E: Malformed entry 54 in list file /etc/apt/sources.list (Component)

[janskiii]

Error message appears when attempting to install new programs and
sudo apt-get update

E: Malformed entry 54 in list file /etc/apt/sources.list (Component)
E: The list of sources could not be read.

Also, in conjunction with this message in Terminal, there is the British road symbol for 'no entry' on my task bar.

I have already browsed the couple of relevant posts about this, without any success. Though this may be due to my inexperience with Ubuntu.

I have a feeling that this is a result of an unsuccessful attempt to install Skype a couple of weeks ago.

Otherwise Ubuntu is great!!

[papibe]

Hi janskiii. Welcome to the forum ):P

Could you open a terminal, run this command and post back the results? (you can copy/paste the text from the terminal using the mouse):

find /etc/apt/ -name '*.list' -exec bash -c 'echo -e "\n$1\n"; cat -n "$1"' _ '{}' \;
Please use CODE tags around the text you're gonna paste :D

Regards.

[janskiii]

Thank you for your helpfulness. Here are the results, hopefully they make some sense to you doc:



/etc/apt/sources.list.d/xenial-partner.list

1 # channel for the xenial (16.04) partner channel
2 #
3 #:description:This channel contains the partner software for xenial
4 deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu xenial partner


/etc/apt/sources.list


1 # deb cdrom:[Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS _Xenial Xerus_ - Release amd64 (20160719)]/ xenial main restricted
2
3 # See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to
4 # newer versions of the distribution.
5 deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial main restricted
6 # deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial main restricted
7
8 ## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the
9 ## distribution.
10 deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial-updates main restricted
11 # deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial-updates main restricted
12
13 ## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
14 ## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
15 ## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
16 ## universe WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu security
17 ## team.
18 deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial universe
19 # deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial universe
20 deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial-updates universe
21 # deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial-updates universe
22
23 ## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
24 ## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
25 ## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
26 ## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu
27 ## security team.
28 deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial multiverse
29 # deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial multiverse
30 deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial-updates multiverse
31 # deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial-updates multiverse
32
33 ## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as
34 ## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes
35 ## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.
36 ## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review
37 ## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
38 deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial-backports main restricted universe multiverse
39 # deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial-backports main restricted universe multiverse
40
41 ## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's
42 ## 'partner' repository.
43 ## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by Canonical and the
44 ## respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu users.
45 # deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu xenial partner
46 # deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu xenial partner
47
48 deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security main restricted
49 # deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security main restricted
50 deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security universe
51 # deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security universe
52 deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security multiverse
53 # deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security multiverse
54 deb http://archive.canonical.com/ xenialpartner
55 # deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ xenialpartner
56 deb http.//archive.canonical.com/ xenialpartner
57 # deb-src http.//archive.canonical.com/ xenialpartner
58 deb http://archive.canonical.com/ xenial partner
59 # deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ xenial partner
60 # deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ xenial partner

[papibe]

Thanks.

There's should be an space between the words xenial and partner:

54 deb http://archive.canonical.com/ xenialpartner
To change it, open a editor as root:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
Go to the line, and edit it so it looks like this:

deb http://archive.canonical.com/ xenial partner
Save the file, and see what happens.

You may have a duplicate line, same one, with a line on /etc/apt/sources.list.d/xenial-partner.list, see what is happening here (https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2347122) to fix that.

Hope it helps. Let us know how it goes.
Regards.

[deadflowr]

Since you have the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/xenial-partner.list file and it is what you want,
you might as well simply comment (#) out the lines in the sources.list file for 54, 56 and 58
54 and 56 are wrong anyway and 58 duplicates the line in the other file, mentioned above.

Easy edit is to open text editor (I prefer nano, others like vi or other editors), as root
something like

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
scroll down to the end where those lines are and add a # symbol to the end.
This marks the line as not to be read, or in layman's terms disables the line.

Then press ctrl + X to save and exit
(Press ctrl + X then press y to except the changes and enter will save the file; after you hit Y for yes to except the changes the filename will appear so you can review it. Normally ,unless you decided to play Beethoven on your keyboard, the file name will be the exact same as it was, so in that case, simply hit enter.)

If that make snese.

After you edit, re-run

sudo apt-get update
and see if the error still persists.

Hope it helps

Ninja'd

[ajgreeny]

The question is surely, how and why did the partner repos appear as a separate entry in /etc/apt/sources.list.d and not just as a line in /etc/apt/sources.list as it normally does.

This seems a bit reminiscent of the problem I had with the proposed repos appearing suddenly as an entry in /etc/apt/sources.list.d with no action from me to enable them, as I noted and queried in the thread at https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2346590

[janskiii]

papibe:
Thank you for the speedy response. Since inserting the space in the line, so it reads:


deb http://archive.canonical.com/ xenial partner

Terminal started expressing a different error:


E: Malformed entry 56 in list file /etc/apt/sources.list (URI parse)
E: The list of sources could not be read.

As you suggested in the related thread that you shared, I tried removing the file by using:


sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/xenial-partner.list

Alas, still experiencing 'Malformed entry 56'.

deadflowr, this is when I moved onto your advice, inserting # at the end of lines 54, 56 and 58 so they read


deb http://archive.canonical.com/ xenial partner #
deb http.//archive.canonical.com/ xenialpartner #
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ xenial partner #





Still no success, after running


sudo apt-get update

Ubuntu is still experiencing

E: Malformed entry 56 in list file /etc/apt/sources.list (URI parse)
E: The list of sources could not be read.

Thank you for your help hitherto! What do you think about this next stage of the problem?

Peace

[howefield]

It is the same issue in line 56 as you had in line 54, there are a few lines in fact which need a space or commenting out.

The # symbol needs to be added to the beginning of the line.

[janskiii]

howefield,

That was the final piece of this jigsaw. I inserted spaces between 'xenial' and 'partner'. Also I added the '#' to the beginning of lines 54, 56 and 58. Since then I have run successful
sudo apt-get update
as well as installing a few programs and updates.

Thank you, papibe, deadflowr, ajgreeny and howefield for you combined help, my computer is functioning again. All the best to you all.

[howefield]

Since then I have run successful ....

Cool, well done and feel free to mark the thread as solved if you wish.