Problem opening synaptic

[Andrew Farris]

On Sun, 2009-08-02 at 23:32 +0100, Roger Futter wrote:
> As a newcomer to Linux this "old dog " has many new tricks to learn and
> I expect this will be the first of many.

Welcome! Glad you've found you're way here, but sorry you're having
trouble.

> When I try to open synaptic I get the following error message:-
> E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
> E: Problem with MergeList
> /var/lib/apt/lists/gb.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_jaunty-updates_restricted_binary-i386_Packages
> E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
> E: _cache->open() failed, please report.
> 
> Anyone with any idea how I should proceed?

I have honestly never heard of this issue before, but the file in
question seems to simply be a package list file, which has possibly
become corrupted somehow...

Easy solution: move/remove the offending file... this should cause apt
to notice the missing file next time you update your cache files, and
re-make it as a functional file.  

I experimented with it a bit on my computer, and couldn't get the error
message you're reporting to come up, but moving the file caused it to be
deleted, and a new one created in it's place.

Try this:
      * Open a Terminal "Applications > Accessories > Terminal"
      * type this in (everything in the double quotes is all one
        command): "sudo
        mv /var/lib/apt/lists/gb.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_jaunty-updates_restricted_binary-i386_Packages /var/lib/apt/lists/gb.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_jaunty-updates_restricted_binary-i386_Packages.backup1"
      * Then, run "sudo apt-get update" in the terminal (after the first
        thingy finishes). this one could take a little bit.. its
        basically forcing a package archive refresh, which in theory
        should rebuild the missing file. 
      * Try running synaptic again.

That should fix it!  Of course, if it doesn't, please post any errors
back here, and we'll see where we should proceed from then on.

Hope that helps!

-- 
Andrew
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