Re: apt-get not working anymore

["Hans-J. Ullrich" <hans.ullrich@loop.de>]

Am Samstag 05 September 2009 schrieb Goswin von Brederlow:
> Klaus Ethgen <Klaus@Ethgen.de> writes:
> > Hi,
> >
> > maybe that is an issue for debian-user, so I put it in the To too
> > although I am not subscribed there.
> >
> > If you look to Bug #497617 there is a long time bug in apt first only
> > targeting the German translations but now it is independent of the
> > locales.
> >
> > When I run any apt-get command I get the error:
> >  E: Wow, you exceeded the number of versions this APT is capable of.
> >  E: Problem with MergeList
> > /var/lib/apt/lists/debian.ethz.ch_mirror_debian_dists_experimental_main_b
> >inary-i386_Packages E: The package lists or status file could not be
> > parsed or opened.
> >
> > (The second line is just the one which is the drop too much.)
> >
> > This also happen with all locales set to "C".
> >
> > The problem is that it is not possible anymore to update the system at
> > all. I think that is a very critical bug.
> >
> > Is it really necessary to break all installations until this bug is
> > fixed? It is known long enough for now.
> >
> > I have the version 0.7.20.2+lenny1 installed, so it seems to be the most
> > recent version. (apt-cache doesn't work too so I can only view the web
> > site)
> >
> > Regards
> >    Klaus
> 

Maybe this helps, as apt.conf is no more existent:


add the following line in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20archive

APT::Cache-Limit "100000000";

Hope this helps, as it increases memory. I know, this is only a workaround.


Good luck!

Hans-J. Ullrich