Reading package lists... Error! - Freya

Question

This is the information I get when I try sudo apt-get update or when I try to use the Package Manager.

Reading package lists... Error!
W: GPG error: http://us.archive.ubuntu.com trusty Release: The following signatures were invalid: BADSIG 40976EAF437D05B5 Ubuntu Archive Automatic Signing Key <[email protected]>
E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/us.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_trusty_main_i18n_Translation-en
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

I tried following one of the answers I found here by doing:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:versable/elementary-update
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get update

but it did not help me. Any help is appreciated!

Answer 1

You got two errors trying to update.

First of all, an error with a bad signature. All repositories in Ubuntu are signed with a GPG key, to check its authenticity. Look at the key 40976EAF437D05B5 near the expression BADSIG. You must download the correct signature from the keyserver with this command:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 40976EAF437D05B5

To solve the problem with MergeList, make a copy of your apt-lists. From terminal, try:

sudo mkdir /var/lib/apt/lists_old
sudo mv /var/lib/apt/lists/ /var/lib/apt/lists_old

Now, remove the wrong lists:

sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/* -vf

and finally, recreate the apt-lists with:

sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get update