[Bug 756317] Re: Captive portals may corrupt apt package lists

[Monsta]

Of course this is not fixed anywhere.

E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/security.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_saucy-security_main_i18n_Translation-en
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
E: _cache->open() failed, please report.

APT cannot recover from it automatically, and that is the serious
problem for the unsuspecting users: they have no idea that they need to
remove /var/lib/apt/lists/* manually and then update the package index
to make APT work again.

This problem happens so often these days that the Linux Mint developers
even had to add the "Fix MergeList problem" button to their software
sources management tool.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/756317

Title:
  Captive portals may corrupt apt package lists

Status in “apt” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in “apt” package in Debian:
  New

Bug description:
  I have an adsl modem which returns an html page if the adsl link is
  broken. This page ends as the content of the apt cache files stored in
  /var/lib/apt/lists, which breaks apt.

  The only way to make apt work again is to delete all the files stored
  in /var/lib/apt/lists.

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