Comment 1 for bug 113704

I also get the following error, while trying to add/remove programs.

"Failed to check for installed and available applications

This is a major failure of your software management system. Please check for broken packages with synaptic, check the file permissions and correctness of the file '/etc/apt/sources.list' and reload the software information with: 'sudo apt-get update' and 'sudo apt-get install -f'."

I haven't touched source.list, and when i run sudo apt-get update I get the following error:

"Reading package lists... Error!
E: Problem parsing dependency Depends
E: Error occurred while processing gaim (NewVersion1)
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/dpkg/status
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened."