Ubuntu apt-get install error

I tried installing few packages using apt-get on my Ubuntu machine and it kept failing and also the Ubuntu Software Center kept crashing on launch.

Error

Reading package lists… Error!
E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/archive.canonical.com_ubuntu_dists_precise_partner_binary-i386_Packages
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

To fixed the issue by deleting all the package lists files inside “/var/lib/apt/lists/” and downloaded the package lists from the repositories and “updated” them to get information on the newest versions of packages and their dependencies (sudo apt-get update).

sudo rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
sudo apt-get update

This seemed to fix the problem. Not sure what was the reason for the corruption of the files in the first place.

HDFC Alerts (R) Account Attempt Error User Login

I recently got this mail. It turned out to be fake but it almost caught be unguarded. This is the contents of the mail.

 

Dear Esteemed Customer,

Your Account has been flagged for Security issues within the last 24 hours. You are hereby mandated to confirm with our customer care your Online Login Information to quickly access this error. To ensure Smooth Banking Operation, You are also informed to correctly fill in your Secure Online Questions and Answers which you had already updated with our Bank upon your Registration.

Please click the link below to verify your account with us.

Click Here To Resolve The Issue

This Notice is strictly for Third Party Account Holders Only.

Thank You
Customers Service

Please endeavour To Open the Your Account Update Link using Internet Explorer 5.5 or Above .

Thank you for using HDFC Bank Ltd !
Copyright© 2010 – HDFC Bank Ltd. All rights reserved.

Information on protecting yourself from fraud, please review the Security Tips in our Security Center.

This is actually a form of phishing.

Phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

Quoted from Wikipedia.

There were four things which saved me.

1. The mail went to spam section. Credit goes to Google mail(Gmail) for this because unlike Yahoo mail it doesn’t put useful mails into spam. So I trusted Google mail to do its job.

2. On checking the sender email id, I realized it was from commercial Internet domain name (.com) instead of it being .net. All the mails from HDFC bank comes on domain ending with .net. This mail was from “customercare@hdfcbank.com” instead of net“.

3. Importantly I had never received this message despite trying to logging in with wrong passwords, Accidentally of course.

4. The most important point, the URL didn’t work. It was brought down for performing illegal action.

The fourth point also meant I could not see the html file, which also meant the end of the investigation. May be it’s a good thing that I don’t use Windows OS and there is no risk of using Internet Explorer, since the mail requested me to use IE. Somehow using Ubuntu and Macintosh(without Safari) makes me feel a little safer.

If you ever come across such mails be careful, because banks normally don’t ask you to login to Update your Account.

Please make time to go through the link, it contains a list of other spam mails.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Ubuntu: Super Cow Powers

When I first thought of using Ubuntu I was warned by some of my friends that it would not be a pleasant experience but I decided to take the plunge. Now after few months of using Ubuntu. I can assure you there weren’t many hassles. On the contrary I found out that Ubuntu has a good sense of humor too. To illustrate it, consider the two commands

apt-get
aptitude

They are used for installing and uninstalling software on Ubunu. I was curious to find out the difference between these commands, Since they performed the same task.

First I typed “apt-get” and in the response I received the text “This APT has Super Cow Powers.” caught my eye.

Next I typed “aptitude“. It didn’t give the desired results. So I typed “aptitude -23“(You can type any wrong input) and this time I got another text “This aptitude does not have Super Cow Powers.“.

I dumped what I was looking for and decided to investigate the “Super Cow Powers” and I came across few Easter eggs in apt-get and aptitude. I have listed some of them down for you.

1. Type “apt-get moo“

2. Type “aptitude moo“

3. Type “aptitude -v moo“

4. Type “aptitude -vv moo“

5. Type “aptitude -vvv moo“

6. Type “aptitude -vvvv moo“

7. Type “aptitude -vvvvv moo“

8. Type “aptitude -vvvvvv moo“

If you want information on difference between apt-get and aptitude visit aptitude versus apt-get. I didn’t discover all the above Easter eggs on my own. I found it in the thread Super Cow Powers vs No Super Cow Powers. Lastly I would like to thank Bharat Pawar was convincing me to find out more about “Super Cow Powers”.

Ubuntu One Music Store

Lots of people, who have been using Ubuntu wanted an iTunes like application for purchasing songs online. Unfortunately iTunes didn’t work on Linux. I don’t think Apple had any intention of supporting iTunes on Linux. So finally Ubuntu is coming out with it’s own version of music store.

This music store will be called Ubuntu One music store. It is believed that the song will use 256 kpbs (or higher) encoding which enhances the quality of the song. There are rumours around that it could feature free songs too. Am not sure how good these free songs would be, since if the songs are good it wouldn’t be free.

The Ubuntu One music store has been developed as a plug-in and so the users will be able to use it with a variety of music players in Linux. But in Ubuntu Lucid Lynx(Next version of Ubuntu) and above, it will be tightly integrated with the default music player – Rhythmbox.

Once you purchase the songs through the Ubuntu One music store, you can burn it on to a CD any number of times, Play through any software on any computer, and sync with any mp3 music device – even an iPod. iPod users can use the Rhythmbox plug-in libgpod for transferring the songs.

Check out this nice writeup on Ubuntu One music store.

The deisgn spec for Ubuntu One music store.

Songbird

Songbird is a free and open source software audio player and web browser founded by Rob Lord and developed by Pioneers of the Inevitable.

Songbird utilizes the cross-platform frameworks, Mozilla’s XULRunner and GStreamer media framework, and is thus capable of running on Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, Solaris and Linux.

All of the above facts were taken from the wiki page of Songbird. I have been using Songbird for few months now and I am pleasantly surprised by all the features it brings to the table. I have tried it on both Linux and Macintosh.

On Macintosh( may be on Windows too), It provides an option for Importing/Exporting play list from/to iTunes. So all you guys having iTunes installed on your machines can give this a try. Look at the screen shots provided.

Dialog for Importing/Exporting playlists

Best thing about this player, is the fact it not only plays the music but also fetches information about the artists. It fetches latest news, videos, photos and lyrics of the song being heard. Refer the images below.

Photos

Video

Latest News

Artist Information

Normally while using iTunes if I liked a song I would have had to search for lyrics on Google. But Songbird solved my problem by fetching the lyrics for me.

In the above photos you can see the lyrics on the right hand side. The lyrics can be saved. Once it is saved the lyrics won’t be fetched again. On Macintosh( and may be on Windows) the plugins for artist info, lyrics and photos have to be installed. Songbird would ask your permission for installing it. And only if it is installed these information would show up.

Alongside these, it is also a web-browser. I have used it to browse the web. But I don’t prefer it for https( secure) transactions, since I don’t know how reliable it is. So I won’t suggest it to you either.

It has fairly decent support for online radio. But for that you would have to create an account. Songbird can be used to manage ipod’s too. This is something I haven’t tried, but I have been told by few people that it is reliable and there are few other guys who say it is a little risky. So try or not trying this is your choice. Read How to use Songbird to manage your iPod.

I believe Songbird is as good as iTunes, as long as you don’t use iTunes stores.

A note of advice, don’t try using artist photo option in office if your office has bandwidth restricted for you guys. Because when this option is selected Songbird continuously previews images from web which your IT Manager might not like. So be careful.