[Bug 346386] Re: [MASTER] Update fails with invalid package files with "Encountered a section with no Package: header"

[Vladimir Dergachev]

I have just been bitten by this myself. After some poking around I
realized what happened - I was connected to hotel's wireless which has
one of these DNS redirect paywalls.  The package manager tried to
download the package lists before the connection was unauthorized and
got copies of the paywall page which apt choked on.

There needs to be a check that a downloaded package list is actually a
package list.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/346386

Title:
  [MASTER] Update fails with invalid package files with "Encountered a
  section with no Package: header"

Status in “apt” package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged
Status in “apt” package in Debian:
  Fix Released

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: adept-updater

  Pertinent data printed when attempting to run Updater as follows:

  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_intrepid_universe_binary-amd64_Packages, E:The
  package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.'

  Ubuntu 8.10

  Need workaround to permit updating - usual apt-get commands (clean,
  update) haven't worked; message as follows:

  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_intrepid_universe_binary-amd64_Packages
  E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.