linux-firmware unexpected EOF in archive

Sounds like a corrupted file in the cache... so clear the cache:
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Dave Lentz's suggestions do not work. Same problem.

If you download directly from http://packages.ubuntu.com/precise-updates/linux-firmware, the package does not tar extract.

@Jarrett Meyer,

What file are you downloaded that you mentioned in comment #2?

I was able to download and extract:
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/l/linux-firmware/linux-firmware_1.79.1.tar.gz

Also, can you post what errors you see when running:

sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install linux-firmware

This works for me:

wget http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/l/linux-firmware/linux-firmware_1.79.1_all.deb
mkdir junk
dpkg -x linux-firmware_1.79.1_all.deb junk

First answer: The file I am attempting to download directly is http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/l/linux-firmware/linux-firmware_1.79.1.tar.gz. This file produces the error above when attempting to untar the file.

Second answer: The download never completes when using apt-get install linux-firmware. The download loops indefinitely (or at least through 30 tries before I CTRL-C the process).

Length: 23381949 (22M) [application/x-gzip]
Saving to: `linux-firmware_1.79.1.tar.gz`

99% [=====================================> ] 23,371, 1776 404K/s in 27s

2013-02-13 14:11:06 (831 KB/s) - Connection closed at byte 23371776. Retrying.

Trying the .deb file, as suggested, produces the same result, except that the connection closes at byte 23076864 each time.

This is a brand new Ubuntu 12.04 install. The other 200+ initial updates installed just fine. This is only that that's giving me fits.

Jarrett - I think this has to be something local to your machine or environment. I am able to perform the steps you've described with no error. In fact, linux-firmware 1.79.1 has been in the Precise updates pocket since Sept 8 without anyone else having an update error, myself included. Therefore I am marking this bug as invalid.