Ubuntu problem

tres · 13 Jan 2008 at 11:56

dear all,

im having a problem with ubuntu..
i dont think i've changed or done anything, but whenever i try to use the package manager, it says

E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/dpkg/status
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
E: _cache->open() failed, please report.

W: Encountered status field in a non-version description

any ideas?
thank you!

GarethDW · 13 Jan 2008 at 13:05

edit: scrub that... not really a good idea.

Here's a better suggestion...

copy /var/lib/dpkg/status somewhere else temporarily....

sudo mv /var/lib/dpkg/status /var/lib/dpkg/status-borked

replace status with a version Ubuntu backed up automagically called status-old...

sudo cp /var/lib/dpkg/status-old /var/lib/dpkg/status

run an apt-get update command to see if it worked...

sudo apt-get update

tres · 13 Jan 2008 at 14:45

Gareth, you are an absolute legend, thank you

GarethDW · 14 Jan 2008 at 01:03

Cool, glad it worked and to have helped