update-manager status file corruption

[mitch]

An unresolvable problem occurred while initializing the package information.
Please report this bug against the 'update-manager' package and include the following error message:
'E:Encountered a section with no Package: header, E:Problem with MergeList /var/lib/dpkg/status, E:The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.'

12.04 LTS Dell 745 tower, 2gb, 200gb, (dual OS - W2000 on 60GB. 12.04 on rest) sys fine until installing GNUCASH via software center.
About 3/4 way through d/l sys crashed. Reported as corrupt 1st line in dpkg/status file. Gedit on status file nets this warning - The file you opened has some invalid characters. If you continue editing this file you could corrupt this document. You can also choose another character encoding and try again. (Unable to edit due to read only status.)

Status-old file opens with no issues. Unable to rename files due to ownership issue. Various apt-get attempts result in error messages or inability to read or load files.

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Reviewing your bug report it seems that you are experiencing bug 346386. This issue happens when you have tried to update your package information when you are a network that didn't return the right files. This issue can be cleaned up by using the following commands in a terminal:

1.) sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/*
2.) sudo apt-get update

Thanks and good luck!

[This is an automated message. I apologize if it reached you inappropriately; please reopen the bug task if it was incorrect.]