Unable to find expected entry web/binary-i386/Packages in Meta-index file (malformed Release file?)

[Jarno Suni]

I am using Xubuntu 7.10. I don't know anything about "web" repository but it is included in my /etc/apt/sources.list.

sudo apt-get update gives:

Get:1 http://packages.medibuntu.org gutsy Release.gpg [189B]
Get:2 http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy Release.gpg [191B]
Ign http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign http://packages.medibuntu.org gutsy/free Translation-en_US
Ign http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy/web Translation-en_US
Get:3 http://archive.canonical.com gutsy Release.gpg [191B]
Ign http://archive.canonical.com gutsy/partner Translation-en_US
Get:4 http://www.claws-mail.org ./ Release.gpg [189B]
Ign http://www.claws-mail.org ./ Translation-en_US
Ign http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy/universe Translation-en_US
Ign http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy/multiverse Translation-en_US
Get:5 http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-updates Release.gpg [191B]
Ign http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-updates/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://packages.medibuntu.org gutsy/non-free Translation-en_US
Hit http://packages.medibuntu.org gutsy Release
Ign http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-updates/restricted Translation-en_US
Hit http://archive.canonical.com gutsy Release
Ign http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-updates/web Translation-en_US
Hit http://www.claws-mail.org ./ Release
Ign http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-updates/universe Translation-en_US
Ign http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-updates/multiverse Translation-en_US
Get:6 http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-backports Release.gpg [191B]
Ign http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-backports/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-backports/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-backports/universe Translation-en_US
Ign http://packages.medibuntu.org gutsy/free Packages
Hit http://archive.canonical.com gutsy/partner Packages
Ign http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-backports/multiverse Translation-en_US
Ign http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-backports/web Translation-en_US
Get:7 http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-security Release.gpg [191B]
Ign http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-security/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-security/restricted Translation-en_US
Hit http://www.claws-mail.org ./ Packages
Ign http://packages.medibuntu.org gutsy/non-free Packages
Ign http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-security/web Translation-en_US
Ign http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-security/universe Translation-en_US
Ign http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-security/multiverse Translation-en_US
Get:8 http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-proposed Release.gpg [191B]
Ign http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-proposed/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-proposed/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-proposed/multiverse Translation-en_US
Ign http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-proposed/universe Translation-en_US
Ign http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-proposed/web Translation-en_US
Hit http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy Release
Hit http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-updates Release
Hit http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-backports Release
Hit http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-security Release
Hit http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-proposed Release
Hit http://packages.medibuntu.org gutsy/free Packages
Hit http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy/main Sources
Hit http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy/restricted Sources
Hit http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy/main Packages
Hit http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy/restricted Packages
Hit http://packages.medibuntu.org gutsy/non-free Packages
Hit http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-updates/main Packages
Hit http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-updates/restricted Packages
Hit http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-backports/main Packages
Hit http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-backports/restricted Packages
Hit http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-backports/universe Packages
Hit http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-backports/multiverse Packages
Hit http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-security/main Packages
Hit http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-security/restricted Packages
Hit http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-proposed/restricted Packages
Hit http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-proposed/main Packages
Hit http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-proposed/multiverse Packages
Hit http://www.nic.funet.fi gutsy-proposed/universe Packages
Fetched 8B in 2s (3B/s)
Failed to fetch http://www.nic.funet.fi/pub/mirrors/archive.ubuntu.com/dists/gutsy/Release Unable to find expected entry web/binary-i386/Packages in Meta-index file (malformed Release file?)
Failed to fetch http://www.nic.funet.fi/pub/mirrors/archive.ubuntu.com/dists/gutsy-updates/Release Unable to find expected entry web/binary-i386/Packages in Meta-index file (malformed Release file?)
Failed to fetch http://www.nic.funet.fi/pub/mirrors/archive.ubuntu.com/dists/gutsy-backports/Release Unable to find expected entry web/binary-i386/Packages in Meta-index file (malformed Release file?)
Failed to fetch http://www.nic.funet.fi/pub/mirrors/archive.ubuntu.com/dists/gutsy-security/Release Unable to find expected entry web/binary-i386/Packages in Meta-index file (malformed Release file?)
Failed to fetch http://www.nic.funet.fi/pub/mirrors/archive.ubuntu.com/dists/gutsy-proposed/Release Unable to find expected entry web/binary-i386/Packages in Meta-index file (malformed Release file?)
Reading package lists... Done
E: Some index files failed to download, they have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

[Jarno Suni (jarnos)]

I removed the occurences of "web" in sources.list and now "sudo apt-get update" works without failure. Am I missing something?

[Yannis Tsop (ogiannhs)]

The same happens to me! I manually removed "web" repo and now there are no errors.

[Pascal De Vuyst (pascal-devuyst)]

There is no web component, any idea how this got into your sources.list?

[Jarno Suni (jarnos)]

Same problem in Xubuntu 8.04

$ sudo apt-get update
Hit http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com hardy Release.gpg
Ign http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/web Translation-en_US
Ign http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/universe Translation-en_US
Ign http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/multiverse Translation-en_US
Hit http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates Release.gpg
Ign http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates/web Translation-en_US
Ign http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates/universe Translation-en_US
Ign http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates/multiverse Translation-en_US
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security Release.gpg
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security/main Translation-en_US
Hit http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com hardy Release
Hit http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates Release
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security/web Translation-en_US
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security/universe Translation-en_US
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security/multiverse Translation-en_US
Hit http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/main Packages
Hit http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/restricted Packages
Hit http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates/main Packages
Hit http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates/restricted Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security Release
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security/main Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security/restricted Packages
W: Failed to fetch http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/hardy/Release Unable to find expected entry web/binary-i386/Packages in Meta-index file (malformed Release file?)

W: Failed to fetch http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/hardy-updates/Release Unable to find expected entry web/binary-i386/Packages in Meta-index file (malformed Release file?)

W: Failed to fetch http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/hardy-security/Release Unable to find expected entry web/binary-i386/Packages in Meta-index file (malformed Release file?)

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

[Jarno Suni (jarnos)]

I marked this as security vulnerability since it prevents me from getting updates unless I remove 'web' entries in sources.list.

[William Grant (wgrant)]

After a lengthy discussion in #ubuntu-bugs this evening, I tracked this down to ubufox. It was only triggered it one case - installing totem-mozilla with ubufox (the Ubuntu Firefox plugin finder). As Xubuntu is the only derivative that doesn't have either both or neither of ubufox and totem-mozilla, it should only have been commonly triggered on Xubuntu systems.

I have notified asac and submitted a patch. This can no longer affect new systems. Thanks must go to kahrytan for bringing the issue up!

As for existing affected systems, we unfortunately cannot do much. Resolution is as simple as removing 'web' from /etc/apt/sources.list, but it is impossible to do that automatically, both for policy and technical reasons. We could fix it with an update, except that the entire problem is that it breaks updates.

[Jarno Suni (jarnos)]

Good that the bug has been located. I think it is good to fix it in update, since not everybody has installed totem-mozilla with ubufox, but somebody may install it later.

I wonder why this is marked as duplicate of Bug #228264, even if this was reported earlier.