Unable to open package manager (SOLVED)

Linux Support
1

Hi guys

recently I installed Peppermint 5 to a friends Compaq Presario CQ56 laptop and he’s having problems writing to a pen drive, so I tried to install gparted and I get this error when I try to open Synaptic Package Manager

E: Encountered a section with no Package: header E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/extras.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_trusty_main_i18n_Translation-en E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened. E: _cache->open() failed, please report.

running an update from the terminal ends with the same error message

any help or advice would be much appreciated

Graeme

2

Can you post up the contents of /etc/apt/sources.list ?

3
# deb cdrom:[Peppermint 5 _Five_ - Release amd64 (20140617.2)]/ trusty main multiverse restricted universe

See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to

newer versions of the distribution.

deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty main restricted
deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty main restricted

Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the

distribution.

deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates main restricted
deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates main restricted

N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu

team. Also, please note that software in universe WILL NOT receive any

review or updates from the Ubuntu security team.

deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty universe
deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty universe
deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates universe
deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates universe

N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu

team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to

your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in

multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu

security team.

deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty multiverse
deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty multiverse
deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates multiverse
deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates multiverse

N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as

extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes

newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.

Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review

or updates from the Ubuntu security team.

deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-backports main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty-security main restricted
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty-security main restricted
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty-security universe
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty-security universe
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty-security multiverse
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty-security multiverse

Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical’s

‘partner’ repository.

This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by Canonical and the

respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu users.

deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu trusty partner

deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu trusty partner

This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by third-party

developers who want to ship their latest software.

deb http://extras.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty main
deb-src http://extras.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty main

4

Try this…

Clean any stored packages:

sudo apt-get clean

then move the package cache lists:

sudo mv -v /var/lib/apt/lists /var/lib/apt/lists-broken

then reacreate the directories for the new package cache lists:

sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/apt/lists/partial

then refresh the package cache lists:

sudo apt-get update

then just in case you have any half installed packages:

sudo apt-get -f install

if there were no errors … try opening your package manager now.

–

5

Thank you Mark that fixed it, I’ll mark this solved, but just out of curiosity what actually went wrong and why ?

Many thanks

Graeme

6

One of the package cache lists at
/var/lib/apt/lists
became corrupted … so when running apt-get update it couldn’t update the stored list of packages for a repository

Or in technical terms - Your computer busterated itself :slight_smile:

As for “why”, you’ll have to ask the computer gods.