Dear Maintainer,
*** Reporter, please consider answering these questions, where appropriate ***
* What led up to the situation?
Launched synaptic as normal
* What was the outcome of this action?
I got a popup dialogue:
------------------------------------------------------
An error occurred.
The following details are provided:
E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.uk.debian
.org_debian_dists_testing_main_binary-i386_Packages
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
E: _cache->open() failed, please report.
----------------------------------------
Running from the command-line as root, I also see the following messages (which
may or may not be significant):
--------------------
(synaptic:19765): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: The property GtkImage:stock is
deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a future
version.
(synaptic:19765): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: The property GtkImageMenuItem:use-
stock is deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a
future version.
(synaptic:19765): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: The property GtkImageMenuItem:image
is deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a future
version.
(synaptic:19765): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: The property GtkSettings:gtk-menu-
images is deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a
future version.
(synaptic:19765): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: The property GtkToolButton:stock-id
is deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a future
version.
(synaptic:19765): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: The property GtkButton:xalign is
deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a future
version.
(synaptic:19765): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: The property GtkAlignment:right-
padding is deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a
future version.
(synaptic:19765): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: The property GtkContainer:resize-
mode is deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a
future version.
(synaptic:19765): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: The property GtkAlignment:bottom-
padding is deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a
future version.
(synaptic:19765): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: The property GtkAlignment:left-
padding is deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a
future version.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/sbin/update-apt-xapian-index", line 102, in <module>
indexer.incrementalUpdate()
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/axi/indexer.py", line 670, in
incrementalUpdate
self.updateIndex(dbpath)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/axi/indexer.py", line 630, in
updateIndex
cache = self.aptcache()
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/axi/indexer.py", line 423, in aptcache
self.apt_cache = apt.Cache(memonly=True, progress=aptprogress)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/apt/cache.py", line 107, in __init__
self.open(progress)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/apt/cache.py", line 151, in open
self._cache = apt_pkg.Cache(progress)
SystemError: E:Encountered a section with no Package: header, E:Problem with
MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.uk.debian
.org_debian_dists_testing_main_binary-i386_Packages, E:The package lists or
status file could not be parsed or opened.
---------------------
On clicking "close" on the dialogue, synaptic also closes, issuing no further
messages to STDOUT.
* What outcome did you expect instead?
Should have been able to see packages and install as normal