unable to install anything on ubuntu 9.10 with aptitude

Question

Earlier i could install software by using the 'sudo aptitude install ' command. Today when i tried to install rkhunter i am getting errors. It is not just rkhunter, i am not able to install anything.

Here is the text output:

user@server:~$ sudo aptitude install rkhunter
................
................
20% [3 rkhunter 947/271kB 0%]

Get:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com karmic/universe unhide 20080519-4 [832kB]


40% [4 unhide 2955/832kB 0%]

100% [Working]

Fetched 1394kB in 1s (825kB/s)
Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously deselected package lsof.
(Reading database ... 
................
(Reading database ... 95%
(Reading database ... 100%
(Reading database ... 20076 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking lsof (from .../lsof_4.81.dfsg.1-1_amd64.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/lsof_4.81.dfsg.1-1_amd64.deb (--unpack):
 unable to create `/usr/bin/lsof.dpkg-new' (while processing `./usr/bin/lsof'): Permission denied
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Selecting previously deselected package libmd5-perl.
Unpacking libmd5-perl (from .../libmd5-perl_2.03-1_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package rkhunter.
Unpacking rkhunter (from .../rkhunter_1.3.4-5_all.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/rkhunter_1.3.4-5_all.deb (--unpack):
 unable to create `/usr/bin/rkhunter.dpkg-new' (while processing `./usr/bin/rkhunter'): Permission denied
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Selecting previously deselected package unhide.
Unpacking unhide (from .../unhide_20080519-4_amd64.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/unhide_20080519-4_amd64.deb (--unpack):
 unable to create `/usr/sbin/unhide-posix.dpkg-new' (while processing `./usr/sbin/unhide-posix'): Permission denied
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/lsof_4.81.dfsg.1-1_amd64.deb
 /var/cache/apt/archives/rkhunter_1.3.4-5_all.deb
 /var/cache/apt/archives/unhide_20080519-4_amd64.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
A package failed to install.  Trying to recover:
Setting up libmd5-perl (2.03-1) ...

Building dependency tree... 0%

Building dependency tree... 50%

Building dependency tree... 50%

Building dependency tree       


Reading state information... 0%

...........
....................

I have removed some lines to reduce the text. All the error messages are in here though. My experience with linux is limited and i am not sure what the problem is or how it is to be resolved.

Thanks.

---

Response of dmesg | tail as asked by @Danny Staple

[15124905.180010] TCP: Peer 86.137.106.203:53633/80 unexpectedly shrunk window 4186622621:4186623965 (repaired)         
[15124906.180012] TCP: Peer 86.137.106.203:53633/80 unexpectedly shrunk window 4186622621:4186623965 (repaired)         
[15515559.123663] iftop uses obsolete (PF_INET,SOCK_PACKET)                                                             
[16976290.290013] eth0: no IPv6 routers present                                                                         
[16976291.180014] eth1: no IPv6 routers present                                                                         
[16984092.913895] EXT3-fs: Unrecognized mount option "-" or missing value                                               
[16984099.795068] EXT3-fs: Unrecognized mount option "-errors=remount-ro" or missing value                              
[16984368.841407] EXT3-fs: Unrecognized mount option "w" or missing value                                               
[16984422.110130] EXT3-fs: Unrecognized mount option "noerrors" or missing value                                        
[17249700.060009] TCP: Peer 81.159.138.220:63867/80 unexpectedly shrunk window 2200198177:2200201097 (repaired)

Answer 1

The problem occurs where the dpkg wants to unpack your *.deb files, possibly a filesystem mount option problem:

Here is the error:

unable to create `/usr/bin/lsof.dpkg-new' (while processing `./usr/bin/lsof'): Permission denied

Could you please mount the filesystem without the ro option?

Hint:

mount / -o remount,rw

Where the / is your mount point (could be anything where /usr/bin belongs), possibly /usr/

Answer 2

/dev/sda1 on / type ext3 (rw,noatime,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
none on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
none on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
/dev/sda1 on /dev/.static/dev type ext3 (rw)

Answer 3

The packages that are having problems are in the package cache. Try doing this:

sudo apt-get clean

One other potential problem is that the mount point could be full. Have you tried doing a df?