can't search or install packages wheezy 10-28-12

I have just received and set up my raspberry pi. I am a complete newbie to the pi and linux in general. I am having trouble with the package manager. When I try to update the cache (sudo apt-get update) I get the following error messages:

W: Failed to fetch gzip:/var/lib/apt/lists/partial/archive.raspberrypi.org_debian_dists_wheezy_main_binary-armhf_packages Hash Sum mismatch

E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

Then when I try to search or install I get the following:
E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/mirrordirector.raspbian.org_raspbian_dists_wheezy_contrib_il8n_Translation-en
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.


This is the first thing I am trying to do after flashing the file system onto my sd card, so I have not messed with any default settings. Additionally, I definitely have internet connectivity as the midori browser works and I can ping websites from the terminal. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to the Raspberry Pi and the forums.

Anyway, you are not alone, someone else ran into this problem as talked about in this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=66&t=20444

Not sure if he got it working with the right sources or not.

I have upgraded to the latest and greatest wheezy through the apt-get update and apt-get upgrade path, which still work for me.

Below are the sources list on my install, you could try the cat command I used to list the contents of your sources files and make sure it matches my working ones (I am sure they do).

Code: Select all

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ cat /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/ wheezy main contrib non-free rpi
pi@raspberrypi ~ $ cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/raspi.list
deb http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/ wheezy main
pi@raspberrypi ~ $

Otherwise, the only thing I can think of is your machine can't resolve the domain name http://archive.raspberrypi.org for some reason maybe? If you try and load it in a web browser on the RPi does the archive site load?

Thank you for the reply! I used the cat command as you suggested and got the exact same result you did:

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ cat /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/ wheezy main contrib non-free rpi
pi@raspberrypi ~ $ cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/raspi.list
deb http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/ wheezy main
pi@raspberrypi ~ $

I can resolve the site on midori, so I am not sure what the problem is. I have downloaded and reinstalled wheezy several times onto the sd card and am still getting the same result. Quite frustrating to say the least. Any additional ideas would be appreciated and I am also going to post under the other topic. I appreciate you pointing that out!

Might just need to run apt-get update again
If you do an apt-get update as they are updating their side as well, then this can happen.

I thought the same thing at first too. Unfortunately, I have tried sudo apt-get update a dozen or more times between Friday and today, so unless I am unlucky enough to try everytime they do incremental updates I think there is another problem. Just tried and got the following:

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ sudo apt-get update
Hit http://archive.raspberrypi.org wheezy InRelease
Hit http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy InRelease
Get:1 http://archive.raspberrypi.org wheezy/main armhf Packages [933 B]
Hit http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/main armhf Packages
Hit http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/contrib armhf Packages
Hit http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/non-free armhf Packages
Hit http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/rpi armhf Packages
Get:2 http://archive.raspberrypi.org wheezy/main Translation-en_GB [913 B]
Get:3 http://archive.raspberrypi.org wheezy/main Translation-en [910 B]
Get:4 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/contrib Translation-en_GB [922 B]
Get:5 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/contrib Translation-en [919 B]
Get:6 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/main Translation-en_GB [919 B]
Get:7 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/main Translation-en [916 B]
Get:8 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/non-free Translation-en_GB [923 B]
Get:9 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/non-free Translation-en [920 B]
Get:10 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/rpi Translation-en_GB [918 B]
Get:11 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/rpi Translation-en [915 B]
Fetched 10.1 kB in 11s (865 B/s)
W: Failed to fetch gzip:/var/lib/apt/lists/partial/archive.raspberrypi.org_debian_dists_wheezy_main_binary-armhf_Packages Hash Sum mismatch

E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

Quite frustrating as the pi is not that useful to me if I can't get updates or install software. Still a great product, just need to figure this out.

I had the same problem and managed to solve it by removing all files in

Code: Select all

/var/lib/apt/lists/partial/

and then doing

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sudo apt-get update

I suspect the corruption of one of the files in that directory happened when my SD card got 100% full (I forgot to expand the rootfs to fill the entire card).