On Thursday, June 7, 2012, Brian Murray wrote:

> The change that fixed this bug was modified in the following merge with
> Debian:
>
> http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-
> branches/ubuntu/precise/apt/precise/revision/1.5.24
>
> which states:
>
> * apt-pkg/acquire-item.{cc,h}:
>  - do not check for a "Package" tag in optional index targets
>    like the translations index
>
> and we can see the code change at:
>
> http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-
> branches/ubuntu/precise/apt/precise/revision/1.5.24/apt-pkg/acquire-
> item.cc#apt-pkg/acquire-item.cc
>
> However it is not clear to me how optional and non-optional targets are
> defined and I wonder if these are not misdefined somehow.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to a
> duplicate bug report (783015).
> 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:
>  Triaged
> 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
> something like http://people.canonical.com/~brian/tmp/not-packages.html
>  3) Execute 'sudo apt-get update' in a terminal
>  4) Observe the following:
>  'E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
>   E: Problem with MergeList
> /var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_natty_main_binary-amd64_Packages
>   E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.'
>  5) Try 'apt-cache policy apt' and be sad that it doesn't work
>  6) run 'sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/*Packages' to clear the error.
>
>  With the proposed package installed repeat steps 1 to 3.
>  4) Observe the following:
>  ''Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com oneiric InRelease [189 B]
>  Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com oneiric InRelease
>  E: GPG error: http://archive.ubuntu.com oneiric InRelease: The following
> signatures were invalid: NODATA 1 NODATA 2'
>  5) Try 'apt-cache policy apt' and be happy that it works
>
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>