I am guessing you had a bad line/syntax/whatever at the sources line in your apt list -- this would match the error message in the backtrace. After you reinstalled feisty herd3, this was solved.
For the other crashes, please open a new bug for each, so we can track individually. ** Changed in: update-manager (Ubuntu) Assignee: (unassigned) => hggdh Status: Unconfirmed => Needs Info -- [apport] update-manager crashed with SystemError in open() https://launchpad.net/bugs/83185 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs