[Fink-beginners] Fink Commander "hangs" on updating package data?

[Wolfgang K. <wol...@gm...>]

Hello,

after installing Gnome (from sources), Fink Commander got into a strange 
state. It just displays "package data being updated" (translated from german 
"Paketdaten werden jetzt aktualisiert" - I'm using the localised version of 
Fink Commander) in the statusbar at the bottom of the window and stays there.

Even after waiting the whole night for the update process to finish, nothing 
changes.

Hitting the "Stop" icon or choosing "Stop command" from the Tools menu 
doesn't change anything (after entering the - correct - password).

Quitting (which gives a warning message that this will terminate some process 
in Fink Commander) and re-opening Fink Commander doesn't change anything 
either.

Nor does restarting the Mac.

Nor does removing the whole /sw directory tree and re-installing both Fink 
and Fink Commander.

Huh?

What is going on here?

How can I get Fink Commander to work again?

I'm running MacOS X 10.4.7 on a PowerMac, with Fink Commander Version 0.5.4 
(.release), Package manager version: 0.24.23 and Distribution version: 
0.8.1.rsync powerpc

TIA,

Sincerely,

Wolfgang Keller

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