Error with sources.list

Zaph Beeblebrox · 05-03-2010, 06:33 AM

Hi, this is the error message that I get whenever I try to Add/Remove Applications in Debian/Gnome:

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'.

I have checked with synaptic, there are no broken packages, I have ran both sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get install -f (i dont know what the -f does), neither of which solve the problem. I dont know how to check the permissions for souces.list, nor how to change them

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks, Zaph

rsleventhal · 05-03-2010, 07:03 AM

Hi Zaph,

First, to check the permissions of sources.list file, launch your terminal of choice and do this:

Code:

cd /etc/apt
ls -lah sources.list

The output should look something like this:

Code:

-rw-r--r--   1 root root 4.0K 2010-02-15 15:16 sources.list

The above tells us that the permissions are 644 and it is owned by user root in group root. If yours looks different, do this:

Code:

sudo chmod 644 sources.list
sudo chown root:root sources.list

and try the:

Code:

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

again

BTW, the -f means "Fast mode, don't check package files" in some Debian versions. I run Ubuntu, and it is not supported there (no harm on that if your Debian version doesn't support it, it will just error out).

I hope this helps a bit. Post back your results, even if it fixes things

Best,
-Ray

get2gether · 05-03-2010, 07:53 AM

Hi Zaph,
I was interested to learn what the "-f" is used for myself, so i entered "man -f" in the terminal with output thus: "what is? what?". So maybe you could include a bit more info here, like were you trying to install software or remove it? Were you using the package manager from GUI or command line, the more info you can provide the better.

Firstly i would try deleting synaptics package cache by using at the command line "sudo aptitude autoclean". You should see output of all packages removed, if all goes well.

If successful, "sudo aptitude update" at the command line.

If not, and you still have issues, I would check on the debian website for an up to date sources.list. Another alternative is too boot from the original live cd if you still have it, and navigate to the sources.list file and compare if any differences exist?

What version of Debian are you using?

Good luck!

Zaph Beeblebrox · 05-03-2010, 09:37 AM

ok, rsleventhal I tried what you suggested first and I typed this:

Code:

cd /etc/apt
ls -lah sources.list

I got this:

Code:

-rw------- 1 root root 617 2010-05-02 19:27 sources.list

So I did (I was logged into root shell)

Code:

chmod 644 sources.list
chown root:root sources.list
ls -lah sources.list

I got:

Code:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 617 2010-05-02 19:27 sources.list

then I did the

Code:

apt-get update * apt-get install -f

and I got

Code:

dhcppc1:/etc/apt# apt-get update
Hit http://ftp.uk.debian.org lenny Release.gpg                                     
Ign http://ftp.uk.debian.org lenny/main Translation-en_GB                          
Hit http://security.debian.org lenny/updates Release.gpg                           
Ign http://security.debian.org lenny/updates/main Translation-en_GB                
Get: 1 http://deb.opera.com lenny Release.gpg [189B]                               
Ign http://deb.opera.com lenny/non-free Translation-en_GB                          
Hit http://ftp.uk.debian.org lenny Release                                         
Ign http://ftp.uk.debian.org lenny/main Packages/DiffIndex                         
Ign http://ftp.uk.debian.org lenny/main Sources/DiffIndex                          
Hit http://ftp.uk.debian.org lenny/main Packages                                   
Hit http://security.debian.org lenny/updates Release                               
Hit http://ftp.uk.debian.org lenny/main Sources                                    
Hit http://deb.opera.com lenny Release                                             
Err http://deb.opera.com lenny Release                                             
  
Get: 2 http://deb.opera.com lenny Release [1067B]                                  
Ign http://deb.opera.com lenny Release                                             
Ign http://deb.opera.com lenny/non-free Packages/DiffIndex                         
Ign http://deb.opera.com lenny/non-free Packages                             
Hit http://deb.opera.com lenny/non-free Packages                             
Ign http://security.debian.org lenny/updates/main Packages/DiffIndex         
Ign http://security.debian.org lenny/updates/main Sources/DiffIndex          
Hit http://security.debian.org lenny/updates/main Packages
Hit http://security.debian.org lenny/updates/main Sources
Hit http://volatile.debian.org lenny/volatile Release.gpg                          
Ign http://volatile.debian.org lenny/volatile/main Translation-en_GB
Hit http://volatile.debian.org lenny/volatile Release
Ign http://volatile.debian.org lenny/volatile/main Packages/DiffIndex
Ign http://volatile.debian.org lenny/volatile/main Sources/DiffIndex
Hit http://volatile.debian.org lenny/volatile/main Packages
Hit http://volatile.debian.org lenny/volatile/main Sources
Fetched 1256B in 23s (54B/s)
Reading package lists... Done
W: GPG error: http://deb.opera.com lenny Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY F9A2F76A9D1A0061
W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems
dhcppc1:/etc/apt# apt-get install -f
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

I have tried opening up the Add/Remove Applications again and everything is now working fine

I really and grateful to you

and I have made a note of the chmod command and the 644

Thanks again, Zaph

rsleventhal · 05-03-2010, 09:48 AM

Zaph,

I'm so glad that worked. The key was the file permissions on source.list which need to have read access (the two r's which weren't there before you chmod'd to 644).

Good luck in your ventures.

Best,
-Ray