hi! to every body, i am just new to Linux[Ubuntu 8.04]. 4 days back i am taking update from my newly installed Linux, but in the mean time my system turn of because of power fluctuation. when i start my system again and start again the download it start giving me message like:........

Could not initialize the package information
A 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 Mergerlist /var/lib/dpkg/status, E:The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.'

I have tried apt-get -f, apt-get clean, this is of no use then it try to find out where is the error in the /var/lib/dpkg/status by dpkg --audit, if fix some of the problem which i understand. i also try to change the new status file with old one but still the problem is there. following is the output.
dpkg: parse error, in the file `/var/lib/dpkg/status' near line 1:
newline in field name`

A power surge can cause files to get corrupted.

One thing to try is to rename the existing dpkg directory, then see if Synaptic will automatically create a new one.

The lazy way out is to just re-install. If it's a brand new setup, you presumably don't have a lot of data to be concerned with. (Back up your data regardless.)

Even a low-priced UPS will give you significant protection from such things. I have an earlier version of this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16842101140
We get numerous outages lasting 5 minutes or less. With my hardware, this model is good for maybe 20 minutes.

Thank you for your suggestion buddy
i have done what you have suggested, but if i run the update manager it says the same thing what i have written in blue.
what exactly is this message
dpkg: parse error, in the file `/var/lib/dpkg/status' near line 1:
newline in field name`

Dear Pixellany the guru "One thing to try is to rename the existing dpkg directory, then see if Synaptic will automatically create a new one" is not true in my case. i fix my problem, and the solution is perfectly true in this type of problem.

here we gooooooooo.
we are at root
1. mv /var/lib/dpkg/status __/var/lib/dpkg/status_bak
2. cp /var/backups/dpkg.status.<any latest number>.gz __/var/lib/dpkg/
3. gunzip -d /var/lib/dpkg/dpkg.status.<any latest number>.gz
4. mv /var/lib/dpkg/dpkg.status.<the number in third step> __/var/lib/dpkg/status
5. apt-get update

I hope next time you please address the whole problem, but not the first sentence only.

I'll offer whatever advice that I think might be useful---no more, no less. If I knew what your dpkg error was, I would have told you.

Good Luck

I'm glad you managed to resolve your problem. I would like you to note, that everyone here is a volunteer and they try their best to help out. We depend on you to give us the correct information about your problem right from the start. Please be grateful and appreciate the efforts of those trying to help. Cheers.