update-apt-xapian-index crashed with SystemError in open(): E:Encountered a section with no Package: header, E:Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/viewizard.com_linux_debian_en, E:The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

[Timothy Kross]

Binary package hint: apt-xapian-index

Got this error upon startup.

ProblemType: Crash
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: apt-xapian-index 0.41ubuntu5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-4.31-generic 2.6.38-rc5
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-4-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sat Feb 19 01:52:55 2011
ExecutablePath: /usr/sbin/update-apt-xapian-index
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Alpha amd64 (20110127)
InterpreterPath: /usr/bin/python2.7
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcCmdline: /usr/bin/python /usr/sbin/update-apt-xapian-index --update -q
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LC_MESSAGES=en_US.utf8
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 SHELL=/bin/bash
PythonArgs: ['/usr/sbin/update-apt-xapian-index', '--update', '-q']
SourcePackage: apt-xapian-index
Title: update-apt-xapian-index crashed with SystemError in open(): E:Encountered a section with no Package: header, E:Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/viewizard.com_linux_debian_en, E:The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
UserGroups:

[andreturetta (andreturetta)]

any solution? i got thu bug too suddenly ;)

[Lukiwuki (lukasisselbaecher)]

Did a clean install and it worked.
I think the bug was caused because of the version-upgrade.
So solution found ;)

Am Freitag, den 29.04.2011, 19:24 +0000 schrieb andreturetta:
> any solution? i got thu bug too suddenly ;)
>

[Troy Clayton82176 (clayton-troy-d)]

Found this on another forum and it worked for me....

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

after I did that I was able to update and upgrade

[Matthijs Lambooy (lambooy)]

Yep This worked for me too. Thanks

[Albano Kofsha (albano.kofsha)]

yeeess thats was the trick thankyou!

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

[Henrique Faria (henriquecofa)]

hi there,
that command hasnt help me. Even though it exclude all packages from /var/lib/apt/lists/, I continue seeing errors.
I can't update my system, or install anything.
What else could I do?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[graingert (tagrain)]

I get the same symptoms but I think it's for a different reason:

Any ideas?

$ sudo /usr/sbin/update-apt-xapian-index --update -q
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/sbin/update-apt-xapian-index", line 101, in <module>
    if not indexer.setupIndexing(force=opts.force, system=opts.pkgfile is None):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/axi/indexer.py", line 513, in setupIndexing
    addon.obj.init(dict(values=self.values), self.progress)
  File "/usr/share/apt-xapian-index/plugins/app-install.py", line 145, in init
    entry = DesktopEntry(os.path.join(APPINSTALLDIR, f))
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/xdg/DesktopEntry.py", line 33, in __init__
    self.parse(filename)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/xdg/DesktopEntry.py", line 42, in parse
    IniFile.parse(self, file, ["Desktop Entry", "KDE Desktop Entry"])
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/xdg/IniFile.py", line 73, in parse
    key, value = line.split("=", 1)
ValueError: need more than 1 value to unpack