Re: does this /etc/apt/sources.list look okay?

[Colin <cwvca_SPAMNOT@hotmail.com>]

Default User wrote:
> Hello. 
> This is my /etc/apt/sources.list file: 
> 
> 
> 
>     #deb file:///cdrom/ sarge main
> 
>     deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/ stable main
>     deb-src ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/ stable main
> 
>     deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main
> 
> 
> 
> That was created by Debian Stable after a fresh install.  It seems
> rather sparse. After past installs of earlier versions the file had more
> entries, iirc.  

Well, the only things I would add are the contrib and non-free branches
as well (by putting "contrib non-free" after "main" in the lines above.
 It's not absolutely necessary but it gives you access to more packages.

> 
> Also, I don't seem to be getting any updates after running:
> 
> sudo apt-get check
> sudo apt-get clean
> sudo apt get update
> sudo apt-get upgrade
> sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
> 
> Am I missing some important or at least useful entries?  

The only things you need to do to update your system are:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Maybe do a "sudo apt-get autoclean" once a month or so to clean out the
cache.  Since you are using the stable distro, you shouldn't see large
batches of updates because it is... well... stable (meaning not a lot of
changes).