Ubuntu

Package Manager error message (in Hardy 8.04)

Asked by Strelz

I'm very, very new to Linux (ubuntu 8.04) and I really need help.... In plain English please.
After the installation everything was working fine until I tried to install Mplayer + codecs, I guess I messed up the command since I couldn't install it and since then I get the following error message window when I try to update, open the synaptic package manager or the update manager:

E: Type 'wget' is not known on line 71 in source list /etc/apt/sources.list
E: The list of sources could not be read.
Go to the repository dialog to correct the problem.
E: _cache->open() failed, please report.

Any input would be welcome.
Thanx

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Strelz (al-strelzoff) said : 		#1

And also, when I try to use Gaim to get on IRC chat to talk about this, I get a "SNAC" error.

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Ralph Janke (txwikinger) said : 		#2

Thanks for the question.

You have to open a commandline terminal like Konsole and execute

sudo dpkg configure -a

if this finishes without errors you are fine and can use your package manager again.

I hope this helps.

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Ralph Janke (txwikinger) said : 		#3

Sorry... obviously it needs to be

sudo dpkg --configure -a

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Best Strelz (al-strelzoff) said : 		#4

This solved the problem, but I thought you might to see the message I got:

oem@ubuntu:~$ sudo dpkg --configure -a
Setting up sun-java6-doc (6-00-2ubuntu2) ...
This package is an installer package, it does not actually contain the
JDK documentation. You will need to go download one of the
archives:

    jdk-6-doc.zip jdk-6-doc-ja.zip

(choose the non-update version if this is the first installation).
Please visit

    http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/

now and download. The file should be owned by root.root and be copied
to /tmp.

[Press RETURN to try again, 'no' + RETURN to abort]

Previously, I had not issued the 'no' + return command here. I just closed the window. Clearly, this left package manager in a bad state. When I followed your advice, I got the above message and issued the command above. Sol I won't do that again.

As an aside, I think this indicates some kind of problem with the download of Netbeans 5.5. Perhaps some kind of warning right on the Sun web page or on the Ubuntu annoucement that drew me to it would be in order. If there is something more that I could do to help fix this problem I would be glad to do it.

I very much appreciate your very prompt response.

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Strelz (al-strelzoff) said : 		#5

Just an additional thought: I would suggest that the developers look at the window closing event and ensure that it cleans up in case it was an abort.

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Strelz (al-strelzoff) said : 		#6

In case anyone else has the same problem I did with downloading Netbeans 5.5 with Synpatic Package Manager, it can be cleaned up but removing Netbeans 5.5 with SPM. If you don't remove it, it keeps trying to install the doc package everytime you install anything. The other mistake I made is not downloading the jdk doc package and unzipping it first before installing Netbeans. After all this effort, I am not sure it is not easier to just download the whole Sun package without SPM and just let it self install. It seems a little strange to me that Sun does not seem to supply a package that can install easily with Ubuntu's package manager, especially after the joint announcement on the Ubuntu and Sun web page.

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Rev. X (ctmann) said : 		#7

The solution worked for me as well, after I attempted to install sun-java6 files using synaptic.

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CartoonManX (tonyyo) said : 		#8

I did
dpkg --configure -a,
but it gave me:
dpkg: requested operation requires superuser privilege

What do I do?

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CartoonManX (tonyyo) said : 		#9

never mind! fixed it!

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Alter (dadacdubbz22) said : 		#10

Thanx a lot, I was getting scared, I just typed

sudo dpkg --configure -a

and it worked again.

Thx again.