Cannot see all available packages after upgrade

[richard1054]

I hope that someone can help with this one. I am going round in circles.

I have upgraded a server from natty to precise, via oneiric. All seems to be working well, until I try and install some additional packages - which apparently do not exist. I know they exist, because I've got them installed on another precise box, and I can see them on packages.ubuntu.com. I'm not sure whether I'm explaining myself very well here, so let me demonstrate.

ON the problem box:
root@thistles:/etc/apt# aptitude search graphicsmagick
root@thistles:/etc/apt#

On the working box:
richard@nice:~$ aptitude search graphicsmagick
p graphicsmagick - collection of image processing tools
p graphicsmagick:i386 - collection of image processing tools
p graphicsmagick-dbg - format-independent image processing - debu
p graphicsmagick-dbg:i386 - format-independent image processing - debu
p graphicsmagick-imagemagick-comp - image processing tools providing ImageMagi
p graphicsmagick-libmagick-dev-co - image processing libraries providing Image
v libgraphicsmagick++-dev -
v libgraphicsmagick++-dev:i386 -
p libgraphicsmagick++1-dev - format-independent image processing - C++
p libgraphicsmagick++1-dev:i386 - format-independent image processing - C++
i A libgraphicsmagick++3 - format-independent image processing - C++
p libgraphicsmagick++3:i386 - format-independent image processing - C++
v libgraphicsmagick-dev -
v libgraphicsmagick-dev:i386 -
i libgraphicsmagick1-dev - format-independent image processing - C de
p libgraphicsmagick1-dev:i386 - format-independent image processing - C de
i A libgraphicsmagick3 - format-independent image processing - C sh
p libgraphicsmagick3:i386 - format-independent image processing - C sh

further:
root@thistles:/etc/apt# aptitude search '\-dev' |wc -l
323
richard@nice:~$ aptitude search '\-dev' |wc -l
9779

I've tried removing /var/lib/apt/lists/*
I've tried using sources.list from the box that is behaving
I've run apt-get update many times

Nothing works.

I've used Ubuntu almost since the beginning, and I've never encountered this before. Please help, I think I'm on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

[richard1054]

Ah, the confessional method of debugging... problem solved. Somehow (and I don't remember doing this) I had removed from sources.list everything except the security repositories. I've put the repositories back now, and everything seems to be working.

Perhaps I'm getting too old for 18-hour days...