Can not access the softrware centre

[Johnomran-gmail]

When I logged in during Easter to my Ubuntu 12.04 LTS & clicked on the update package , instead of updating the software, the following window appeared:

COULD NOT INITIALISE THE PACKAGE INFORMATION

AN UN-RESOLNABLE PROBLEM OCCURED WHILE INTIALISING THE PACKAGE INFORMATION.

PLEASE REPORT THIS BUG FOR THE UPDATE MANAGER AND TRY TO INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING ERROR MESSAGE

"E: ENCOUNTERD A SECTION WITH NO NO PACKAGE : HEADER, E: PROBLEM WITH MERGELIST/VAR/LIB/APT/LISTS/EXTRAS. UBUNTU.COM_UBUNTU_DISTS_PRECISE_MAIN_BINARY-i386_PACKAGES,E: THE PACKAGE LIST OR STATUS FILE COULD NOT BE PREPARED OR OPENED"

To this day I cannot use the software centre or the Synaptic Package Manager or the update manager.

Is it p[ossible to either un-install or re-install Ubuntu; it is running along side Windows 8.1

[Seth Arnold (seth-arnold)]

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We appreciate the difficulties you are facing, but this appears to be a "regular" (non-security) bug. I have unmarked it as a security issue since this bug does not show evidence of allowing attackers to cross privilege boundaries nor directly cause loss of data/privacy. Please feel free to report any other bugs you may find.

[Seth Arnold (seth-arnold)]

Typically these problems can be resolved by running:

sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/extras*
sudo apt-get update

Thanks

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Ubiquity is the Ubuntu desktop installer, so this doesn't seem to have anything to do with it.

[Johnomran-gmail (johnomran-gmail)]

I have typed Seth Arlond command into Terminal. But nothing has changed.

What I am supposed to do now? If I cannot access the software packages, I will not use this operating system. Is it possible to either un-install it or replace it with Ubuntu 14.04. Please note that I have used Windows 8.1 to un-install it; but this made no difference to UBUTU 12.04; it is still on my computer.

Please advise.

Jaddo Omran