Explaining the names behind the ubuntu source lists – multiverse, universe, main, restricted

Thanks goes to Ryan52 for his explanation of this on the #slicehost irc.

multiverse is non free not officially supported.
restricted is non free officially supported.
main is free officiaully supported.
universe is non free officially supported.

This information was particularly helpful. I was missing multiverse at the end of my sources list at /etc/apt/sources.list

It looked like this:

1 deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted universe
      2 deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted universe
      3 
      4 deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates main restricted universe
      5 deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates main restricted universe
      6 
      7 deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security main restricted universe
      8 deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security main restricted universe
      

      


      
1 deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted universe

      2 deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted universe

      3 

      4 deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates main restricted universe

      5 deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates main restricted universe

      6 

      7 deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security main restricted universe

      8 deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security main restricted universe

      

      

      

      
and now it looks like this thanks to Ryan52s knowledge

      

      
1 deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted universe multiverse
      2 deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted universe multiverse
      3 
      4 deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
      5 deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
      6 
      7 deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security main restricted universe multiverse
      8 deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security main restricted universe multiverse
      

      


      
1 deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted universe multiverse

      2 deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted universe multiverse

      3 

      4 deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates main restricted universe multiverse

      5 deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates main restricted universe multiverse

      6 

      7 deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security main restricted universe multiverse

      8 deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security main restricted universe multiverse

      

      

      

      
Then I just ran sudo aptitude update to update my sources list.

      
I recently had to do this to get download some lib files using apt-get. In particular: http://packages.ubuntu.com/hardy/libdevel/libx264-dev when trying to follow Jim Neath’s tutorial on installing FFMPEG

      

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