Encountered a section with no Package: header

I've exactly the same problem

Lecture des listes de paquets... Erreur !
E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_hardy_universe_i18n_Translation-fr
E: Les listes de paquets ou le fichier « status » ne peuvent être analysés ou lus.
E: Impossible de reconstruire le cache des paquets

how can we do an update to correct this problem, as our apt package manager seems to be crashed with the last update ?

Confirmed

I have the same error:
Lecture des listes de paquets... Erreur !
E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_hardy_universe_i18n_Translation-fr
E: Les listes de paquets ou le fichier « status » ne peuvent être analysés ou lus.

same here

Lecture des listes de paquets... Erreur !
E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_hardy_universe_i18n_Translation-fr
E: Les listes de paquets ou le fichier « status » ne peuvent être analysés ou lus.
Lecture des listes de paquets... Erreur !
E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_hardy_universe_i18n_Translation-fr
E: Les listes de paquets ou le fichier « status » ne peuvent être analysés ou lus.

same for me

Same problem here

I have also the same problem...

same here on hardy 32bits

Atteint http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-security/multiverse Packages
Lecture des listes de paquets... Erreur !
E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_hardy_universe_i18n_Translation-fr
E: Les listes de paquets ou le fichier « status » ne peuvent être analysés ou lus.

A temporary workaround : disable the universe source. At least you would be able to use the package managers.

Confirmed here.

Same here

better workaround : delete the file /var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_hardy_universe_i18n_Translation-fr each time you do an apt-get update

Jim Braux-Zin , this file is recreated each time you update.
Doing what you said doesnt solve the issue here.

Of course no but it allows to use the package managers as usual instead of throwing an error.

workaround : write in console
# LANG=C
# synaptic or apt-get update

work ;-)

the workaround above works (as the language is changed from french to english)

Same problem in hardy i386...

Thank you Nazeman. It works perfectly on my Alpha 5.

The file '/var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_hardy_universe_i18n_Translation-fr' contains
a package description (3dchess) which must be updated by removing ^M and adding '.' and spaces.

As this file is cleaned (default option --list-cleanup) and reloaded from universe repository when 'apt-get update' is spawned, you may update it and change rights 444 to verify there are no more errors (revert the file to original rights 644 or remove it after the verification)

This is indeed a bug with the translation of packages descriptions.
As of now, http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/hardy/universe/i18n/Translation-fr is still not fixed.
Subscribing French translation team.

My previous post was incorrect :

The file is cleaned and reloaded from universe repository ONLY if it has been modified since the last apt-get update, so you do not have to change rights for testing.

The only thing I've noticed in those translations is two ’ (instead of ') in 3dchess description. I've changed this string yesterday in Launchpad. Anyway this was an old translation (2006), I don't think this could solve the problem.

See the file loaded by apt-get update : Translation-fr in the attachment
Translation-fr.bz2 or Translation-fr.gz from repository give the same file after uncompress.

Thanks for your analysis Yves, but French Translators couldn't do anything for now. We can only modify translated strings via Launchpad. Obviously there's a problem with 3dchess description and, as I said previously, this has been fixed in Launchpad. We now have to wait a new sync of universe with Launchpad translations...

Thanks a lot Michael for your work on this bug. Hope this will be fixed soon ;-)
If this was due to an inconsistency (typo error or anything else) within French translation, maybe there's something to improve in Launchpad to avoid this kind of issue in the future.

Thanks for your help with fixing the issue, I uploaded new translations into the archive now and I added some checks to my code that should prevent this from happening again in the future.

Cheers,
 Michael

I have a good correction, the correction is in file file.
The problem is the hazardous character and point to miss.
The correction is to link her : http://paste.ubuntu-nl.org/57333/ or file

sorry i'm bad to english

Je soumet une correction de bug.
Le problème était que dans l'ancien fichier il manquais un point, et deux caractères chapeau M était trop.
Je vous donne le lien du bon fichier : http://paste.ubuntu-nl.org/57333/ ainsi que le fichier dans l'attachement.

Ok, this bug is squashed ;-) Thanks again Michael for the quick fix.
Our apologies to French users on behalf of French Translators Team.

Thanks for verifying the fix and sorry for the trouble. Setting to fix released now.

I still get the error when using synaptic with language set to french (the workaround lang=C works). How do I apply / get the fix ?
Thank you.
P.S : amazing how fast Michael has produced a fix. Thank you !

You have to do an update on a terminal before using synaptic or any other package manager.
I just done it few minutes later and i have no error message

I think it depends on which mirror you are using...

You might have to wait a few hours for a sync.

Otherwise the fix is confirmed (by myself :))

Thanks mvo,

     chris

On Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 5:54 PM, A. Broustet <email address hidden> wrote:
> I still get the error when using synaptic with language set to french (the workaround lang=C works). How do I apply / get the fix ?
> Thank you.
> P.S : amazing how fast Michael has produced a fix. Thank you !
>
> --
> Encountered a section with no Package: header
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/194436
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

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Try this: sudo aptitude update

here the solution

http://tips-debian.blogspot.com/2008/04/problem-with-mergelist-varlibdpkgstatus.html

I updated my Ubuntu from 08.10 upto 09.04 but while updating it went wrong; the update kept hanging a few times, now i can't run the package manager anymore and receive this message;

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/dpkg/status, E:De pakketlijsten of het statusbestand konden of niet ontleed, of niet geopend worden.'

When i start the package manager i receive;

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.

and i want to add/remove this happens;

Failed to check for installed and available applications

This is a major failure of your software management system. Please check for broken packages with synaptic, check the file permissions and correctness of the file '/etc/apt/sources.list' and reload the software information with: 'sudo apt-get update' and 'sudo apt-get install -f'.

help!

I believe this problem occurs when users gateway returns a html page instead of the respective package file. If a check on the file to make sure it's not a html page is done before attempting to use it, the problem could be avoided, or at least made known to the user.