Ubuntu
apt package

Could not initialize the package information

Asked by Ishan A B Ambanwela

synaptic package manager, update manager and when
apt-get update
and
apt-get update -f

returns following error massage(ubuntu version 11.04)

An unresolvable problem occurred while initializing the package information.

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

'E:Encountered a section with no Package: header, E:Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.schoolnet.lk_ubuntu_dists_natty-updates_main_binary-amd64_Packages, E:The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.'

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Solved by:
wojox
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Best wojox (wojox) said : 		#1

Run these two commands:

sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/* -vf
sudo apt-get update

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Ishan A B Ambanwela (ishanaba) said : 		#2

Thanks wojox, that solved my question.

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Ishan A B Ambanwela (ishanaba) said : 		#3

really i was afraid to delete lists before, i thought it would cause my system unstable.
thanks now iḿ done

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Kayode Odusote (odusote-kayode) said : 		#4

Had a similar but slightly different problem:

'E:Encountered a section with no Package: header, E:Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/archive.canonical.com_ubuntu_dists_natty_partner_binary-i386_Packages, E:The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.'

However wojox proposition worked with minor modification:

1. Had to use "sudo rm -R /var/lib/apt/lists/* -vf" to remove /var/lib/apt/lists/partial

2. Had to run "sudo apt-get update" twice to complete the update without any error.

Thanks wojox.