LinuxQuestions.org - Cannot update files Mint 17.1 (Wrong sources.list entry or malformed file)

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Cannot update files Mint 17.1 (Wrong sources.list entry or malformed file)

I have not been able to update my system using the update manager or the terminal for several months now. If I refresh using the update manager I will get the following error messages:

Code:

    W: Failed to fetch http://packages.domain.com/dists/trusty/InRelease 



    W: Failed to fetch http://deb.opera.com/opera-stable/dists/stable/InRelease  Unable to find expected entry 'non-free/binary-I386/Packages' in Release file (Wrong sources.list entry or malformed file)



    W: Failed to fetch http://packages.linuxmint.com/dists/rebecca/Release  Unable to find expected entry 'main/binary-I386/Packages' in Release file (Wrong sources.list entry or malformed file)



    W: Failed to fetch http://76.73.4.58/ubuntu/dists/trusty/Release  Unable to find expected entry 'main/binary-I386/Packages' in Release file (Wrong sources.list entry or malformed file)



    W: Failed to fetch http://extra.linuxmint.com/dists/rebecca/Release  Unable to find expected entry 'main/binary-I386/Packages' in Release file (Wrong sources.list entry or malformed file)



    W: Failed to fetch http://76.73.4.58/ubuntu/dists/trusty-updates/Release  Unable to find expected entry 'main/binary-I386/Packages' in Release file (Wrong sources.list entry or malformed file)



    W: Failed to fetch http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/dists/trusty/Release  Unable to find expected entry 'partner/binary-I386/Packages' in Release file (Wrong sources.list entry or malformed file)

I would really like to avoid a re-install as I spent quite a few hours setting up my system. Anybody have and ideas or thoughts as to how I can go about resolving this. I have reset my system to the orginal default source list, deleted ppa sources etc., but so far everything has been a no go.

It appears that my Mint 17.1 is not using /etc/apt/sources.list, but rather /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list, which, frankly, is a new one on me.

Here's mine:

Code:

# inxi -r

Repos:    Active apt sources in file: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list

          deb http://packages.linuxmint.com rebecca main upstream import

          deb http://extra.linuxmint.com rebecca main

          deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty main restricted universe multiverse

          deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty-updates main restricted universe multiverse

          deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-security main restricted universe multiverse

          deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ trusty partner

Take a look at your sources.list and your sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list and let us know what you find.

I found the inxi command in a Mint forum post I looked at while I was trying to find something useful about your issue. From the man page on inxi:

Code:

-r    Show distro repository data. Currently supported repo types: APT (Debian, Ubuntu + derived

              versions)



              PACMAN (Arch Linux + derived versions)



              PISI (Pardus + derived versions)



              YUM. (Fedora, Redhat, maybe Suse + derived versions)



              (as  distro  data is collected more will be added. If your's (sic) is missing please show us how to get this information and we'll try to add it.)

Output for #inxi -r

Quote:

Repos: Active apt sources in file: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list
deb http://packages.domain.com/ trusty main
Active apt sources in file: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list
deb http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
Active apt sources in file: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
deb http://mirror.nexcess.net/linuxmint/packages rebecca main upstream import
deb http://extra.linuxmint.com rebecca main
deb http://76.73.4.58/ubuntu trusty main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://76.73.4.58/ubuntu trusty-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ trusty partner
Active apt sources in file: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-source-repositories.list
deb-src http://mirror.nexcess.net/linuxmint/packages rebecca main upstream import
deb-src http://extra.linuxmint.com rebecca main
deb-src http://76.73.4.58/ubuntu trusty main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://76.73.4.58/ubuntu trusty-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ trusty partner
Active apt sources in file: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/steam.list
deb [arch=amd64,i386] http://repo.steampowered.com/steam/ precise steam
deb-src [arch=amd64,i386] http://repo.steampowered.com/steam/ precise steam

I compared the sources.list files from my laptop (does not update) and my desktop where I also installed Mint 17.1 mate (and which updates without problems) but I could not find any differences between the two source list sets.

