Comment 9 for bug 988841

I ran into that problem too. I opened up a terminal and ran the following
command:

     sudo nautilus /var/lib/apt/lists/

That will open up the folder containing all of the files that need to be
changed as root in nautilus. As root you can double-click on a file to
edit it, or for some it may be necessary to right-click and select Open
With Other Application... and then choose the text editor you want to use
to delete the contents of all of the files--I used gedit b/c its simple and
it works.

i hope that helps! If it doesn't I will try to help you further if I can.

On Tue, May 1, 2012 at 10:33 AM, Michael Crane <email address hidden>wrote:

> I ran into the exact same problem, after my computer connected to wifi
> at a hotel, but I had not logged in yet. I was connected, but there was
> no internet connection. The first page in any browser is automatically
> rerouted by the server to the login screen.
>
> I hope that this does not happen every time I'm at a hotel, but the
> bigger issue that I have is that I am unable to edit the files as
> described above. I am told that I do not own the files, and I am unable
> to change the permissions on them. Am I doing something wrong?
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/988841
>
> Title:
> cannot use update manager
>
> Status in “update-manager” package in Ubuntu:
> Incomplete
>
> Bug description:
> whenever I open update-manager now, I get this message:
>
> E:Encountered a section with no Package: header, E:Problem with
> MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/us.archive.ubuntu
> .com_ubuntu_dists_precise_main_binary-i386_Packages, E:The package
> lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
>
> This happened just after I told the program to check for updates. I
> am at school and they have a filter program that blocks us (the
> students) from getting online without logging on first. I forgot that
> I had to log on first because I opened update-manager before I opened
> my browser (where the username and password is prompted upon initial
> attempt to visit a webpage).
>
> First thing, I opened update manager, and checked for updates. it
> told me to check my internet connection; that was when I realized that
> I had forgotten to log in. So, I opened my browser and typed in my
> username and password and then got on to google just fine. Then, I
> tried to update again, and almost immediately, I presented with the
> error message I mentioned before.
>
> I marked this as a security vulnerability because I think that it
> might be, since I cannot receive any updates anymore.
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-manager/+bug/988841/+subscriptions
>

--
Jackson Lawler