apt-get fails: package index files are corrupted

[vMeson]

Binary package hint: apt

This is for feisty...
cat /etc/debian_version
4.0

macleodr@dingus:~$ dpkg -l apt
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed
|/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Description
+++-=========================-=========================-==================================================================
ii apt 0.6.46.4ubuntu10 Advanced front-end for dpkg

macleodr@dingus:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
  at-spi bug-buddy deskbar-applet eog evince evolution evolution-common evolution-data-server evolution-data-server-common
  evolution-exchange evolution-plugins file-roller foomatic-db gnome-accessibility-themes gnome-doc-utils gnome-keyring
  gnome-orca gnome-panel gnome-panel-data gnome-system-monitor gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-user-guide
  gnome-utils gtkhtml3.14 human-icon-theme hwdb-client-common hwdb-client-gnome libatspi1.0-0 libcamel1.2-10 libebook1.2-9
  libecal1.2-7 libedata-book1.2-2 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libedataserverui1.2-8 libegroupwise1.2-13
  libexchange-storage1.2-3 libgnome-keyring0 libgnome-speech3 libgnomekbd-common libgnomekbd1 libgnomekbdui1
  libgtkhtml3.14-19 libmetacity0 libnautilus-burn4 libpanel-applet2-0 linux-restricted-modules-2.6.20-14-386
  linux-restricted-modules-common metacity metacity-common nautilus-cd-burner openprinting-ppds python-orca-brlapi
  restricted-manager update-notifier usplash-theme-ubuntu vino yelp
59 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
E: The package index files are corrupted. No Filename: field for package human-icon-theme.

macleodr@dingus:~$ dpkg -l human-icon-theme
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed
|/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Description
+++-=========================-=========================-==================================================================
ii human-icon-theme 0.15-0ubuntu1 Human Icon theme

This has happened twice now. The first time I "fixed it" by doing
$ sudo dselect update

This time, that command doesn't help.
I did a bunch of googling but this doesn't seem to be a common issue.
Help!

// Randy MacLeod

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

Thanks for your bugreport.

Please attach your /etc/apt/sources.list and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ files.

[vMeson (rwmacleod)]

The problem has gone away for now.
Perhaps the apt repository that I'm using isn't being atomically updated?

All I've done is:
sudo apt-get update # serveral times
sudo apt-get check
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

So should the bug get closed or do we wait for a few days to see if the problem comes back?

// Randy

[vMeson (rwmacleod)]

The problem has returned.

I've cleaned up my sources.list file - see attached.
See log below.

Is this a common problem?

// Randy

macleodr@dingus:~$ sudo apt-get clean
macleodr@dingus:~$ sudo apt-get update
Get:1 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com feisty Release.gpg [191B]
Get:2 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com feisty-updates Release.gpg [191B]
Get:3 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com edgy Release.gpg [191B]
Get:4 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com edgy-updates Release.gpg [191B]
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com feisty Release
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com feisty-updates Release
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com edgy Release
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com edgy-updates Release
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com feisty/main Packages
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com feisty/restricted Packages
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com feisty/main Sources
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com feisty/restricted Sources
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com feisty/universe Packages
Get:5 http://security.ubuntu.com feisty-security Release.gpg [191B]
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com feisty/universe Sources
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com feisty-updates/main Packages
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com feisty-updates/restricted Packages
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com feisty-updates/main Sources
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com feisty-updates/restricted Sources
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com edgy/universe Packages
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com edgy-updates/universe Packages
Get:6 http://security.ubuntu.com edgy-security Release.gpg [191B]
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com feisty-security Release
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com edgy-security Release
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com feisty-security/main Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com feisty-security/restricted Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com feisty-security/main Sources
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com feisty-security/restricted Sources
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com edgy-security/universe Packages
Fetched 6B in 1s (5B/s)
Reading package lists... Done

macleodr@dingus:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
  base-files doc-debian gnome-panel gnome-panel-data gnome-power-manager hwdb-client-common
  hwdb-client-gnome launchpad-integration liblaunchpad-integration0 liblpint-bonobo0 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0
  libpanel-applet2-0 linux-restricted-modules-2.6.20-14-386 linux-restricted-modules-common network-manager
  network-manager-gnome python-launchpad-integration restricted-manager
19 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
E: The package index files are corrupted. No Filename: field for package doc-debian.
macleodr@dingus:~$ date
Thu Apr 12 09:57:17 EDT 2007

[vMeson (rwmacleod)]

Here's a work around.
Let's say you try to apt-get upgrade and get the error message:
E: The package index files are corrupted. No Filename: field for package doc-debian.

Just,
sudo apt-get remove doc-debian
sudo apt-get upgrade

Not the upgrade works but

sudo apt-get install doc-debian
...
E: The package index files are corrupted. No Filename: field for package doc-debian.

still fails.

Is this new to anyone?

// Randy

[Nils Adermann (naderman)]

I've had the same problem and was able to solve it by removing all files in /var/lib/apt then running aptitude update and aptitude dist-upgrade and then the error was gone.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for apt (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Alberto González Palomo (matmota)]

I just had this problem. In my case, the exact error message was "E: The package index files are corrupted. No Filename: field for package tzdata.".
I found a solution. Details follow.

Previous to that, I got the following problems:
-------------------------------------
Get:10 http://es.archive.ubuntu.com lucid-updates/universe Sources [37,0kB]
99% [10 Sources bzip2 0B] [Waiting for headers]
bzip2: Data integrity error when decompressing.
 Input file = (stdin), output file = (stdout)

It is possible that the compressed file(s) have become corrupted.
You can use the -tvv option to test integrity of such files.

You can use the `bzip2recover' program to attempt to recover
data from undamaged sections of corrupted files.

Err http://es.archive.ubuntu.com lucid-updates/universe Sources
  Sub-process /bin/bzip2 returned an error code (2)
-------------------------------------

and:

-------------------------------------
W: GPG error: http://es.archive.ubuntu.com lucid-updates Release: The following signatures were invalid: BADSIG 40976EAF437D05B5 Ubuntu Archive Automatic Signing Key <email address hidden>
W: Failed to fetch http://es.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/lucid-updates/universe/source/Sources.bz2 Sub-process /bin/bzip2 returned an error code (2)

E: Some index files failed to download, they have been ignored, or old ones used instead.
-------------------------------------

It seems that the package index file gets truncated.
Trying to use the update manager fails silently when I click on "install updates".

The way I found to solve it is first find the truncated files:

egrep 'Package: tzdata|Filename: .*tzdata' /var/lib/apt/lists/ -r

This will list both a "Package:" line and a "Filename:" line if the file is correct.
Replace "tzdata" with whatever package name you get in the error message.

Then I removed those files that only have the "Package:" line.
In my case, those were:

sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/es.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_lucid_main_source_Sources
sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/es.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_lucid-updates_restricted_binary-amd64_Packages

After this both apt and update manager work.