Update manager "Could not initialise the package information"

[hanx9999]

Ubuntu 11.10 with Gnome shell and i was just after adding the following repositories in Terminal and i noticed the source list would not update.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ricotz/testing

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/gnome3

On opening update-manager I got the following error message.

Could not initialise the package information

An unresolvable problem occurred while initialising the package information.

Please report this bug for the 'update-manager' package and try to include the following error message:

'W:Ignoring file 'getdeb.list.bck' in directory '/etc/apt/sources.list.d/' as it has an invalid filename extension, E:Type ‘//ppa.launchpad.net/gnome3-team/gnome3/ubuntu’ is not known on line 2 in source list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/gnome3-team-gnome3-oneiric.list, E:The list of sources could not be read., W:Ignoring file 'getdeb.list.bck' in directory '/etc/apt/sources.list.d/' as it has an invalid filename extension, W:Ignoring file 'getdeb.list.bck' in directory '/etc/apt/sources.list.d/' as it has an invalid filename extension, E:The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

[Paulo Edgar da Rocha Resende (paulinho-resende)]

I have a similar problem in Ubuntu 11.10

A red "no entry" icon stays permanently in my top bar.

Once I click on it, this message is shown: "a problem ocurred in verifying updates"

Them, it gives me few options to click: Show updates, install updates, verify updates, preferences.

Clicking in show updates will launch the update manager and the no entry icon will reappear after trying to retrive the packages.

Clicking in install updates or in verify updates, the same message will be shown:

 Fail to load package lists. this is a severe problem. Try again later. If the problem persists, please report a bug to the developers.

Details:
E:Type '<!DOCTYPE' is not known on line 1 in source list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

PS: Error messages were personally translated from portuguese.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[RyGuyS (savoya-ryan)]

Paulo's desctiption is exactly what I have been running into.
This started yesterday, after I installed, or tried to install "Privoxy".
I am still new to Ubuntu, but I have been able to solve all the other problems I ran into by checking blogs.
This is the first wall I have run into since a year ago when I switched from an operating system know as W...

Someone please point me in the right direction.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

The bug as it was originally reported by hanx9999 was about a malformed entry in a sources.list file this may have been created by add-apt-repository so I am moving the bug to the software-properties package which provides add-apt-repository.

The other issue adde by Paulo sounds like an incorretly formatted file for the medibuntu paa and that file should be deleted or fixed to be properly formatted.