can't use the packet manager (like apt-get or aptitude) because of an error while using "install", "update"...

[sednem]

When I try to use the packet manager (to install a packet or to update), it returns :

E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/fr.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_jaunty_multiverse_binary-i386_Packages
E: Les listes de paquets ou le fichier d'état ne peuvent pas être ouverts, ou sont incompréhensibles.

(the last error message is in french; I give you a bad traduction :
E:The packet list or the state file list can't be open or are incomprehensible
)

Confirm this for german version. Can be fixed switching to the main servers and manually deleting the files indicated in message.

the exact command :
sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/* -vf
sudo apt-get update

[Adam Collard (adam-collard)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please answer these questions:

* Is this reproducible?
* If so, what specific steps should we take to recreate this bug?

This will help us to find and resolve the problem.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for apt (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]