Summary of the Launchpad comment (#1822369) Problem - update-manager aborts with "An unresolvable problem occurred while initializing the package information" and "E:can not open /var/lib/apt/lists/<repo>_InRelease - fopen (13: Permission denied)" when it starts while apt is refreshing its lists.
When it happens - update-manager is auto-started by update-notifier at login (07:55:36), while apt-daily.service (started 07:54:26) is still fetching, because its "wait-online" step is prefixed with "-" and the network is not ready. - The failing file was replaced by that same refresh 3 s later (ctime 07:55:39) while its content mtime stayed at the server's Last-Modified. - Afterwards the directory is 0755 and files are 0644 root:root, with no ACLs, no immutable flag, no AppArmor denial, clean dpkg -V, and apt.Cache() opens fine: so there is nothing to "fix" in /var/lib/apt/lists. Root cause - apt makes an existing list file temporarily unreadable while re-fetching it: Worker::QueueItem() chowns it to the sandbox user _apt and chmods it 0600. The only restore to root:root 0644 is in Worker::PrepareFiles(), called on URIDone/URIFailure. - If the refresh is interrupted between those points (Ctrl-C, PackageKit cancel, OOM, crash, session end), the file keeps mode 0600 and non-root readers get EACCES until a later successful update replaces it. - A completed refresh is safe: a delayed local repo reproduced with strace shows downloads land in lists/partial/, get chmod 0644, then are rename()d into lists/ atomically. This matches #2139395's finding that it is a partial/interrupted lists update, not a permission problem. Related reports (identical message, none marked duplicate) - #2024193, #2013252, #1931297, #2033880, #1928576, #2139395; #1323586 and #269467 cover unreadable apt files in other consumers. Suggested fixes - Restore root:root 0644 on the abort/failure/cleanup path (and on SIGINT/SIGTERM), or do the sandbox hand-off on a staging file only. - Make update-manager/python-apt retry when the package system is mid-refresh instead of aborting cache init. - Triage: mark the related bugs as duplicates of #1822369. Workaround for users - Close the dialog, let the refresh finish (sudo apt update), relaunch update-manager. Do not chmod or delete /var/lib/apt/lists. ** Attachment added: "apt-lists-eacces-trace-2026-11-03.txt" https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-manager/+bug/1822369/+attachment/6014618/+files/apt-lists-eacces-trace-2026-11-03.txt -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1822369 Title: update-manager crashed with apt_pkg.Error in open(): E:can not open /var/lib/apt/lists/archive.canonical.com_ubuntu_dists_disco_InRelease - fopen (13: Permission denied), E:The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened. To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/oem-priority/+bug/1822369/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
