synaptic package manager. packages have dissapeared completley

02-23-2009	#1 (permalink)
shona Just Joined! Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 12	synaptic package manager. packages have dissapeared completley 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

02-23-2009	#2 (permalink)
devils casper Super Moderator Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Chandigarh, India Posts: 21,081	Hi and Welcome ! Does your machine has internet access? Open Terminal and execute this Code: sudo apt-get clean all sudo apt-get update Post exact error message here, if any. __________________ It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing. - Gertrude Stein New Users: Read This First

02-23-2009	#3 (permalink)
shona Just Joined! Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 12	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>

02-23-2009	#4 (permalink)
devils casper Super Moderator Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Chandigarh, India Posts: 21,081	Check Synaptic Package Manager again. In case it doesn't list packages, post the contents of /etc/apt/sources.list file here. Code: cat /etc/apt/sources.list __________________ It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing. - Gertrude Stein New Users: Read This First

02-23-2009	#5 (permalink)
shona Just Joined! Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 12	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..

02-23-2009	#6 (permalink)
HROAdmin26 Linux Engineer Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 1,135	A) What did you change to get into this situation? B) APT is complaining about the preferences file. What is in /etc/apt/preferences? Code: cat /etc/apt/preferences Google "eee pc Invalid record in the preferences file, no Package header" => Example

02-23-2009	#7 (permalink)
shona Just Joined! Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 12	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..

02-23-2009	#8 (permalink)
shona Just Joined! Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 12	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

02-23-2009	#9 (permalink)
shona Just Joined! Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 12	what am i loking for in the google? i typed the thing, lots of things came up. what am i after??

02-23-2009

#10 (permalink)

HROAdmin26

Linux Engineer

Join Date: Nov 2007

Posts: 1,135

Quote:

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:

Code:

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

Package: *
Pin: origin
Pin-Priority: 925

Then run:

Code:

apt-get update

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

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