corrupted /var/lib/dpkg/status during upgrade

[David Lang]

when running the upgrade to 12.10 (kubuntu) I get the dpkg status file into an unusable state

dpkg: error: parsing file '/var/lib/dpkg/status' near line 81790 package 'libsdl-ttf2.0-0:i386':
 mixed non-coinstallable and coinstallable package instances present
dpkg-query: error: parsing file '/var/lib/dpkg/status' near line 81790 package 'libsdl-ttf2.0-0:i386':
 mixed non-coinstallable and coinstallable package instances present
debsums: dpkg-query --admindir=/var/lib/dpkg --showformat=${Package}

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: xorg 1:7.6+12ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-30.48-generic 3.2.27
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-30-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu13
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Sep 12 07:51:02 2012
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 TERM=xterm
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to quantal on 2012-09-11 (0 days ago)

[David Lang (david-lang)]

when I report a bug via ubuntu-bug I selected the 'other' category, but it insisted on treating it as a xorg error.

This is really a dpkg problem