E:Encountered a section with no Package: header, E:Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/gr.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_jaunty-backports_universe_binary-i386_Packages

[xmac]

the following text appeared in the notification area:

***** StartOfText *****
Could not initialize the package information

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/apt/lists/gr.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_jaunty-backports_universe_binary-i386_Packages, E:The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.'

***** EndOfText *****
I use 9.04 version of ubuntu

[Nanley Chery (nanoman)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This bug did not have a package associated with it, which is important for ensuring that it gets looked at by the proper developers. You can learn more about finding the right package at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage . I have classified this bug as a bug in PKGNAME.
For future reference you might be interested to know that a lot of applications have bug reporting functionality built in to them. This can be accessed via the Report a Problem option in the Help menu for the application with which you are having an issue. You can learn more about this feature at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

[xmac (xmac)]

Dear Nanley Chery,

> For future reference you might be interested to know that a lot of applications
> have bug reporting functionality built in to them. This can be accessed via the
> Report a Problem option in the Help menu for the application with which you
> are having an issue. You can learn more about this feature at
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

the application Package Manager and Update Manager had frozen
and I could not even close the windows, so it would be impossible to
use the built-in function "Report a bug".

Is there any other information to attach ?

Thank you for you rapid reply

[Nanley Chery (nanoman)]

I noticed your screenshot said to report the bug "against the 'update-manager' package". To assign this bug to a package, click the drop-down menu next to "Affects: Ubuntu" and in the package entry field enter update-manager. Then click save changes.

[xmac (xmac)]

thanx again, I'm novice here
and the system here seems a bit complicated
or just unfamiliar to me

[Nanley Chery (nanoman)]

No problem, everyone has to be a novice sometime. Just remember to read the helpful documentation we have on bug reporting (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs) if you want things to "go smoothly". Thanks again for the report.

[xmac (xmac)]

after waiting about 2 weeks for any solution to be proposed
I tried on my own the following
I searched the 60 files in the directory /var/lib/apt/lists which had among them
the following 4 files:
archive.canonical.com_ubuntu_dists_jaunty_partner_binary-i386_Packages
archive.canonical.com_ubuntu_dists_jaunty_partner_source_Sources
archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_jaunty_main_source_Sources
archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_jaunty_restricted_source_Sources
These files seemed strange (firstly due to their html icon) and later when I opened them with text editor I saw that they had as content the default page of my router when I don't have Internet connection.
I don't know how it was stored there!!!

I deleted them with sudo rm fille_name

that seemed to work

the update manager started correctly
proposed the updates/upgrades and when I pressed install it frozen

finally I did it manually:
sudo apt-get update -f
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

after many restarts!!! my system works but the update manager gets stucked / frozen / stops working when I press Check button

I don't know if that is a local problem or a problem of similar applications (synaptip/packagekit/update manager) or any other related application.

I also don't know if the above described is a solution that can work for anybody or just a mumbo jumbo of mine.

[xmac (xmac)]

the strage thing was that after deleting the 4 files out of 60 files in the directory /var/lib/apt/lists
they remained 49 !!!
and now they are again 60 files in that directory !!!
but, the update manager doesn't work :-(

[Robert Chapman (bobbyc43)]

Dear xmac - I am sorry , I did not realize you were waiting for a fix -
The following worked for me. I am a complete novice but have been able
to sort out all my problems by searching all the forums that google has
given me when I search for my problems.It can take a while finding the
answers but so far I have been lucky. I hope this works for you , I
deleted all the files as stated in Bug #393826 and all went well. after
you have run the update, look in /var/lib/apt/lists and it should have
all the files correctly (automatically) reinstated. Good luck and let me
know if all goes well. I will help as much as I can.

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Launchpad > Ubuntu > “update-manager” package

Overview / Code / Bugs / Blueprints / Translations / Answers

Bug #393826 reported by Rascal999 on 2009-06-30 (Activity log)

Bug #393826:
This report is public
Update manager fails - "Encountered a section with no Package:
header" [Problem and fix]
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2009-06-30
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Binary package hint: update-manager

Some users find themselves unable to update/run the package manager with
one of the following errors:

Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

This can occur when the update manager attempts to download package
lists, but receives a HTML document from their gateway.

If the package manager could determine the format of the package lists,
making sure it's not a HTML file, before trying to parse it, the manager
could rectify or, at least, inform the user that it is unable to
update/download because it is having trouble downloading the package
lists.

In order to resolve this issue, I removed all files
under /var/lib/apt/lists and ran 'sudo apt-get update', perhaps the
package manager could automate this process?

Thanks Ubuntu Team! :)

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
Package: update-manager 1:0.111.9
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: update-manager
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-13-generic i686

Tags: apport-bug i386
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Rascal999 wrote on 2009-06-30:
      * Dependencies.txt (4.4 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")

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[xmac (xmac)]

Thank you Robert Chapman for your reply,
I don't have any more that problem, (only freezes
sometimes) the solution seemed to work, and is similar
to the one that I found.

How could we inform other users about the solution/fix?
As I monitor these last 2 weeks the update manager
they keep posting again and again the same error.
I have already noted 6 similar bugs.
Digging on your own is a hard job :-)

If the "Update Manager Team" doesn't have time to fix it,
maybe they should guide every one
to that solution instead of saying "report the bug".

[Michael E Granat (megranat)]

Update Manager closes after reporting the following under ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal

Could not initialize the package information

An unresolvable problem occurred while initialising 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/apt/lists/au.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_natty_main_binary-i386_Packages, E:The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.'

Had to copy and paste the above text from the alert dialog as closing the dialog also closes update-manager, preventing me from registering a bug direct from that application.

The following alert also displays when using the shell to do a "sudo apt-get update" command:
Reading package lists... Error!
E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/au.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_natty_main_binary-i386_Packages
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
So the bug is pervasive and does not just impact on the update-manager GUI.

[Michael E Granat (megranat)]

Also impacts Synaptic Package Manager. Will post a bug report about that application in a moment.

[Michael E Granat (megranat)]

This bug also prevents me from using computer-janitor and software-center.
Tried deleting the files under /var/lib/apt/lists using the file manager GUI tool but it wouldn't let me do so.
Could someone please advise me how to do so? I suspect that this can only be done using the shell with special permissions.
Thanks in anticipation.

[No Wai (ubuntudavidoff)]

My google-fu is superior

http://ihaveapc.com/2011/05/how-to-fix-problem-with-mergelist-varlibaptlists-error-in-ubuntu-11-04/

sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/* -vf

and

sudo apt-get update

This made the bad messages go away. Dont know if it corrected the underlying cause. Since this is the second time i've had this error after i reinstalled i doubt it.

[Michael E Granat (megranat)]

Thank you.

[No Wai (ubuntudavidoff)]

the problem came back. i guess this doesnt fix the underlying cause. You'd think that problems with something as important as the software centre and updater would be more of a priority.