We have come across several users who run older versions of debian. This is usually fine, sometimes for some reasons users are unable to update for some time but require a package to be installed. This is where the fun begins…
Today it was debian Etch install
hostname:/etc/apt# apt-get update
Ign http://ftp.nz.debian.org etch Release.gpg
Ign http://ftp.nz.debian.org etch Release
Ign http://ftp.nz.debian.org etch/main Packages
Ign http://ftp.nz.debian.org etch/contrib Packages
Ign http://ftp.nz.debian.org etch/non-free Packages
Err http://ftp.nz.debian.org etch/main Packages
404 Not Found
Err http://ftp.nz.debian.org etch/contrib Packages
404 Not Found
Err http://ftp.nz.debian.org etch/non-free Packages
404 Not Found
Get:1 http://security.debian.org etch/updates Release.gpg [835B]
Hit http://security.debian.org etch/updates Release
Err http://security.debian.org etch/updates Release
Get:2 http://security.debian.org etch/updates Release [37.6kB]
Ign http://security.debian.org etch/updates Release
Ign http://security.debian.org etch/updates/main Packages/DiffIndex
Ign http://security.debian.org etch/updates/contrib Packages/DiffIndex
Ign http://security.debian.org etch/updates/non-free Packages/DiffIndex
Hit http://security.debian.org etch/updates/main Packages
Hit http://security.debian.org etch/updates/contrib Packages
Hit http://security.debian.org etch/updates/non-free Packages
Fetched 38.5kB in 0s (87.2kB/s)
Failed to fetch http://ftp.nz.debian.org/debian/dists/etch/main/binary-i386/Packages.gz 404 Not Found
Failed to fetch http://ftp.nz.debian.org/debian/dists/etch/contrib/binary-i386/Packages.gz 404 Not Found
Failed to fetch http://ftp.nz.debian.org/debian/dists/etch/non-free/binary-i386/Packages.gz 404 Not Found
Reading package lists... Done
W: GPG error: http://security.debian.org etch/updates Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 9AA38DCD55BE302B
W: Couldn't stat source package list http://ftp.nz.debian.org etch/main Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.nz.debian.org_debian_dists_etch_main_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)
W: Couldn't stat source package list http://ftp.nz.debian.org etch/contrib Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.nz.debian.org_debian_dists_etch_contrib_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)
W: Couldn't stat source package list http://ftp.nz.debian.org etch/non-free Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.nz.debian.org_debian_dists_etch_non-free_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)
W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems
E: Some index files failed to download, they have been ignored, or old ones used instead.
As you can see, this install also doesnt have current GPG keys either. This is easily fixed however. Just edit the /etc/apt-sources.list
Previous Line
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ etch main non-free contrib
New Line is
deb http://archive.debian.org/debian/ etch main non-free contrib
Now apt-get update and away you go. Probably pays at this time to look into upgrading as soon as possible, there are no longer security upgrades for these distros.