Update and Synaptic Managers / Add Remove apps crashing.

[DJScribe]

Binary package hint: update-manager

Ubuntu
Release Gutsy 7.10
Linux 2.6.22-14-generic
GNome 2.20.1
[Compiz (CCSM) installed]

Hardware
RAM 1024MB
AMD Athlon 64 3200+

Available Disk Space
28GB
*********

Update Manager crash details:

- Could not initialize the package information

A 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.'
_________________

Synaptic Pkg Manager crash details:

An error occured

The following details are provided:

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.
E: _cache->open() failed, please report.
_________________

Add/Remove Apps crash details:

Failed to check for installed and available applications

This is a major failure of your software management system. Please check for broken packages with synaptic, check the file permissions and correctness of the file '/etc/apt/sources.list' and reload the software information with: 'sudo apt-get update' and 'sudo apt-get install -f'.

All this was shortly after attempting to reinstall Mozilla-Firefox since sites containing flash began crashing the system altogether. After booting, I attempted to troubleshoot by reinstalling, remove/reinstall GSWF flash plugin, but did not correct issue; hence attempting to remove/reinstall Mozilla, since a simple reinstall did not work either. I'm including status file for your enjoyment. I tried attaching sources.list file, but couldn't figure out how to attach a 2nd file. Please let me know where to email it if necessary. System continued to reject Update Manager as a valid package, hence the "I don't know"
:]

Hope this helps and thanks in advanced for all your hard work guys/gals.

Seth [DJScribe]
<email address hidden>

[James Westby (james-w)]

Hi,

Thanks for the detailed bug report?

Are you able to use a terminal and
run "apt-get update" and "apt-get upgrade" ok
(you don't have to do the upgrade)?

Thanks,

James

[James Westby (james-w)]

Hi,

Also if you are still seeing the error after the update then "dpkg -l"
may tell you what it thinks is wrong with the file.

The status file you provided works ok on my system.

Thanks,

James

[DJScribe (djscribe)]

Thanks for your reply James. I wasn't able to run anything sytem-related.
SynapMgr, Update Mgr, RunApp all would crash upon starting, The way I got
around it was running the "mv status status-broken" then "cp status-old
status" - got this from the forum, which I'm happy about. I'll be leaving
that on my problem log if you want or if you want to place that as a
possible workaround/resolution. Only two other things that are bugging me
but the more I read the more I realize that it's more of a bug/glitch with
flash player and Ubuntu, as well as getting a good BitTorrent program other
than Azureus that crashes every 4mins. The generic BitTorrent is
staggeringly slow, like 2kbps, which in Windows, Azureus did 60-80kbps on
average. If you know of anything I can do to help me with torrent downloads,
I'd appreciate it.

Thanks again James - take care and God bless.
Scribe
______

On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 7:48 AM, James Westby <email address hidden>
wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Thanks for the detailed bug report?
>
> Are you able to use a terminal and
> run "apt-get update" and "apt-get upgrade" ok
> (you don't have to do the upgrade)?
>
> Thanks,
>
> James
>
>
> ** Changed in: update-manager (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Incomplete
>
> --
> Update and Synaptic Managers / Add Remove apps crashing.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/202733
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in Source Package "update-manager" in Ubuntu: Incomplete
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: update-manager
>
> Ubuntu
> Release Gutsy 7.10
> Linux 2.6.22-14-generic
> GNome 2.20.1
> [Compiz (CCSM) installed]
>
> Hardware
> RAM 1024MB
> AMD Athlon 64 3200+
>
> Available Disk Space
> 28GB
> *********
>
> Update Manager crash details:
>
> - Could not initialize the package information
>
> A 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.'
> _________________
>
> Synaptic Pkg Manager crash details:
>
> An error occured
>
> The following details are provided:
>
> 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.
> E: _cache->open() failed, please report.
> _________________
>
> Add/Remove Apps crash details:
>
> Failed to check for installed and available applications
>
> This is a major failure of your software management system. Please check
> for broken packages with synaptic, check the file permissions and
> correctness of the file '/etc/apt/sources.list' and reload the software
> information with: 'sudo apt-get update' and 'sudo apt-get install -f'.
>
>
>
> All this was shortly after attempting to reinstall Mozilla-Firefox since
> sites containing flash began crashing the system altogether. After booting,
> I attempted to troubleshoot by reinstalling, remove/reinstall GSWF flash
> plugin, but did not c...

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

Thanks for following up. I'm closing this report due to your last comment. Don't hesitate to submit any new bug.