[SOLVED]Errors after Trying to Install Wine and VirtualBox on Linux Mint 18.3

[Ancient66]

Hi Everyone,
Don't groan-I'm back again! After trying to install the above software on my new Mint installation (first from the Software Manager and then directly from the appropriate website) the software manager won't work, all I'm getting now is after opening the Software Sources screen is:

"E Malformed entry 1 in the list file/etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list (Component)"

What have I done and how to fix it? Answers please in words of one syllable and the minimum tech speak. A easy to work solution would be very much appreciated!
Every thing else seems to work ok. Prior to trying these installations I successfully download and installed Opera and Libre Office, both of which work.
I only want to run one or two bits of Windows software hence Wine/VirtualBox. (sorry for mentioning the dreaded "W" word)
Thank you in advance for your patience and help.

Regards,
James.

[MrEen]

Hi James,

This will be a pretty easy fix. First, open a terminal and paste this in inxi -r then hit Enter. Copy the result and paste it back here. You can hit the </> button above the reply window before pasting so the result looks decently formatted.

Once we know what needs fixing, the next instruction will be to enter gksudo xed /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list (replacing xed with your text editor) to alter the offending file.

[Flemur]

"E Malformed entry 1 in the list file/etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list (Component)"

It's kinda what it says: the first line of that file has an error.
It should look something like this:
$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list

Code: Select all

deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ xenial main
# deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian xenial contrib

Edit: try that "cat" command, which will show the actual content of the file with the problem, and post results here. The inxi stuff may or may not tell you anything.

[Ancient66]

Hi Mr Een and Flemur, thank you for your replies. Sorry it's taken a while to come back (been to work etc). I've tried both suggestions and here are the results I got:

Screenshot at 2018-02-18 15-57-47.png

Screenshot at 2018-02-18 15-57-47.png

Sorry if these screenshots are not the best way of doing things but have really struggled to copy these results hence you can see the time it has taken. The latter one is the response to the command: cat /etc/apt//sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list

Thank you for your patience.

James

[Flemur]

Sorry if these screenshots are not the best way of doing things but have really struggled to copy these results

It's really easy. In a terminal:
- highlight the text you want to copy by dragging the mouse like in any other OS or application.
- rt-click -> "Copy", or (Ctrl+Shft+C = just like Ctrl+C but with Shift held, too)
- rt-click -> Paste to paste it here.
You have one entry listed four times and only the last one has the correct format, with a space before "xenial".

With a text editor

Code: Select all

gksudo gedit 

(or whatever your editor is) remove the first three lines in
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list
so you only have the one that looks like what I posted (ignoring the commented-out line: #).

Edit2: fix it by doing this:

Code: Select all

$ sudo -i
[sudo] password for X: 
# echo "deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ xenial main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list
# 
# cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list
deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ xenial main
#
# (Ctrl+D) = logout
$ sudo apt-get update

...no errors....

[Ancient66]

Hi Flemur, sorry to take so long to reply, thank you for your help, I've managed to overcome the problem with your suggestions, sorry for being such a dummy

Regards
James