?

Use dpkg to list installed packages..

dpkg -l | grep ii

Reinstall from output using apt...

dpkg -l | grep ii | awk '{print "apt-get --reinstall -y install", $2}' > /tmp/reinstall

Now, install ucf which may be of importance to installation of kernel or others...

apt-get --reinstall install ucf

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I found a solution that worked for a user with a related problem...

sudo -i
mkdir /tmp/dpkg
cd /tmp/dpkg
#i386 version
wget
or
#amd64 version
wget
ar x dpkg*.deb data.tar.gz
tar xfvz data.tar.gz ./usr/bin/dpkg
sudo cp ./usr/bin/dpkg /usr/bin/
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install --reinstall dpkg

Source: