no vim candidate?! isn't this it: http://packages.debian.org/wheezy/vim
what exactly needs to be in sources.list? i got this installing from iso. initially the cdrom part was in but since i don't have a cdrom i got rid of it... # # deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 7.1.0 _Wheezy_ - Official amd64 DVD Binary-1 20130615-23:06]/ wheezy contrib main #deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 7.1.0 _Wheezy_ - Official amd64 DVD Binary-1 20130615-23:06]/ wheezy contrib main #deb http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib #deb-src http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib # wheezy-updates, previously known as 'volatile' # A network mirror was not selected during install. The following entries # are provided as examples, but you should amend them as appropriate # for your mirror of choice. # deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-updates main contrib # deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-updates main contrib ~ here is the awesomeness: root@debian:/etc/apt# apt-get update Hit http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-updates Release.gpg Hit http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-updates Release Get:1 http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-updates/main amd64 Packages/DiffIndex [367 B] Hit http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-updates/contrib amd64 Packages Hit http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-updates/contrib Translation-en Get:2 http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-updates/main Translation-en/DiffIndex [367 B] Fetched 734 B in 0s (1,007 B/s) Reading package lists... Done root@debian:/etc/apt# apt-get install vim Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Package vim is not available, but is referred to by another package. This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or is only available from another source E: Package 'vim' has no installation candidate thanks...