Note: I changed some mirrors right before I ran the inxi -r so, there are some differences here but before I changed the mirrors and ticked the sources check-box on the update manager my official-package-repositories list was identical to your output. I did try the restore to defaults option in the update manager on several occasions but that did not resolve the problem either.

I don't know if this is helpful but this is the output when running apt-get update from terminal

Quote:

sudo apt-get update
Ign http://packages.linuxmint.com rebecca InRelease
Get:1 http://packages.linuxmint.com rebecca Release.gpg [198 B]
Err http://packages.domain.com trusty InRelease

Err http://packages.domain.com trusty Release.gpg
Could not resolve 'packages.domain.com'
Get:2 http://packages.linuxmint.com rebecca Release [24.1 kB]
Ign http://dl.google.com stable InRelease
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty InRelease
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty-updates InRelease
Hit http://dl.google.com stable Release.gpg
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty Release.gpg
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty-updates Release.gpg
Hit http://dl.google.com stable Release
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty Release
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com trusty-updates Release
Ign http://archive.canonical.com trusty InRelease
Ign http://extra.linuxmint.com rebecca InRelease
Hit http://archive.canonical.com trusty Release.gpg
Get:3 http://extra.linuxmint.com rebecca Release.gpg [198 B]
Hit http://archive.canonical.com trusty Release
Get:4 http://extra.linuxmint.com rebecca Release [3,152 B]
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security InRelease
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security Release.gpg
Hit http://repo.steampowered.com precise InRelease
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security Release
Hit http://repo.steampowered.com precise/steam Sources
Hit http://repo.steampowered.com precise/steam amd64 Packages
Hit http://repo.steampowered.com precise/steam i386 Packages
Ign http://repo.steampowered.com precise/steam Translation-en_US
Ign http://repo.steampowered.com precise/steam Translation-en
Fetched 27.7 kB in 17s (1,614 B/s)
Reading package lists... Done
W: Failed to fetch http://packages.domain.com/dists/trusty/InRelease

W: Failed to fetch http://packages.linuxmint.com/dists/rebecca/Release Unable to find expected entry 'main/binary-I386/Packages' in Release file (Wrong sources.list entry or malformed file)

W: Failed to fetch http://packages.domain.com/dists/trusty/Release.gpg Could not resolve 'packages.domain.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/de...stable/Release Unable to find expected entry 'main/binary-I386/Packages' in Release file (Wrong sources.list entry or malformed file)

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/trusty/Release Unable to find expected entry 'main/binary-I386/Packages' in Release file (Wrong sources.list entry or malformed file)

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dis...pdates/Release Unable to find expected entry 'main/binary-I386/Packages' in Release file (Wrong sources.list entry or malformed file)

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/...trusty/Release Unable to find expected entry 'partner/binary-I386/Packages' in Release file (Wrong sources.list entry or malformed file)

W: Failed to fetch http://extra.linuxmint.com/dists/rebecca/Release Unable to find expected entry 'main/binary-I386/Packages' in Release file (Wrong sources.list entry or malformed file)

W: Failed to fetch http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/di...curity/Release Unable to find expected entry 'main/binary-I386/Packages' in Release file (Wrong sources.list entry or malformed file)

My admittedly uneducated guess is that the problems started when you installed 32bit steam to your 64bit system.
Just going by the error messages "Unable to find ... I386/Packages"

TxLonghorn, I do not think that 32/64 bit system changes are the cause of this malfunction. I installed Mint 17 on my 64 bit laptop and simply had to ignore updates, as I either did not know how to improve update procedures in Mint 17 or did not care. In any case, I switched to LTS kubuntu and did not have this pain.

My loss, however, as I do like Mint (with KDE). MIght try to start the updates of Mint again - thanks for your insights and information. Cheers, OldAl.