package update-manager 1:0.93.23 failed to install/upgrade: ErrorMessage: SystemError in cache.commit(): E:Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Binary package hint: update-manager

1) 8.10, upgraded yesterday from 8.04 ("update-manager -d" method).
2) 1:0.93.23

I have had to boot Intrepid in recovery mode after upgrading from Hardy yestrerday. Using recovery mode, I have chosen the dpkg option, but that returns errors and suggests using "dpkg --configure -a". Also that appears to fail. So, expectably I suppose, this problem with update-manager and dpkg results in several crash reports at Gnome X session startup, when packages fail to upgrade.

ProblemType: Package
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.10
ErrorMessage: ErrorMessage: SystemError in cache.commit(): E:Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Package: update-manager 1:0.93.23
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: update-manager
Title: package update-manager 1:0.93.23 failed to install/upgrade: ErrorMessage: SystemError in cache.commit(): E:Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
Uname: Linux 2.6.27-7-generic i686