In 8.10, Administration>Software Sources>Other>Select Best Server fails, locks up downloading

Asked by John Hagerman

In 8.10, I ran "Administration>Software Sources>Other>Select Best Server. It shuts down before completing all tests, leaving me with all update downloading frozen.
The message I get is
'Error: Opening the cache
(E:Malformed line 6 in source list /etc/apt/sources.list (URI parse), E:The list of sources could not be read.)'
I have no working Package Manager in Add/Remove or Synaptic.
What should that line be? For that matter, what should the list be?

Question information

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Status:
Solved
For:
Ubuntu update-manager Edit question
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Solved by:
marcobra (Marco Braida)
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Revision history for this message
Hemanth (hemanth-hm) said :
#1

John,

Run this in terminal :

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

and paste the line number 6 here please

Revision history for this message
John Hagerman (handj949) said :
#2

Here's the whole file, in case there's another problem!

deb cdrom:[Ubuntu 8.10 _Intrepid Ibex_ - Release i386 (20081029.5)]/
intrepid main restricted
deb cdrom:[Ubuntu 8.04 _Hardy Heron_ - Release i386 (20080423)]/ hardy
main restricted
# See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to
# newer versions of the distribution.

deb-src Germany intrepid restricted main multiverse universe #Added by
software-properties

## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the
## distribution.

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## universe WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu security
## team.

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu
## security team.

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from the 'backports'
## repository.
## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as
## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes
## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.
## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review
## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-backports main restricted
universe multiverse

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's
## 'partner' repository. This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is
## offered by Canonical and the respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu
## users.
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu hardy partner

deb-src Germany intrepid-security restricted main multiverse universe
#Added by software-properties
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ intrepid main universe restricted
multiverse
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ intrepid-security universe main
multiverse restricted
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ intrepid-updates universe main
multiverse restricted

Hemanth wrote:
> Your question #57536 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/57536
>
> Status: Open => Needs information
>
> Hemanth requested for more information:
> John,
>
> Run this in terminal :
>
> sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
>
> and paste the line number 6 here please
>
>

Revision history for this message
Hemanth (hemanth-hm) said :
#3

make these changes , that is ad "#" to the first two lines , save and ,then
sudo apt-get update

it's should look like
:
#deb cdrom:[Ubuntu 8.10 _Intrepid Ibex_ - Release i386 (20081029.5)]/
#intrepid main restricted
#deb cdrom:[Ubuntu 8.04 _Hardy Heron_ - Release i386 (20080423)]/ hardy
#main restricted
# See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to
# newer versions of the distribution.

deb-src Germany intrepid restricted main multiverse universe #Added by
software-properties

## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the
## distribution.

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## universe WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu security
## team.

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu
## security team.

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from the 'backports'
## repository.
## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as
## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes
## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.
## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review
## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-backports main restricted
universe multiverse

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's
## 'partner' repository. This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is
## offered by Canonical and the respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu
## users.
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu hardy partner

deb-src Germany intrepid-security restricted main multiverse universe
#Added by software-properties
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ intrepid main universe restricted
multiverse
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ intrepid-security universe main
multiverse restricted
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ intrepid-updates universe main
multiverse restricted

Revision history for this message
John Hagerman (handj949) said :
#4

This gets me exactly the same result - that is 'E:Malformed line 6, etc.'
By the way, how did Germany get in there? Something "Select Best Server"
did? And which, exactly, is "line 6"?

Hemanth wrote:
> Your question #57536 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/57536
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Hemanth proposed the following answer:
> make these changes , that is ad "#" to the first two lines , save and ,then
> sudo apt-get update
>
> it's should look like
> :
> #deb cdrom:[Ubuntu 8.10 _Intrepid Ibex_ - Release i386 (20081029.5)]/
> #intrepid main restricted
> #deb cdrom:[Ubuntu 8.04 _Hardy Heron_ - Release i386 (20080423)]/ hardy
> #main restricted
> # See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to
> # newer versions of the distribution.
>
> deb-src Germany intrepid restricted main multiverse universe #Added by
> software-properties
>
> ## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the
> ## distribution.
>
> ## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
> ## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
> ## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
> ## universe WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu security
> ## team.
>
> ## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
> ## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
> ## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
> ## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu
> ## security team.
>
> ## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from the 'backports'
> ## repository.
> ## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as
> ## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes
> ## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.
> ## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review
> ## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
> deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-backports main restricted
> universe multiverse
>
> ## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's
> ## 'partner' repository. This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is
> ## offered by Canonical and the respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu
> ## users.
> deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu hardy partner
>
> deb-src Germany intrepid-security restricted main multiverse universe
> #Added by software-properties
> deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ intrepid main universe restricted
> multiverse
> deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ intrepid-security universe main
> multiverse restricted
> deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ intrepid-updates universe main
> multiverse restricted
>
>

Revision history for this message
Best marcobra (Marco Braida) (marcobra) said :
#5

Open a Terminal from the menu Applications → Accessories → Terminal and type:
(when the system ask you a password give your user password, you will not see nothing when you type it, then press enter)

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

delete all the content... and put this rows

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ intrepid restricted multiverse universe main
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ intrepid-security restricted multiverse universe main
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ intrepid-updates restricted multiverse universe main

save and exit, then still using terminal type:

sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Hope this helps

Revision history for this message
John Hagerman (handj949) said :
#6

Bingo!
Thank you very much!

Revision history for this message
John Hagerman (handj949) said :
#7

Thanks marcobra, that solved my question.