barney@spadge:/var/lib/dpkg/info$ sudo apt-get install --reinstall libcurl3-gnutls
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
libcurl3-gnutls set to manual installed.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 reinstalled, 0 to remove and 39 not upgraded.
Need to get 176kB of archives.
After unpacking 0B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? 
Get: 1 http://ie.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/main libcurl3-gnutls 7.16.4-2ubuntu1 [176kB]
Fetched 176kB in 4s (41.0kB/s)          
(Reading database ... 
dpkg: serious warning: files list file for package `libcurl3-gnutls' missing, assuming package has no files currently installed.
196985 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace libcurl3-gnutls 7.16.4-2ubuntu1 (using .../libcurl3-gnutls_7.16.4-2ubuntu1_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libcurl3-gnutls ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libcurl3-gnutls_7.16.4-2ubuntu1_i386.deb (--unpack):
 unable to install (supposed) new info file `/var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/shlibs': Read-only file system
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 failed to delete `/var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci': Read-only file system
dpkg: failed to open `/var/lib/dpkg/status' for writing status information: Read-only file system
touch: cannot touch `/var/lib/update-notifier/dpkg-run-stamp': Read-only file system
E: Problem executing scripts DPkg::Post-Invoke 'if [ -d /var/lib/update-notifier ]; then  touch /var/lib/update-notifier/dpkg-run-stamp; fi'
E: Sub-process returned an error code
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)