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Running the update command gives this error message.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get update
E: Type '�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ռ��ռ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������' is not known on line 1 in source list /etc/apt/sources.list
E: The list of sources could not be read.

What does this mean? How can I fix it?

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  • 1
    Did you check the first line of your source list file as the message clearly says?
    – xangua
    Feb 6, 2015 at 16:03
  • How do I do that? I am a NOOB.
    – Paul
    Feb 6, 2015 at 17:16

2 Answers 2

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Looks like something has splurged binary nonsense into something that should be a text file. There isn't a simple way to step around this, you need to fix the file.

Check the file first. If it's just the first line that's like this, delete the line, save and try again:

sudoedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Failing that, I would look at deleting (sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list) and regenerating a new sources.list. It's easiest to just use the Software Properties GUI but the RepoGen website is fairly useful if you want to add a load of other repos at the same time.

1
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Your /etc/apt/sources.list file is corrupt. Try mv /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.bak and restore an uncorrupted version from your backup or copy an unmodified one from installation media.

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