Upgrade problems: dpkg: warning: files list file for package

Hope someone can help me. Can no longer upgrade or install any software. Not sure what preceded this problem. Here’s what I get from a ‘apt-get upgrade’:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  libraspberrypi-bin libraspberrypi0 raspberrypi-bootloader raspberrypi-kernel
The following packages will be upgraded:
  bind9 bind9utils firefox-esr iceweasel libbind9-90 libcups2 libdb5.3 libdns-export100 libdns100 libgssapi-krb5-2 libicu52 libirs-export91 libisc-export95 libisc95 libisccc90 libisccfg-export90 libisccfg90 libk5crypto3 libkrb5-3
  libkrb5support0 liblwres90 libncurses5 libncursesw5 libtinfo5 libx11-6 libx11-data libx11-xcb1 libxcursor1 libxfixes3 libxi6 libxrandr2 libxtst6 libxv1 ncurses-base ncurses-bin openssh-client sudo tzdata
38 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 4 not upgraded.
Need to get 56.6 MB of archives.
After this operation, 843 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Get:1 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main ncurses-bin armhf 5.9+20140913-1+deb8u2 [342 kB]
Get:2 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main ncurses-base all 5.9+20140913-1+deb8u2 [222 kB]
Get:3 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libtinfo5 armhf 5.9+20140913-1+deb8u2 [271 kB]
Get:4 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libncursesw5 armhf 5.9+20140913-1+deb8u2 [99.0 kB]
Get:5 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libncurses5 armhf 5.9+20140913-1+deb8u2 [76.4 kB]
Get:6 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libdb5.3 armhf 5.3.28-9+deb8u1 [575 kB]
Get:7 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libgssapi-krb5-2 armhf 1.12.1+dfsg-19+deb8u4 [130 kB]
Get:8 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libkrb5-3 armhf 1.12.1+dfsg-19+deb8u4 [256 kB]
Get:9 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libkrb5support0 armhf 1.12.1+dfsg-19+deb8u4 [55.6 kB]
Get:10 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libk5crypto3 armhf 1.12.1+dfsg-19+deb8u4 [109 kB]
Get:11 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libcups2 armhf 1.7.5-11+deb8u2 [254 kB]
Get:12 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libisc-export95 armhf 1:9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u14 [125 kB]
Get:13 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libdns-export100 armhf 1:9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u14 [398 kB]
Get:14 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libicu52 armhf 52.1-8+deb8u6 [6,555 kB]
Get:15 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libisccfg-export90 armhf 1:9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u14 [38.6 kB]
Get:16 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libirs-export91 armhf 1:9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u14 [37.2 kB]
Get:17 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libx11-data all 2:1.6.2-3+deb8u1 [126 kB]
Get:18 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libx11-6 armhf 2:1.6.2-3+deb8u1 [664 kB]
Get:19 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libx11-xcb1 armhf 2:1.6.2-3+deb8u1 [163 kB]
Get:20 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libxfixes3 armhf 1:5.0.1-2+deb8u1 [19.9 kB]
Get:21 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libxcursor1 armhf 1:1.1.14-1+deb8u1 [31.7 kB]
Get:22 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libxi6 armhf 2:1.7.4-1+deb8u1 [74.7 kB]
Get:23 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libxrandr2 armhf 2:1.4.2-1+deb8u1 [32.9 kB]
Get:24 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libxtst6 armhf 2:1.2.2-1+deb8u1 [25.6 kB]
Get:25 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libxv1 armhf 2:1.0.10-1+deb8u1 [22.7 kB]
Get:26 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main tzdata all 2017c-0+deb8u1 [232 kB]
Get:27 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main bind9 armhf 1:9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u14 [293 kB]
Get:28 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libisc95 armhf 1:9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u14 [150 kB]
Get:29 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libdns100 armhf 1:9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u14 [602 kB]
Get:30 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libisccc90 armhf 1:9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u14 [35.0 kB]
Get:31 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libisccfg90 armhf 1:9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u14 [50.9 kB]
Get:32 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main liblwres90 armhf 1:9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u14 [48.4 kB]
Get:33 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main bind9utils armhf 1:9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u14 [159 kB]
Get:34 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main libbind9-90 armhf 1:9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u14 [41.8 kB]
Get:35 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main openssh-client armhf 1:6.7p1-5+deb8u4 [622 kB]
Get:36 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main firefox-esr armhf 52.5.2esr-1~deb8u1 [42.7 MB]
Get:37 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main iceweasel all 52.5.2esr-1~deb8u1 [122 kB]
Get:38 http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian/ jessie/main sudo armhf 1.8.10p3-1+deb8u5 [830 kB]
Fetched 56.6 MB in 29s (1,906 kB/s)
Extracting templates from packages: 100%
Preconfiguring packages ...
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libxinerama1:armhf' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'xserver-xorg-input-all' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libid3tag0' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libjson-glib-1.0-common' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libpam-modules-bin' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'wireless-tools' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libxdamage1:armhf' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libssl1.0.0:armhf' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libsigc++-2.0-0c2a:armhf' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'liblcms2-2:armhf' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'xbitmaps' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'tzdata' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libklibc' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libxshmfence1:armhf' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libsoup2.4-1:armhf' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libinput10:armhf' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'startpar' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'xfonts-utils' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libinput-bin' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libpng12-0:armhf' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libxml2:armhf' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'python-minimal' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libpangoft2-1.0-0:armhf' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'xserver-xorg' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'sensible-utils' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libisc-export95' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libpango-1.0-0:armhf' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'systemd' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libwnck-common' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'liblocale-gettext-perl' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 unable to open files list file for package `lxappearance-obconf': Input/output error
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)

I did a few google searches with the error messages

Try

sudo dpkg --configure -a

or

apt-get -f install

Tried both of those a couple of days ago with no effect, but thanks for looking and advising.

fingers crossed.

So, it looks like my best bet is to backup my configuration (I’m using webmin so I’ll probably use it’s backup process), and then re-install DietPi. Anyone have any pointers, or know of anything to watch out for?

Damn, my DietPi isn’t restarting, so going to have to grab the config files from the filesystem. Can anyone advise which files to backup. It’s currently running backup DNS and DHCP, with a webmin front-end, and I can’t remember what software I’ve installed.