Cannot add or remove packages; Errors were encountered while processing: libbz2-1.0 libbz2-1.0:i386

Question

I noticed Ubuntu had not asked me to update in a while, which is strange. So, I opened the update manager and received the message,

Software index is broken

It is impossible to install or remove any software. Please use the package manager
"Synaptic" or run "sudo apt-get install -f" in a terminal to fix this issue at first.

So, I started a Terminal session and typed "sudo apt-get install -f". Here is the error message I got:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  libatk1.0-0:i386 libffmpegthumbnailer4 efibootmgr eom-common
  libxcb-dri2-0 linux-headers-3.2.0-45 mate-media-common
  beat-hazard-ultra-bin:i386 mate-screensaver-common ffmpegthumbnailer
  python-gtksourceview2 libcairo2:i386 pidgin-data
  linux-headers-3.2.0-45-generic libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0:i386 pluma-common
  libpixman-1-0:i386 libmatewnck-common pluma libxft2:i386
  libxrandr-ltsq2 linux-headers-3.5.0-23-generic language-pack-kde-en
  linux-headers-3.5.0-23 kde-l10n-engb libjasper1:i386
  gtk2-engines-pixbuf indicator-status-provider-pidgin
  libgtksourceview2.0-0 libpango1.0-0:i386 libmatewnck
  libxcb-render0:i386 mate-utils-common libgxps2 libxcb-shm0:i386
  language-pack-kde-en-base libgtk2.0-0:i386 libgtksourceview2.0-common
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  libbz2-1.0:i386
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 11 not upgraded.
2 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 115 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
E: Internal Error, No file name for libbz2-1.0

I think the problem is from when I tried to install libbz2-1.0 manually and accidentally used the i386 binary instead of the amd64 one. Can someone please help me fix this? I cannot install or remove anything until this is fixed, and really don't want to have to reinstall. Thank you for any help at all that you can give me.

Answer 1

Never mind. I figured out how to fix it myself. For anyone else who gets this problem, here is what you need to do:

1. Type sudo dpkg --configure -a. It will error out, but don't worry.
2. Find the files causing the problems and type sudo dpkg -r PACKAGE_NAME for each one to remove it. Some of them will fail to be removed. Add them to a list.
3. Run sudo dpkg --configure PACKAGE_NAME for each package in your list. It will configure them. This time, you should not see any errors.
4. Run sudo apt-get install -f to fix dependencies.
5. Profit!