[Fink-beginners] WARNING: can't read dpkg status file "sw/var/lib/dpkg/status".

[Cory M. <cor...@bu...>]

Hello All,

I'm very new to Fink and when I installed it I was delighted with its
capabilities.  I was able to install a few programs (namely vim and
emacs) before I starting receiving the following error message
whenever I tried to do anything with Fink:

WARNING: can't read dpkg status file "sw/var/lib/dpkg/status".

This warning message is the first thing that happens whenever I give
Fink any command, be it to install something or list available
packages or even selfupdate.  Furthermore, after this message comes up
a few times and the program continues what it's doing, it eventually
prints the following output:

Failed: can't install package base-files-1.9.12-1

This may just be one example, because it's copied output from when I
tried to selfupdate, but you always get the same error, the package
name may just change, I'm not sure.

Either way I did some digging in my Finder and found that the "status"
file that they're looking for doesn't exist and has been replaced with
a file called "status-old."  I've tried to change the name back to
just status but no matter what I do with my sharing and permission
options my computer won't let me change the name.  I'm not sure what I
can do to fix this problem so that I can actually use Fink, but if
anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear them.  Thanks!