update error with 12.04

[blind Pete]

rikona wrote:

> Hello Nils,
> 
> Sunday, June 8, 2014, 12:32:07 PM, Nils wrote:
> 
>> rikona wrote:
>>> Just tried an update. The GUI comes up only with a new boot [an old
>>> problem on this box] but exits without doing anything.
>>> 
>>> CLI with 'apt-get update' gets almost all the way through, but ends
>>> with:
>>> 
>>> -------
>>> 
>>> Get:81 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com precise-backports/universe
>>> Translation-en [32.9 kB]
>>> Ign http://www.mediahuman.com precise/main TranslationIndex
>>> Ign http://www.mediahuman.com precise/main Translation-en_US
>>> Ign http://www.mediahuman.com precise/main Translation-en
>>> Fetched 27.7 MB in 3min 17s (140 kB/s)
>>> 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_precise-
>>> updates_restricted_i18n_Translation-en
> 
>> You can remove the above mentioned file (as root) and run apt-get update
>> again. That should fix the problem.
> 
> Thanks for the suggestion! It did take care of that one file, but then
> complained about another one. I removed that one, and it complained
> about yet another one. After repeating this many times it was finally
> happy. Side note - the GUI exits until all the files are fixed.
> 
> Is there a way to ID all the bad files and remove them, then just run
> once? What happened to make them bad files?

Lots of things.  One of them is zero length files.  "ls -lS", that is 
a capital "S", to find those.  

> I appreciate the help - thanks...
> 
>  rikona

-- 
blind Pete
Sig goes here...