dpkg - internal gzip read error - Ask Ubuntu

i have dell optiplex 755 core 2 duo made fresh install of 12.04. there no winows os on machine. has been running fine on week. keep getting system crashes due xserver-xorg-intel conflict, @ least know source of that. recently, running upgrade && update keep getting conflict, seemingly 1 update, recent linux-libc-dev. here's get:

 jay@jay-jay:/$ sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get update reading package lists... done building dependency tree        reading state information... done following packages upgraded:   linux-libc-dev 1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 remove , 0 not upgraded. need 0 b/828 kb of archives. after operation, 0 b of additional disk space used. want continue [y/n]? y (reading database ... 208582 files , directories installed.) preparing replace linux-libc-dev 3.2.0-23.36 (using .../linux-libc-dev_3.2.0-24.37_i386.deb) ... unpacking replacement linux-libc-dev ... dpkg-deb (subprocess): data: internal gzip read error: ': data error' dpkg-deb: error: subprocess  returned error exit status 2 dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/linux-libc-dev_3.2.0-24.37_i386.deb (--unpack):  subprocess dpkg-deb --fsys-tarfile returned error exit status 2 no apport report written because error message indicates issue on local system          errors encountered while processing:  /var/cache/apt/archives/linux-libc-dev_3.2.0-24.37_i386.deb e: sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned error code (1)  

i have searched askubuntu, have found similar questions , have tried accepted answers thought may have been of use. @ point, stalled.

obviously there wrong between dpkg-deb (a program, part of debian package management used apt-get) , tar (which packing/unpacking files from/into single archives).

now dpkg-deb calling tar unsopported option, somehow there version mismatch between programs.

you can run this, try solve issue:

`aptitude clean` or `apt-get clean` 

if didn't solve, try trick:

rename /bin/tar /bin/tar.original:

mv /bin/tar /bin/tar.original 

then wrote simple script /bin/tar file:

#!/bin/bash tar.original xf - 

then make executable using

chmod a+x /bin/tar 

the last step reinstallation of broken packages:

apt-get install --reinstall dpkg apt-get install --reinstall tar