update-manager crashes when trying to Search for Updates in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

[Scott T Rogers]

When attempting to retrieve updates for UBuntu 12.04, I received the following error:

'E:Encountered a section with no Package: header, E:Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/archive.canonical.com_ubuntu_dists_precise_partner_binary-i386_Packages, E:The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.'

I restarted the computer, but the bug still occurs.

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Reviewing your bug report it seems that you are experiencing bug 346386. This issue happens when you have tried to update your package information when you are a network that didn't return the right files. This issue can be cleaned up by using the following commands in a terminal:

1.) sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/*
2.) sudo apt-get update

Thanks and good luck!

[This is an automated message. I apologize if it reached you inappropriately; please reopen the bug task if it was incorrect.]

[Scott T Rogers (scott-t-rogers)]

I did as suggested in the previous comment. Specifically, I opened an instance of terminal and did the following:

1.) sudo rm -r /var/lib/apt/lists/*
2.) sudo apt-get update

However, I got the following error messages in Terminal:
-------------------------
W: GPG error: http://archive.canonical.com precise InRelease: File /var/lib/apt/lists/partial/archive.canonical.com_ubuntu_dists_precise_InRelease doesn't start with a clearsigned message
W: Failed to fetch gzip:/var/lib/apt/lists/partial/archive.canonical.com_ubuntu_dists_precise_partner_source_Sources Encountered a section with no Package: header

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/dists/precise/partner/i18n/Index No Hash entry in Release file /var/lib/apt/lists/partial/archive.canonical.com_ubuntu_dists_precise_partner_i18n_Index

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

When I run the update-manager from the top bar, I get the following popup:
------------------------
Could not initialize the package information

An unresolvable problem occurred while initializing the package information.

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

'E:Encountered a section with no Package: header, E:Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/archive.canonical.com_ubuntu_dists_precise_partner_binary-amd64_Packages, E:The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.'
------------------------

[Scott T Rogers (scott-t-rogers)]

Doing:
1.) sudo rm -r /var/lib/apt/lists/*
2.) sudo apt-get update
as suggested above, alone, did not work.

I foundthat adding the following BEFORE the above 2 terminal commands DOES act as a workaround:
sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/archive.canonical.com_ubuntu_dists_precise_partner_binary-i386_Packages

[Scott T Rogers (scott-t-rogers)]

I would like to add that this happens every 2-3 days to me. This is absolutely ridiculous!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Kelly Craft (scarab96)]

The first comment fixed the problem for me.

[Scott T Rogers (scott-t-rogers)]

This is STILL happening to me approximately every week. Still haven't figured out why it happens.

This is my work around:

1) sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/archive.canonical.com_ubuntu_dists_precise_partner_binary-i386_Packages
2) sudo rm -r /var/lib/apt/lists/*
3) sudo apt-get update

Unfortuanately, it _does not_ prevent it from happening again.