Problems after an automatic update

[jamesr]

Hi,

I am seeing an error on one of my archival servers, it is running lucid (10.04 LTS). Yes I know that I should upgrade!
In the notifaction bar at the top right I see a " no entry sign" and when I click on the symbol I see an error message.


Could not initialise the package information.

An unresolvable problem occurred while initialising the package information.

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

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

I cannot update using apt-get nor use Synaptic.

I am unsure on 2 points
a) where to report bug as mentioned in the error message
and
b) possibly, more importantly, how to solve the problem. The server is working but I cannot update it. I do have backups of the system.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

Best Wishes
Jim R.

[ibjsb4]

sudo apt-get clean
sudo mv /var/lib/apt/lists /var/lib/apt/lists.broke
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/apt/lists/partial
sudo apt-get update
more here

http://www.googlubuntu.com/results/?cx=006238239194895611142%3Au-ocqbntw_o&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=UTF-8&q=The+package+lists+or+status+file+could+not+be+pa rsed+or+opened&as_qdr=all&sa=Google+Search&lang=en

Edit: I should add that this fix works on supported versions.