That may help, but on the other hand whatever caused the ghost extra space to appear is the real problem. I worry that redoing the file would only recreate the problem. Still, it may be worth a try. First backup the current list, by doing "cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.bak". Then you can try removing the sources list and write an entirely new one. Try using a different editor maybe (vi/vim should be fine, but something is clearly going wrong with it).

I finally got it working. I made a new file and that cleared things up. Thanks for your help

This is so annoying! Why do we have to do this manually? Shouldn't it just use up as much space as necessary, no matter if we have 3 repos or 30? That's just user hostile, not user friendly.

Anyways, I trimmed down my sources, and it is working better no. No more contrib and non-free (for the short term)

I had the same error. I just got rid of the testing sites and it worked fine.

I think this didn't work:
[~]# etc/apt/apt.conf.d
-su: etc/apt/apt.conf.d: No such file or directory
[~]# etc/apt/apt.conf.d/70debconf
-su: etc/apt/apt.conf.d/70debconf: No such file or directory
[~]# etc/apt/apt.conf
-su: etc/apt/apt.conf: No such file or directory
[~]#

how do you make a new file?

Lillian Simmons
Still Free! in Round Rock, Texas, USA
http://xld.com

how do you make a directory?
this is what I got:


[~]# make dir apt.conf
make: *** No rule to make target `dir'. Stop.
[~]#

Lillian Simmons
Still Free! in Round Rock, Texas, USA
http://xld.com

Please don't triple-post. Please don't necro old topics.

Please go to your local bookstore, pick up a "Linux for dummies" book or similar title, and read it cover to cover.

Worked for me, thanks..

// Pre-configure all packages with debconf before they are installed.
// If you don't like it, comment it out.
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs {"/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt || true";};
APT::Cache-Limit "16777216";

Hey all, I had this problem as well, it didn't seem to help to add an apt.conf file.

So I just went into the source.list file and commented out most of the newer sources I had been adding (without totally knowing what I was doing so there were so errors)

just type:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

press down and add ## in the front of anything that you've added that isn't essential to update

Ctrl + X
and then Y for Yes to save
Enter

That seemed to clear it up. Now apt, synaptic and the system updater are working again.

APT::Cache-Limit "16777216";
in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/70debconf
only got me to 87%, but
APT::Cache-Limit "25165824";
worked (8388608*3). I supposed even
APT::Cache-Limit "18958255";
might have worked, but whatever.