ARG! PLEASE HELP! DEBIAN PACKAGE MANAGER BUG!?
The package manager is scrambled in my Ubuntu 11.04.
It started with the repositories list being scrambled with multiple entries.
Now when the Package Manager is launched it just accesses the hard drive forever.
I did give it a half an hour just in case so it clearly stuck in a loop of some
kind.
What I'd like to know is: Is there some way to reset, clear, turn off or
de-select the added Repositories list from the command line (terminal.)
This seems to be the only way since the Package Manager gets stuck.
Keep in mind that I'm only slightly competent with Linux and have no idea where
the Debian Package Manager data is located or how it works.
If I go poking around without at least some guidance I may make things
worse.
Please respond to: michelleellert1956@gmail.com (preferred) or
michelleellert@yahoo.com

Update: The problem seems to be spreading. Got stuck again while saving this
message. Turned off the system, rebooted to recovery mode and did a file system
check. Okay for now. Switching to clean OS on other partition.

I'll check for answers there but it's only Ubuntu 10.04 and I'd very much
prefer to have 11.04 working and not have an effectively dead partition and don't
want to loose everything on it with a re-format and 2 day re-install process
(no installation disk.)

Michelle Rachel Ellert

The repositories are listed in /etc/apt/sources.list. You should post the contents of that file here. You also should post any error message you are getting, because we're not clairvoyant.

You can try "apt-get update" to re-get the lists of packages.

Asking us to reply to you by email is rude.

It is also the wrong forum.

Debian is not Ubuntu.

apt is non-Debian ?.

Interesting.

You should provide more info than saying "package manager is dead" because that doesnt really help describing the issue.
What happens and in what exact circumstances?

As before said, /etc/apt/sources.list holds the list of repositories. But some programs put files in the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ folder and those will be added to the list also.

Just post the contents of /etc/apt/sources.list for starters.

Besides your /etc/apt/sources.list running;
and posting the results would be helpful in giving some real information as to what is going on.

The OP does not mention apt, he says
Chances are he is either using software-center or Synaptic.
Even if he is using apt Ubuntu changes packages so what might work on Debian may or may not work exactly the same on Ubuntu.

1 members found this post helpful.

Absolutely. Ubuntu changes some package names and more importantly many paths. Just your simple background images are in /usr/share/backgrounds under Ubuntu and in /user/share/images/desktop-base under Debian.

Imagine what some of the other changes are and how little things like that build up as you get deeper into the system.

The install scripts are where folks get into trouble if they do not know better than to mix Debian and Ubuntu repos. They point different directions.

I use Debian and my wife uses Ubuntu. Same kernel so about the same repo you would think. You would be about right. About right is a real good way to have a wreck.

I realize now this is the wrong forum. Anyway, I thought I'd resolve the thread.
After trying everything posted here with no change it became clear it was the PM itself and without that I couldn't reinstall the package. It's been 20 years at least since I've used Linux from the command line so further hacking there would probably just make things worse.
I ended up starting from scratch with the Ubu 8.04 install disk. Although most here probably already know this I had to learn the hard way to always do updates/upgrades incrementally as possible. So, it was a long proses to get back to Ubuntu 10.10 and I'll stick with that as it seems to be solid. Also, it appears that the original problem was caused by manually adding repositories (cut and paste) so I'll avoid that in the future. All is well now thanks.

[QUOTE=The package manager is scrambled in my Ubuntu 11.04.[/QUOTE]

This is the wrong forum. You should go ask this question in the Ubuntu forums. Also, Ubuntu is NOT Debian!

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