Reading package lists...Error!

Question

When I run sudo apt-get update I get this error:

Reading package lists... Error!
E: Unable to parse package file /var/lib/dpkg/status (1)
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

What each line is saying and how to solve it?

I'm running Linux Mint 17 Qiana Cinnamon in VMWare Workstation 10.0.2.

Answer 1

If you google out this error there are plenty of links which describe this error. It seems that the file is messed up. You can try out the options specified here.

sudo mv /var/lib/dpkg/status /var/lib/dpkg/status.bad
sudo cp /var/lib/dpkg/status-old /var/lib/dpkg/status
sudo apt-get update

This below option did not work for this particular case.

Another link that describes the similar issue is here.

sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/* -vf
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Answer 2

It's working fine to remove files in lists folder.

By the way apt-get is working fine after command line bash I found out over The Net.

Just add:

sudo apt-get -f install

to have an update/upgrade working at well.