Thanks for looking into this. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be anything wrong now. When I was trying to track down this bug, I noticed that one of my repos was giving a 404 error, so I commented that repo out. Additionally, since I'd copied my sources.list from the old machine to the new one, some of the keys weren't installed. So, when I was troubleshooting this, I installed the keys, so that aptitude updated without any errors. Yet, after several updates, I was still experiencing the problem. That's when I reported this bug. Several days later, I noticed that update-manager had stopped complaining, and that /var/lib/apt/periodic/update-success-stamp had been touched. One other thing that might or might not be relevant: I use apt-cacher on my network to save bandwidth. I don't know if it can cause these types of problems or not. Here's the output you requested, which appears to be correct, now: ~:$ sudo apt-get update Get:1 http://192.168.1.50 main Release.gpg [189B] Ign http://192.168.1.50 main/editors Translation-en_US Ign http://192.168.1.50 main/games Translation-en_US Ign http://192.168.1.50 main/misc Translation-en_US Ign http://192.168.1.50 main/networking Translation-en_US Get:2 http://dl.google.com stable Release.gpg [189B] Get:3 http://packages.medibuntu.org hardy Release.gpg [189B] Ign http://192.168.1.50 main/scripts Translation-en_US Get:4 http://192.168.1.50 main Release [11.2kB] Get:5 http://192.168.1.50 main/editors Packages [4698B] Get:6 http://192.168.1.50 main/editors Sources [957B] Get:7 http://192.168.1.50 main/games Packages [3150B] Get:8 http://192.168.1.50 main/games Sources [394B] Get:9 http://192.168.1.50 main/misc Packages [12.3kB] Get:10 http://192.168.1.50 main/misc Sources [1374B] Get:11 http://192.168.1.50 main/networking Packages [1848B] Get:12 http://192.168.1.50 main/networking Sources [14B] Get:13 http://192.168.1.50 main/scripts Packages [1596B] Get:14 http://192.168.1.50 main/scripts Sources [692B] Ign http://dl.google.com stable/non-free Translation-en_US Get:15 http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy Release.gpg [191B] Get:16 http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security Release.gpg [189B] Ign http://packages.medibuntu.org hardy/free Translation-en_US Get:17 http://deb.opera.com stable Release.gpg [189B] Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net hardy Release.gpg Get:18 http://dl.google.com stable Release [1300B] Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy/main Translation-en_US Ign http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security/main Translation-en_US Ign http://packages.medibuntu.org hardy/non-free Translation-en_US Ign http://deb.opera.com stable/non-free Translation-en_US Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net hardy/main Translation-en_US Get:19 http://dl.google.com stable/non-free Packages [954B] Get:20 http://deb.opera.com stable Release [1079B] Get:21 http://packages.medibuntu.org hardy Release [9335B] Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net hardy Release.gpg Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy/restricted Translation-en_US Ign http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security/restricted Translation-en_US Get:22 http://packages.medibuntu.org hardy/free Packages [5432B] Get:23 http://packages.medibuntu.org hardy/non-free Packages [7732B] Ign http://deb.opera.com stable/non-free Packages Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net hardy/main Translation-en_US Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy/universe Translation-en_US Ign http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security/universe Translation-en_US Get:24 http://ppa.launchpad.net hardy Release [27.6kB] Get:25 http://deb.opera.com stable/non-free Packages [896B] Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy/multiverse Translation-en_US Ign http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security/multiverse Translation-en_US Get:26 http://ppa.launchpad.net hardy Release [27.6kB] Get:27 http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates Release.gpg [189B] Get:28 http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security Release [58.5kB] Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net hardy/main Packages Get:29 http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security/main Packages [29.0kB] Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net hardy/main Packages Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates/main Translation-en_US Get:30 http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security/restricted Packages [6156B] Get:31 http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security/universe Packages [19.4kB] Get:32 http://ppa.launchpad.net hardy/main Packages [1922B] Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates/restricted Translation-en_US Get:33 http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security/multiverse Packages [3465B] Get:34 http://ppa.launchpad.net hardy/main Packages [1755B] Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates/universe Translation-en_US Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates/multiverse Translation-en_US Get:35 http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-backports Release.gpg [189B] Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-backports/main Translation-en_US Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-backports/restricted Translation-en_US Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-backports/universe Translation-en_US Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-backports/multiverse Translation-en_US Get:36 http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy Release [65.9kB] Get:37 http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates Release [58.5kB] Get:38 http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-backports Release [44.0kB] Get:39 http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy/main Packages [1178kB] Get:40 http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy/restricted Packages [6986B] Get:41 http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy/main Sources [338kB] Get:42 http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy/restricted Sources [1488B] Get:43 http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy/universe Packages [4297kB] Get:44 http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy/multiverse Packages [179kB] Get:45 http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates/main Packages [271kB] Get:46 http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates/restricted Packages [6626B] Get:47 http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates/universe Packages [65.9kB] Get:48 http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates/multiverse Packages [12.0kB] Get:49 http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-backports/main Packages [50.6kB] Get:50 http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-backports/restricted Packages [14B] Get:51 http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-backports/universe Packages [18.7kB] Get:52 http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-backports/multiverse Packages [14B] Fetched 6836kB in 1min43s (66.3kB/s) Reading package lists... Done ~:$ echo $? 0 ~:$ ll /var/lib/apt/periodic/ total 0 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 2008-07-02 00:35 update-stamp -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 2008-07-02 20:04 update-success-stamp ~:$