I have the same problem when my updates reach that same unstable pdif file: $ sudo apt-get update Hit http://http.us.debian.org unstable Release.gpg [..] Get:7 http://http.us.debian.org unstable/contrib 2009-11-04-0016.39.pdiff [70.1kB] E: Method rred has died unexpectedly! E: Sub-process rred received a segmentation fault. Cheers, Andrew