*** This bug is a duplicate of bug 886273 ***
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/886273
well, ok here's what I did that cleared the problem, somehow:
In /var/lib/dpkg, I simply renamed "status" into "status.1", and then renamed
"status-old" into "status". (Didn't want to lose any file, and trie
*** This bug is a duplicate of bug 886273 ***
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/886273
E:Malformed 3rd word in the Status line, E:Error occurred while
processing distro-info-data (UsePackage2), E:Problem with MergeList
/var/lib/dpkg/status, E:The package lists or status file could not be
parsed
