Entry 60 error, software updater failed; can't find file /etc/apt/sources.list

[Gene Heskett]

On Sunday 05 August 2018 03:56:36 Colin Law wrote:

> On 4 August 2018 at 22:50, Gene Heskett <gheskett at shentel.net> wrote:
> > ...
> > If gedit was used on that file before, all bets are off and it may
> > contain most anything but a valid sources.list now. I've had that
> > happen too many times Colin, and nuked gedit from all my systems
> > going on about 2 years ago now.  Neither nano, nor geany (needs X) 
> > has ever trashed a file. 60 lines is in fact a possibility, but the
> > usual install is less than 20, and this user is not a "power" user,
> > so 60 lines also raised a red flag for me.
>
> I have never had any problems with gedit, though one must never use it
> with sudo of course, being a graphical app.  The default sources.list
> on 18.04 has 51 lines so where your 'less than 20' comes from I don't
> know.  The guy followed some duff instructions on how to install
> something I believe and that is how it got messed up.
>
> Colin

Well, TBT, I am used to debian now, and the typical sources.list is 
shorter.

But I'll stand by my comments on gedit. We have, quite often after we 
have made a very basic .hal file to configure a cnc machine, but the 
fawncier stuffs we have to add by hand, and the 3rd time it took a 700 
LOC file and made 1700 lines of nonsensical trash that would not parse 
in the interpretor was the back breaker for me, it likes to pick up 30 
lines of random code that didn't start or end with a linefeed, and 
insert it midline at random earlier locations in the code, random 
numbers of times. Regenerating 700 LOC entirely from memory is painfull 
enough and it appeared I had better find a new editor, which in my case 
was geany. Which has so far behaved itself perfectly. If gedit hasn't 
bitten you yet, feel blessed.


-- 
Cheers, Gene Heskett
--
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>