dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting: files list file for package 'linux-generic' is missing final newline

Question

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
  apt apt-transport-https apt-utils dpkg libapt-inst2.0 libapt-pkg5.0 ntpdate
  oracle-java8-installer oracle-java8-set-default thermald
10 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/4,389 kB of archives.
After this operation, 8,192 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y
Preconfiguring packages ...
dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 files list file for package 'linux-generic' is missing final newline
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)

I already tried the usual stuff like:

 sudo dpkg --configure -a 
 sudo apt-get -f install
 sudo apt-get clean
 sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Any help, thanks!

cat -net /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-generic.list
     1  ^LbM-BM-^FRq^MU^Evalueq^NK^HubU^Mcertificationq^ONU^Hoverviewq^PNU$
     2  updated_atq^QNU^Vavailable_translationsq^RNU^Dyearq^SMM-CM-^]^GU^Fimagesq^TNU^Bidq^UNU^Ipaused_atq^VNU^Eindex

Answer 1

I had similar issues with the following error:

dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 files list file for package 'libboost-regex1.55.0:armhf' is missing final newline
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)

However, the folder /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux didn't exist on my system, as in previous post. (I was running Raspbian on a Raspberry pi 3)

I moved the following files:

/var/lib/dpkg/info/libboost-regex1.55.0:armhf.postrm
/var/lib/dpkg/info/libboost-regex1.55.0:armhf.list

Then ran:

sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

It fixed the problem for me.

Answer 2

I finally had some time to fix this on my own. For future reference

I moved all the linux* files to somewhere else. ex: ~/ (home) sudo mv /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux* ./

sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

That fixed it

Answer 3

Firstly you have to remove that missing file

sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-generic.list 

Now you can again reinstall it

sudo apt-get install linux-generic --reinstall 

Answer 4

I had a very similar issue and resolved it a different way, so I thought I'd share what I did. While attempting a sudo apt upgrade I received the following dpkg error:

dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 files list file for package 'python3-xdg' is missing final newline
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)

I found python3-xdg.list in the /var/lib/dpkg/info/ directory and ran cat on the file. What printed out was something like this, with the command prompt immediately following the contents:

user@device:/var/lib/dpkg/info$ cat python3-xdg.list
sEDUsEDUsEDUuser@device:/var/lib/dpkg/info$

I thought I'd try editing the file, giving it the missing final newline, so printing the file would then display:

user@device:/var/lib/dpkg/info$ cat python3-xdg.list
sEDUsEDUsEDU
user@device:/var/lib/dpkg/info$

After this I had no more issues.

Answer 5

I was getting this kind of error and I solved it very easily.

Selecting previously unselected package curl.
dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 files list file for package 'm17n-db' contains empty filename
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)

Here how I solved this error:

Go to /var/lib/dpkg/info/m17n-db.list Then open m17n-db.list in text editor/

You will see a empty new line at the last line of this file's text as like this:

You just need to do this:

1. Delete the empty new line if there is one.
2. Then save the file with administrator password. there we go. All problems are fixed.

Answer 6

I had this issue:

dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 files list file for package 'rockchip-fstab' is missing final newline
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)

sudo dpkg --configure -a also did not work for me.

So, I had to edit by vim /var/lib/dpkg/info/rockchip-fstab.list as:

/. from V\H

Which fixed the issue.

Answer 7

This answer beffore doesn't work for me.

This work for me:

# First go to this path, to edit status
cd /var/lib/dpkg
# Backup status file
sudo cp status status.bak
# Edit status file
sudo nano status

# We are going to search for corrup package and delete entire block
# the first line start with
Package: apport
# The last line to delete is the "line before" of "new line" next to the "new start of pakage"
# Save the file
# Note: Check images of example at end

# Check for errors
sudo apt upgrade
# Fix broken package
sudo apt --fix-broken install

# Optional: delete file backup
sudo rm status.bak

Delete lines from status file
Example with package: apport

Delete thouse lines before the new line
Example to where to delete:

Reference: Solución: dpkg: error fatal irrecuperable, abortando. E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)