I have bumped into an issue that doesn't allow me to do anything related to apt-get: install, remove, etc. Whenever I try to do something (e.g. sudo apt-get install firefox -f) it gives me the same error message:

Reading database ... dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
 unable to open files list file for package `fontconfig-config': Input/output error
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)

I have tried to deal with the package `fontconfig-config' without success.

I have found that the "Input/output error" is usually linked with physical problems of the hd, but I do not think that's the case I am using that hd without any other problem.

I have tried removing the mention to the package in /var/lib/dpkg/status as mentioned here.

I have tried deleting all files related to the package in /var/lib/dpkg/info as I found somewhere.

But I still cannot do anything. The funny bit comes when I look for the file that is giving me troubles:

mecho@Ansible-MS-7680:/var/lib/dpkg/info$ ls fontconfig*
ls: cannot access fontconfig-config.list: Input/output error
fontconfig.list     fontconfig.postinst  fontconfig.preinst  fontconfig.triggers
fontconfig.md5sums  fontconfig.postrm    fontconfig.prerm

This is done after I deleted all files ... it looks like fontconfig-config.list still exists but it doesn't show up!

Any idea about how to solve the problem?

I am on kubuntu precise, fontconfig-config_2.8.0-3ubuntu9.1