How to solve the problem of broken package list on Kubuntu?

Question

Please I am facing a recent problem with my system. The problem is as follows:

1. I am not able to open the synaptic manager at all. Receiving the error of:

---

E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/list/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_natty_main_binary-i386_Packages
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
E: _cache->open() failed, please report.

---

2. I am not able to update anything receiving the following error with my update manager:

---

Could not initialize the package information

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

---

My system information are as follows:

Operating System: Kubuntu 11.04.
Kernel version: 2.6.38-8-generic.
Kernel arch: i686.
Default shell: /bin/bash.
X server version: X.Org X Server 1.10.1 GCC version: 4.5.2

---

My Software List (after disabling almost everything) ended up is as follows:

Canonical Partners (software packaged by Canonical for their Partners): http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu

---

I tried also the following in my terminal:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -f

but with no fruitful results.

I was relying on some information posted here: http://netgator.blogspot.com/2011/01/software-index-is-broken-on-ubuntu.html

---

Please any suggestions/ideas to solve the problem are highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your help

Solution

DO this in a Terminal session:

$ sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/*
$ sudo apt-get update

That will get a fresh copy of all the files in there.

Everything should work fine then.

Comments

[CompilingCyborg]

Ingenious! It is working perfectly! Thanks a lot for that!