I have installed Debian Woody (not as bad as I expected) and cannot update my package list with apt-get. I get this error no matter what sites I use in sources.list.

Reading Package Lists... Error!
E: Dynamic MMap ran out of room
E: Error occured while processing python-syck (NewVersion1)
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.at.debian.org_debian _dists_sarge_main_ binary-i386_ Packages
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

I don't know what that means, but I'm pretty sure it's not good.

When I change the sites in sources.list the error is the same, but the error-causing package is different.

Interesting. Never had that error.

Just for grins, if I were in your shoes, I would be tempted to open /etc/apt/sources.list and delete all the entries in it. Then try a new entry like:

deb http://people.debian.org/~eric/debian/i386 ./

May not help, but it is worth a try. If you don't want to lose the sources you have, just try commenting them all out except the new ones by adding # in front of each line.

BTW...are you trying to update to testing or unstable?

ok ... when I commented out all but the stable entries no problem
when I commented out all but the one you just gave me, no problem
when I commented out all the testing and unstable no problem
but even one entry for testing or unstable and it doesn't work.
what's up with that?

Not sure as you should be able to upgrade to testing or unstable no problem. Interesting. When you say if you have just one for testing or unstable, you aren't having them both at the same time...but one or the othe right?

right, either testing or unstable not at the same time.
Although it shouldn't matter, together or one at a time. I've done it at the same time before with Knoppix on a different box. Never had any problems.

Well, you wouldn't think it would matter period. But apparently it does. Hmmm...try this:

create the following file:
/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00Cache
with the following entry:
APT::Cache-Limit "8000000";

Once you have done this, then try uncommenting out one of your sources for Sarge (testing) and see if it will take then.

nope same thing.....I guess I won't use Woody. I want to give Debian a go though, so I'm going to use Libranet. I tried Knoppix before and just didn't like it. I've read good things about Libranet, more like Debian than Knoppix is.
Thanks for your help. I'll probably be back to ask about something else.

cheers

I've had this problem before. Fix it like this
#apt-get clean
#apt-get update
But this time make sure you're sources.list things are uncommented, and consider upgrading to testing or unstable, which is much better.

What I ended up doing, or trying, was installing Libranet and then Knoppix. Both pretty good, but neither would allow me to compile a new kernel. I decided that if I'm going to get Debian then that's what I'm going to get. I installed Woody again with only minor hiccups, easily fixed with proper package choices. I figured out my mistake that spawned this thread. I hadn't been commenting out the cd sources and apt apparently didn't know how to handle Woody CD sources and Sarge ftp sources. No prob now, doing a dist-upgrade while typing this. I'll post any problems you can be sure. Thank you all for your help.

cheers!

Problems with installing Woody on a Compaq Presario 2170us notebook.
Everything seemed good until the dist-upgrade. Everything looked good, but afterward I couldn't start X at all. I have pretty much deduced that Debian is not compatible with this notebook. I think I'll give SuSE another try, easier for a newb such as myself anyway.
Thank you again, Clark Bent and KneeLess.