Ubuntu

how to repair update and synoptic manager, get msg deb is not known on line 48

Asked by Mic Stone

If I try to use either the Update Manager or the Synoptic Package Manager, I get an immediate and fatal error message which prevents any activity on updates or installs.
"Could not initialize the package information

A unresolvable problem occurred while initializing the package information.

Please report this bug against the 'update-manager' package and include the following error message:

'E:Type '“deb' is not known on line 48 in source list /etc/apt/sources.list, E:The list of sources could not be read.'"

Is there a repair or update function, or do I reinstall Feisty Fawn and lose all my settings from the last few weeks?
Michael

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Mic Stone
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Christoph Langner (chrissss) said : 		#1

No, don't reinstall ubuntu, just because something is wrong. This is a old windows habit, which you shouldn't do with linux. Usually you can "repair" everything. The error message says you've got an error on line 48 inside the file /etc/apt/sources.list which is quite important for the package management. So show us this file :) You don't have to post the complete file just the lines 45 to 50.

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Best Mic Stone (mic1940) said : 		#2

Christoph, thank you. I didn't reinstall Feisty Fawn. Good to know Linux is repairable, much unlike Windows.
What I did was tinkered with the settings or reload of repositories, frankly I don't remember what I did (new to Linux). Then after a couple of restarts, suddenly the problem was no longer there and it is now working normally, I can download packages and install updates. Wish I could remember what I did though, for next time, and also I can't send those lines anymore from the sources.lst, as they are no longer erroneous, or are not there... I don't see line 48 at all, I think I managed somehow to delete them. The problem may have originated when I tried to install wine and automatix2, so for now I shall leave automatix2 uninstalled, even though the "automatic" part sounds attractive. However, I am managing OK with Searches and stuff, though I am still getting some file retreive errors from: deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ feisty-updates multiverse universe, or one of the others like that. I still don't have Google Talk, Skype and VoipDiscount working, I suppose they have not written Linux versions yet. Also a couple of sites, including that of an online bank account are explicitely made for Windows IE, so they refuse to connect. These are the few reasons why I still must keep Vista on my system. Maybe by next year things will work out for these issues as well, hopefully.
Mic

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Reasoner (lnchpd-reasoner) said : 		#3

>Also a couple of sites, including that of an online bank account are explicitely made for Windows IE, so they refuse to connect.

Try changing your user agent to make Firefox pretend to be IE.