Cannot update\download any packages

[Rick]

From package manager:
E: Dynamic MMap ran out of room
E: Error occurred while processing vlc-nox (NewVersion1)
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/dpkg/status
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
E: _cache->open() failed, please report.
Earlier sun-Java6 was being processed.

From Synaptic:
E: Dynamic MMap ran out of room
E: Error occurred while processing vlc-nox (NewVersion1)
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/dpkg/status
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
E: _cache->open() failed, please report.

1.) Ubuntu 8.10 release (intrepid)
Kernal Linux 2.6.27-9-generic
GNOME 2.24.1
Available 45.6 GiB

2.) rick@ECS-64:~$ apt-cache policy packagename
E: Dynamic MMap ran out of room
E: Error occurred while processing vlc-nox (NewVersion1)
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/dpkg/status
rick@ECS-64:~$
2-b.) cannot open Synaptic beyond error message. It shuts down.
3.) Unable to run any package programs without a crash
4.) I expect to be able to update programs.

[Rick (rickardh2002)]

I found a comment to lockfile. I did not grap it.. 'Lockfile' could not be opened.

[Carl R (cyrilsneer)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This particular bug has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug 24626, so it is being marked as such. Please look at the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug. Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Feel free to continue to report any other bugs you may find.