no idea what I did to get this error, but I can't update/remove or install any packages in cydia now.

please help

Originally Posted by berger34

no idea what I did to get this error, but I can't update/remove or install any packages in cydia now.

This issue has been discussed a few times, it pretty much requires a restore and re-jailbreak to fix. Your iPhone is missing a key program that Cydia needs to do it's work. If the file is not missing, then it is somehow corrupted or the wrong version.

There are other threads if you had bothered to search. (yes they weren't on the iPhone 4), and some refer to ICY (a thankfully long defunct cydia alternative)

I'll leave this open for now, in case someone surprises me and posts a simple solution that does not require a reinstall. (The recent underlying exploit used in greenpois0n, limera1n and pwnagetool might be able to be re-purposed to fix this kind of problem - for example).

ok thanks for the fast reply. one more question though

since I got this error, I tried to use pkgbackup to backup my packages in case i had to restore, but now when I open the program it says I have 0 packages installed

obviously I do, and when I go into Cydia, they're all listed still

any fix ?

Originally Posted by berger34

ok thanks for the fast reply. one more question though

since I got this error, I tried to use pkgbackup to backup my packages in case i had to restore, but now when I open the program it says I have 0 packages installed

obviously I do, and when I go into Cydia, they're all listed still

any fix ?

As i said, dpkg is the key program that installs/uninstalls/checks packages installed via Cydia.

Did you get any other text or error messages before this?

Go to this site NOW!!!! this will solve your problem with the dpkg errors.... i have been at this for weeks now and this has solved my problems with removing and installing packages Cydia: Sub-process /user/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2) [Archive] - MacRumors Forums