Ubuntu
update-manager package

I think I unistalled, or installed the wrong software, and can't reinstall Ubuntu 11.04

Asked by Nicky Valentine

I think I installed the wrong software, or uninstalled something I shouldn't.
My software center doesnt load any apps, and my update manager gives me an error message.

Namely;

"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/us.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_natty_main_binary-i386_Packages, E:The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.'"

I figured reinstalling Ubuntu would help, I have all my documents backed up, I just cannot get it to reinstall.

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Ubuntu update-manager Edit question
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Solved by:
Ian Ace
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Best Ian Ace (iaculallad) said : 		#1

No need to do Ubuntu re-installation. Open your Terminal and perform the following commands below one at a time:

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

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

HTH.

Revision history for this message
Nicky Valentine (wesselsnj) said : 		#2

Thank you so much! Fixed it right off.
But just to satisfy my curiosity, what did those codes do?

Revision history for this message
Ian Ace (iaculallad) said : 		#3

The command (sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/* -vf) simply deletes all files inside the /var/lib/apt/lists folder. Switches -v & -f simply tells rm to be verbose and explain everything that's happening in the Terminal and force delete and ignore warnings or messages that might display respectively.
The command (sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade) will update the package index files and do install the newest version of all packages installed in your Ubuntu system.

HTH.