[Bug 898758] Re: update-manager crashes; problem with merge list

[Eric Ongerth]

Attaching the "merge file" that was reported in the error message:
/var/lib/apt/lists/us.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_oneiric_universe_binary-i386_Packages
just in case that helps.

Happy to attach others if requested, sorry my attempt to upload the apt
logs etc. failed before.

** Attachment added: "us.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_oneiric_universe_binary-i386_Packages"
   https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-manager/+bug/898758/+attachment/2615018/+files/us.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_oneiric_universe_binary-i386_Packages

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/898758

Title:
  update-manager crashes; problem with merge list

Status in “update-manager” package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  I'm fairly close to a noob on this, so I'm just reporting exactly what
  the error window says:

  <quote>
  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/us.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_oneiric_universe_binary-i386_Packages, E:The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.'
  </quote>

  So I'm stuck with a system that cannot update itself.  Running the
  command "sudo apt-get update" from the terminal causes the following
  error:

  <quote>
  Reading package lists... Error!
  E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
  E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/us.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_oneiric_universe_binary-i386_Packages
  E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
  </quote>

  Should I wait for a bug fix, or should I completely reinstall Ubuntu?

  This is a system where the initial install was 11.04 and then I
  allowed the upgrade to 11.10.  That was a month ago and it has been
  running OK until this error that first occurred today.  The only
  recent activity that I imagine might be connected to this is, I
  recently ran the "Janitor" utility to try to improve boot and shutdown
  performance.  It did result in an improvement.  That is the first time
  I've ever run that utility.  I ran it two or three times until it
  found nothing else to remove.  That was several days ago, and the
  system worked OK since then, but maybe there was already a problem
  with update-manager after I ran the Janitor util.

  Attached is the contents of /var/log/dist-upgrade in a single file, "bugfiles" which was created with:
  tar -cvz --file bugfiles /var/log/dist-upgrade/*

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