apt becomes wedged, requiring shell script intervention, after using free cafe wifi connection
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
One Hundred Papercuts |
New
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned | ||
apt (Ubuntu) |
Opinion
|
Wishlist
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
Binary package hint: apt
As you know, many "hot spot" providers -- in this case a tea shop with free wifi -- have an obnoxious practice where when you first connect, all http requests are redirected to some pointless "click this button to connect to the internet!" page.
Apparently, update-manager or something decided to run an apt-get update while my wife's computer was connected to such a wifi network.
Now, there is an error pop up in her status bar saying:
E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
E: _cache->open() failed, please report.
and most apt-get/apt-cache commands error out as well. Examination of the above file in /var/lib/
That in itself is sort of fine... or at least there's nothing to be done, except beat up whoever designed these stupid routers. My objection is to the following:
njs@temeraire:~$ sudo apt-get update
[...]
Hit http://
[...]
Reading package lists... Error!
E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
Expected result: running 'apt-get update' should re-download the offending file, allowing the system to heal by itself.
Actual result: 'apt-get update' has no effect; unwedging the system requires deleting the offending file by hand, and then running 'apt-get update' again.
This is on jaunty, with apt version 0.7.20.2ubuntu6
Changed in apt (Ubuntu): | |
status: | New → Opinion |
importance: | Undecided → Wishlist |
Have you tried running 'apt-get clean' to fix the situation?