I recently reinstalled VLC from Ubuntu Software Center and when I try to use the Software Updater to install the updates, I get the following error message:

pkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 reading files list for package 'vlc-plugin-video-splitter:amd64': Input/output 
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)

I tried the following trouble shooting steps:

1. sudo apt-get purge vlc




2. sudo apt-get clean




3. sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade



4. 
   

   sudo rm /usr/bin/dpkg/ vlc-plugin-video-splitter I get the following error message:

   
   
   

   rm: cannot remove '/usr/bin/dpkg/': Not a directory
   rm: cannot remove 'vlc-plugin-video-splitter': No such file or directory.
   

   
   

This happens every time I install VLC and try to install updates from Software Updater.

I followed the steps that were suggested by you and the outputs are as follows:

sudo dpkg --configure -a is fine.

The output of sudo apt update:

Hit:1 http://mirrors.piconets.webwerks.in/ubuntu-mirror/ubuntu bionic InRelease
Hit:2 http://mirrors.piconets.webwerks.in/ubuntu-mirror/ubuntu bionic-updates InRelease
Ign:3 http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable InRelease 
Hit:4 http://mirrors.piconets.webwerks.in/ubuntu-mirror/ubuntu bionic-security InRelease
Hit:5 http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable Release 
Hit:6 http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease 
Reading package lists... Done 
Building dependency tree 
Reading state information... Done
6 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.

Output of sudo apt list --upgradable:

libsnmp-base/bionic-updates,bionic-updates 5.7.3+dfsg-1.8ubuntu3.3 all [upgradable from: 5.7.3+dfsg-1.8ubuntu3.1]
libsnmp30/bionic-updates 5.7.3+dfsg-1.8ubuntu3.3 amd64 [upgradable from: 5.7.3+dfsg-1.8ubuntu3.1]
linux-generic/bionic-updates 4.15.0.64.66 amd64 [upgradable from: 4.15.0.62.64]
linux-headers-generic/bionic-updates 4.15.0.64.66 amd64 [upgradable from: 4.15.0.62.64]
linux-image-generic/bionic-updates 4.15.0.64.66 amd64 [upgradable from: 4.15.0.62.64]
linux-signed-generic/bionic-updates 4.15.0.64.66 amd64 [upgradable from: 4.15.0.62.64]

Output of sudo apt upgrade:

pkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 reading files list for package 'vlc-plugin-video-splitter:amd64': Input/output error
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)

Output of sudo apt-get remove vlc:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree 
Reading state information... Done
Package 'vlc' is not installed, so not removed
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 6 not upgraded.

I clicked on Installed section of Ubuntu Software Center nothing. No VLC in the list.

My backup is not working. I checked and followed the steps mentioned to install duplicity which I did. and this is the same output as earlier.

$ sudo apt install duplicity
[sudo] password for seshagiri: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree 
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
 librsync1 python-fasteners python-lockfile python-monotonic python-six
Suggested packages:
 python-paramiko python-pexpect python-urllib3 python-oauthlib python-boto
 ncftp python-cloudfiles lftp python-gdata tahoe-lafs python-swiftclient
 python-lockfile-doc
The following NEW packages will be installed:
 duplicity librsync1 python-fasteners python-lockfile python-monotonic
 python-six
0 upgraded, 6 newly installed, 0 to remove and 4 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/262 kB of archives.
After this operation, 1,402 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Selecting previously unselected package librsync1:amd64.
dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 reading files list for package 'vlc-plugin-video-splitter:amd64': Input/output error
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)

I have no idea what to do with this error vlc-plugin-video-splitter.

Now when I run the Updates I get the following error message:

$ sudo apt-get update
Get:1 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease [242 kB]
Ign:2 http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable InRelease 
Get:3 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates InRelease [88.7 kB] 
Get:4 http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable Release [943 B] 
Get:5 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security InRelease [88.7 kB] 
Get:6 http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable Release.gpg [819 B] 
Get:7 http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease [10.2 kB] 
Reading package lists... Error!
E: Unable to parse package file /var/lib/dpkg/status (1)
W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems
E: The package cache file is corrupted

I searched for a solution on this site and the final issue I have now is this:

Failed to load package list 

This is a serious problem. Try again later. If this problem appears again, please report an error to the developers.

An unresolvable problem occurred while initializing the package information.

Please report this bug against the 'update-manager' package and include the following error message:
E:Unable to parse package file /var/lib/dpkg/status (1), W:You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems, E:The package cache file is corrupted.

Can you help, as a lot of updates are piling up and I am not able to install anything?

I did follow the trouble shooting steps and it did resolve to some extent.At the same time my hard disk crashed and I changed it Just 5 days back.my thanks to all the experts who helped to resolve the issue.Thanks guys.

What are you really trying to do with line 4? It looks like you are trying to remove /usr/bin/dpkg ? Not a good idea!!!

Please try the following:

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

You could also try:

sudo apt-get remove vlc

If you installed VLC from the software center, why don't you uninstall it from the software center also?

You got the following error message:

E: Unable to parse package file /var/lib/dpkg/status (1)
E: The package cache file is corrupted

To solve it open the terminal and type:

sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/status 
sudo apt update 

This command is safe because a backup status file exists at /var/lib/dpkg/status-old .