Unable to use apt-get: dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error … is missing final newline

Question

I am unable to use the apt-get command to install any packages on my pi.

I started trying to install python-pip using

sudo apt-get install python-pip

which results in the error

dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
files list file for package 'libc6:armhf' is missing final newline
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)

I tried some other packages, but none worked. They all result in the same error.

After attempting several fixes from Google, I have been unable to resolve the issue.

Answer 1

I got hit by that too on first install: dd'ed the firmware, 1st boot, apt-get update doesn't work. Conclusion: write errors on the SD card. In my case, my card was old, so I just bought another. Note that write errors can also occur with bad power supply / bad micro-usb cable.

Answer 2

Delete the file /var/lib/dpkg/info/libc.list (or the closest to that name), and then run sudo apt-get install libc --reinstall