Could Not Initialize Package the Information

[Christopher]

Binary package hint: update-manager

Trying to update Natty Classic produced this output:

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/ca.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_natty_main_binary-i386_Packages, E:The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.'

It doesn't matter if I use the update-manager, terminal or synaptics, the result is the same.

[RedSingularity (redsingularity)]

Try running the following and see if it clears up the problem:

sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/ca.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_natty_main_binary-i386_Packages

[Christopher (soft-kristal)]

I tried a couple of times, but the error is precisely the same.

I also have Natty running on my test partition, but it seems to have escaped from the bug.

[RedSingularity (redsingularity)]

Ok, now try:

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

[Christopher (soft-kristal)]

Thanks - that did the trick.

It's my old laptop, but I wanted it to be in tip-top condition before giving it to a friend.

[RedSingularity (redsingularity)]

Well this is actually a duplicate of bug 346386. Marking.