How not to do automatic updates
Today’s attempt at upgrading packages produced this:
Reading package lists... Error! E: Encountered a section with no Package: header E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/extras.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_precise_main_i18n_Translation-en E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
The contents of that file?
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <HTML> <HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Pragma" CONTENT="no-cache"> <META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh" CONTENT="0;url=https://login.wifiportal.co.nz"> <TITLE>Welcome to FIVO Hotspot, Product of Natcom LTD NZ</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> </BODY> </HTML>
I don’t have unattended upgrades enabled on my Ubuntu laptop. Nevertheless, there’s something which goes around and replaces files in /var/lib/apt with whatever junk it gets from whatever network it happens to be connected to at random times. Can I be the only person who thinks this is a Really Bad Idea?
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