Mint Upgrade Manager - Crash at start: No package header, cache->open failed

[Jon Meltzer]

Error message received during "rebuilding search index":

E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/repo.steampowered.com_steam_dists_precise_steam_i18n_Translation-en
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
E: _cache->open() failed, please report.

Mint 17.2

[Jordan Farrell (feralbytes)]

Fix Action Found Here: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=200908#p1044456

Details of Fix: Close Update Manager Open Software Sources from Administration menu. In additional Rositories disable the steam repositories. In Maintenance choose "Fix MergeList problems". Then "Update the Cache".

Seemed to occur after allowing an update that was called: "mint-upgrade-info" version 1.0.3

Detailed output from Aptitude:
[ ERR] Reading package lists
E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/repo.steampowered.com_steam_dists_precise_steam_i18n_Translation-en
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
E: Couldn't rebuild package cache
E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/repo.steampowered.com_steam_dists_precise_steam_i18n_Translation-en
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/repo.steampowered.com_steam_dists_precise_steam_i18n_Translation-en
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

[Jordan Farrell (feralbytes)]

I changed the Title to reference the affected piece of software: Mint Upgrade Manager; apt-get; aptitude; etc. package managers.
But I did not experience a crash of Update Manager. Instead I received the red "X" indicator that something was wrong with the update process because my Update Manager was already running prior to the installation of mint-upgrade-info v1.0.3.

[Michael (mtjohnson47)]

According to numerous people on the steam page, this bug is also present in Ubuntu 14.04.

http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/541906989397659261/?tscn=1437755858#p2

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.