package sysvinit-utils 2.87dsf-4ubuntu17.1 failed to install/upgrade: corrupted filesystem tarfile - corrupted package archive

[David Buehler]

The daily update of Ubuntu has been telling me this for 3 days -- once running ubuntu kernel 2.6.31 and twice with 2.6.32-33
Notably, I had a similar recurring error 2 months ago when I tried to upgrade from 2.6.31 to 2.6.32 -- it mentioned "gunzip" and said it could not extract the file because the file was corrupted ( in /var/cache/apt/archives/ ) -- I understood it to mean gunzip was corrupted.
Now it is mentioning "tar" and complaining of 2 corrupted sysvinit files in /var/cache/apt/archives/
Whenever I try to do an "apt-get install" of the corrupted file or its package I get a message that the package "is already the latest version."
No changes have been made to this hardware in the last year, nor any recent changes to the OS, other than regular daily "apt-get updates" or automatic running of aptitude for daily updates.
The current auto-generated report which this is, was generated by the automatic Aptitude update.
I am running:
--------------------
/etc/debian_version
squeeze/sid
--------------------
/etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=10.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=lucid
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 10.04.3 LTS"
------------------------------------------
Linux Magic2 2.6.32-33-generic #70-Ubuntu SMP Thu Jul 7 21:09:46 UTC 2011 i686 GNU/Linux
------------------------------------------
on a HP Pavillion a1640n 1.8 GHz with @GB RAM and plenty of disk space

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: sysvinit-utils 2.87dsf-4ubuntu17.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-33.70-generic 2.6.32.41+drm33.18
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-33-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Wed Jul 20 17:14:37 2011
ErrorMessage: corrupted filesystem tarfile - corrupted package archive
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
SourcePackage: sysvinit
Title: package sysvinit-utils 2.87dsf-4ubuntu17.1 failed to install/upgrade: corrupted filesystem tarfile - corrupted package archive

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. It seems that there was an error on your system when trying to install a particular package. Please execute the following command, as it will clear your package cache, in a terminal:

sudo apt-get clean

Then try performing the update again. This will likely resolve your issue, but the failure can be caused by filesystem or memory corruption. So please also run a fsck on your filesystem(s) and a memory test. If this does not resolve your bug please set its status back to New. Thanks in advance!