update-manager fails

[Edward Goldstick]

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/security.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_natty-security_universe_binary-i386_Packages, E:The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.'

lsb_release -rd -> Ubuntu 11.04

apt-cache policy update-manager -> E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/security.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_natty-security_universe_binary-i386_Packages
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

[William Ranvaud (wiranvaud)]

This issue was reported on ubuntuforums: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=863742

The solution was to type on terminal :

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

Many people are having this issue, have to manually type this to get it fixed.

[William Ranvaud (wiranvaud)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This particular bug has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug #346386, so it is being marked as such. Please look at the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug. Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Feel free to continue to report any other bugs you may find.

[Edward Goldstick (ejgoldstick)]

Hello,

I just got back to the machine that had this problem and that led me to submit bug #863742...

... so thanks for your pointer to #802061 within 48 hours. It seems to have worked just fine. I wish I had been able to dig it up myself but the process is rather convoluted (and while I'm an 'old' Unix user (fwiw, I remember System III), I am not experimenting with Ubuntu other than as aa definitive low-cost alternative to Windows XP...

I also thought I'd share this with the last person to post on this subject because you seem to have made the fix permanent...

... so thanks for that, too, but I must admit that I'm intrigued by the fact that I still get announcements. I may try to "unsubscribe" from the reports but am more curious by the long tail of issues that people experience.

In any event, keep up the good work. Thanks again.

Edward

First and foremost,

On Jun 26, 2011, at 1:58 PM, William Ranvaud wrote:

> This issue was reported on ubuntuforums:
> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=863742
>
> The solution was to type on terminal :
>
> sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/* -vf
> sudo apt-get update
>
> Many people are having this issue, have to manually type this to get it
> fixed.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/802061

On Jun 29, 2011, at 5:26 AM, papukaija wrote:

> @Heru: Please *STOP* changing the bug statuses. Thanks.
>
> @ubuntu-bugcontrol: Please set this bug back to 'Fix committed' as
> 0.8.13.2ubuntu4 is still in proposed. Thanks in advance.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to a
> duplicate bug report (802061).
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/346386
>
> Title:
> [MASTER] Update fails with invalid package files with "Encountered a
> section with no Package: header"
>
> Status in “apt” package in Ubuntu:
> Fix Released
> Status in “apt” source package in Natty:
> Fix Released
> Status in “apt” package in Debian:
> Fix Released
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: adept-updater
>
> Pertinent data printed when attempting to run Updater as follows:
>
> 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/us.archive.ubuntu
> .com_ubuntu_dists_intrepid_universe_binary-amd64_Packages, E:The
> package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.'
>
> WORKAROUND:
> Remove problematic files from /var/lib/apt/lists/ and rerun apt-get update.
>
> In the event that one is connected to a network with a proxy server
> that returns html pages (like a web page requesting you to login) and
> not package list files. Those html files will get downloaded to
> /var/lib/apt/lists/ and prevent someone from using a package manager
> until the problem html pages are removed.
>
> TEST CASE:
> 1) Ensure /etc/apt/sources.list points to archive.ubuntu.com
> 2) Setup proxy server to block access to archive.ubuntu.com and return s...