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[OCLUG-Tech] bug when i installed to 11.04... won't let me use apt-get, synaptic, update manager etc now

Hey, so whenever I open programs in ubuntu 11.04 (classic mode) that install
or modify programs, they crash... I can do some things with apt-get, but I
am not very good with the command line stuff.

the error message is:

'Error: Opening the cache (E:Encountered a section with no Package: header,
E:Problem with MergeList
/var/lib/apt/lists/extras.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_natty_main_binary-i386_Packages,
E:The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.)'

and then it further notes: this usually means that your installed packages
have unmet dependencies.


I think when i did sudo apt-get check or update or something it mentioned
specifically a problem with not being able to find some source that was
ubuntu security or something, and I think compared to the other source
lines   it ended in something like en%fa_CA  and I think there % something
part was like html escape code, maybe cutting pasting error of someone using
stuff over the web when it maybe converted or something?

Anyways, I don't know how to fix it, I thought maybe booting off cd and
running package manager, or like rpday seemed to say he could roll back his
kernel to the older one?  Is that something I could do, because I was having
lots of problems with 11.04, including finicky driver issues with my radeon
9250 pci video card (i wanted to try and use Ubuntu's drivers, instead of
the proprietary ones, hoping this would mean they would auto-update and so
without me having to do the work of finding and tracking it, and integrate
more smoothely into the OS... but as it is a legacy video card, I'm not sure
I should expect much more progress with... maximizing its use... so maybe
that is not the best way to go...

I put extra ram in this clunker, and am trying to give it a good go, so I
can set it up to do what I need it too better (especially since my windowsXP
install won't connect to the internet reliably for some reason)

I guess sending this over the list is not the best idea?  I don't know how
to report bugs to ubuntu or whatever properly...  so I haven't done it.  the
times something popped up and tried, it seemed to fail or something...
connecting to lauch.net or something....


I've been using linux for awhile now, more than a year anyways... but still
really feel like a n00b.

Maybe there are some 'getting started with linux' stuff I should check out
on the oclug or other sites to brush up so I don't hit so many roadblocks?

Oh my machine is so old that it can't boot from usb it seems... not sure
about updating bios, was told that could be risky.



Michael Goguen