Could not initialize the package information

[Mike MacLean]

Binary package hint: update-manager

1) Lucid Lynx 10.04 LTS
2) Couldn't get version. Synaptic crashes, see below; apt-cache policy packagename gets me:

  mike@mike-desktop:~$ apt-cache policy packagename
  E: Problem parsing dependency Depends
  E: Error occurred while processing vino (NewVersion1)
  E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/dpkg/status

3) expected Update Manager to open
4) Update Manager crashed, reporting following error:

"When opening Update Manager
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:Problem parsing dependency Depends, E:Error occurred while processing vino (NewVersion1), E:Problem with MergeList /var/lib/dpkg/status, E:The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.'"

5) When I tried to open Synaptic Package Manager, it crashed too, giving me:

"E: Problem parsing dependency Depends
E: Error occurred while processing vino (NewVersion1)
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"

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this issue and helping to make Ubuntu better. Examining the information you have given us, this does not appear to be a bug report so we are closing it and converting it to a question in the support tracker. We appreciate the difficulties you are facing, but it would make more sense to raise problems you are having in the support tracker at https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu if you are uncertain if they are bugs. For help on reporting bugs, see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#When%20not%20to%20file%20a%20bug.

[Mike MacLean (mmacleanh)]

Copied /var/lib/dpkg/status-old over status. Works now, thanks.