Update Manager Problem

Linux Mint
1

Hello. I am a recent convert to Linux running Mint 19.1 on an old Windows box.

I recently noticed that the Update Manager icon had a red cross in it and, when I opened it, I saw the following error message -

"Could not refresh the list of updates

Malformed entry 3 in list file/etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional repositories.list (Suite). The list of sources could not be read."

I found the offending file which contained three lines of which line 3 read -

“deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/”

I decided that I would try deleting the offending line 3 but, when I then tried to save the edited file, “I’m afraid that I can’t let you do that Dave”. My user account is an administrator but clearly I do not have enough privileges to change what looks like a system file.

I would greatly appreciate any help on how to resolve this problem.

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2

Hi there, and welcome to our forum.

Is this a fresh install of Mint?
Very unlikely, that such an error occurs after a new install.
Have you installed some software (maybe from a deb file or a ppa) beforehand?

For the editing of the sources.list you have to be root.
Try
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional repositories.list
and give your user’s password when asked.
Then you can save the file after editing.
I would suggest you just comment the line out, not delete it.
Do so by adding “#” before the line.
So you can revert it easier, if something goes wrong.

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3

Hello and welcome to the Forum and Linux.
You can follow Fast.Edi’s recommendation and that will work. You can also do the same thing in synaptic package manager by selecting settings, repositories then other software tab. once there scroll down until you find the winehq ppa and uncheck it’s box. then close. It will automatically refresh the base and you should be set to go. Good Luck.

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4

Welcome to our community Miguel

I have posted this elsewhere today, so I have just copied and pasted it here to save time:
There are many long and complicated answers that will be found and some might be even given here. My advice is simple and uncomplicated and works every time. just reboot and that clears the problem as it resets everything. It works every time without fail for me and on every laptop or PC that we have Mint 19.1 on. It does seem to happen with every version of Mint when there is a new Ubuntu version being done so it could be a problem with them not mint
If this does not work the other simple answer is to do this. Open the terminal and then type in sudo apt-get update - this will get any updates that are available for your system.

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5

You haven’t said which desktop you’re using, but I think the file manager for both Cinnamon and MATE have the option of opening a folder as root (sometimes called ‘administrator’). This is really useful when you need to change syestem configuration files (e.g. in the /etc folder): you can simply open them in the text editor from within the folder opened as root.

Needless to say you should exercise caution when editing these files with root privileges.

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