synaptic package manager. packages have dissapeared completley

[shona]

i cant download anything.

im a 14 year old girl, dad shoved a linux laptop on me and im clueless.. i think i broke the packages, theyre gone!!

simple wording??

i NEED to download frostwire and my updates, but i dont have any packages so i cant download.. i have an eee pc

help!

borderline crying

[devils casper]

Hi and Welcome !

Does your machine has internet access?
Open Terminal and execute this

sudo apt-get clean all
sudo apt-get update

Post exact error message here, if any.

[shona]

yes it has internet access

it said all this stuff....




Hit Moved p701 Release
Get:2 Index of / stable Release.gpg [386B]
Ign Index of / p701 Release.gpg
Ign Index of / p701 Release.gpg
Hit Moved p701/main Packages/DiffIndex
Hit Index of / stable Release
Hit Moved p701/main Packages/DiffIndex
Hit Moved p701/dev Packages/DiffIndex
Ign Index of / p701 Release
Hit Moved p701/main Packages
Hit Moved p701/main Packages
Ign Index of / stable/main Packages/DiffIndex
Ign Index of / p701 Release
Hit Moved p701/dev Packages
Ign Index of / p701/main Packages/DiffIndex
Ign Index of / stable/non-free Packages/DiffIndex
Ign Index of / stable/contrib Packages/DiffIndex
Ign Index of / p701/main Packages/DiffIndex
Hit Index of / stable/main Packages
Ign Index of / p701/main Packages
Hit Index of / stable/non-free Packages
Ign Index of / p701/main Packages
Hit Index of / stable/contrib Packages
Get:3 Index of / p701/main Packages [490kB]
Get:4 Index of / p701/main Packages [693B]
Fetched 491kB in 5s (94.2kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
W: There is no public key available for the following key IDs:
4D270D06F42584E6
W: Duplicate sources.list entry Moved p701/main Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/updates.xepc.org_dists_p701_main_binary-i386_Packages)
W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems
/home/user>

[devils casper]

Check Synaptic Package Manager again. In case it doesn't list packages, post the contents of /etc/apt/sources.list file here.

cat /etc/apt/sources.list

[shona]

it says this every time i open synaptic package manager
E: Invalid record in the preferences file, no Package header.


i did the code thing...

deb Index of /p701 p701 main
deb Index of /p701/en p701 main
deb Index of /debian stable main non-free contrib
deb Moved p701 main
deb Moved p701 main
deb Moved p701 dev


it wouldnt let me copy paste that so i wrote it out..

[HROAdmin26]

A) What did you change to get into this situation?

B) APT is complaining about the *preferences* file. What is in /etc/apt/preferences?

cat /etc/apt/preferences

Google "eee pc Invalid record in the preferences file, no Package header" => Example

[shona]

i cant remembeer what i changed = / i was following instructions on how to download something i think, but im clueless and dont know what i did..

[shona]

well i tried to copy it and it all came into a text document thing....


Package: *
Pin: origin update.eeepc.asus.com
Pin-Priority: 950

Package: *
Pin: origin updates.xepc.org
Pin-Priority: 935

Package: *
Pin: origin
Pin-Priority: 925

Package: *
Pin: origin xnv4.xandros.com
Pin-Priority: 900

Package: *
Pin: origin dccamirror.xandros.com
Pin-Priority: 850

Package: *
Pin: origin Welcome to the Geek Connection
Pin-Priority: 750

Package: *
Pin: release a=stable
Pin-Priority: 700

Package: *
Pin: release a=testing
Pin-Priority: 650

Package: *
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 600

again, the simplest way to do this is to just copy and paste out of this post into the file by typing

sudo kwrite /etc/apt/preferences

[shona]

what am i loking for in the google? i typed the thing, lots of things came up. what am i after??

[HROAdmin26]

what am i loking for in the google? i typed the thing, lots of things came up. what am i after??

As mentioned in the linked thread, a bad entry *or* formatting in preferences can cause this error.

Looking at your preferences, I see several entries that don't look "stock." Copy the existing preferences file so that you have a backup copy, then remove these lines:

Package: *
Pin: origin http://www.geekconnection.org/
Pin-Priority: 750

Package: *
Pin: origin
Pin-Priority: 925

Then run:

apt-get update

And then open Synaptic again. Remember to keep the second copy of preferences in case you need it later.