The Perfect Desktop Debian Lenny: Configure Additional Repositories

[ensens]

Hello,

I'm new to Debian. And, after reading "The Perfect Desktop - Debian Lenny" I have questions. My questions are regarding the steps on page 2, for section 5, "Configure Additional Repositories".

I will list my original "sources.list" file. Then I will write about accessing the "Software Sources" dialogue box from the "Synaptic Package Manager".

My original sources.list file:
# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 5.0.0 _Lenny_ - Official i386 NETINST Binary-1 20090214-16:03]/ lenny main
# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 5.0.0 _Lenny_ - Official i386 NETINST Binary-1 20090214-16:03]/ lenny main
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ lenny main
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ lenny main
deb http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main
deb http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile lenny/volatile main
deb-src http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile lenny/volatile main

First, I noticed that I had volatile while in the "The Perfect Desktop - Debian Lenny" document there is no volatile entry in the sources.list file. Why is there a volatile entry in my sources.list file? What is the volatile repository?

Secondly, when I open "Synaptic Package Manager" and click "Settings->Repositories" I'm shown the "Software Sources" window box. Next, when I click the tab labeled "Debian Software" I see the section "Downloadable from the Internet" with only the following two boxes checked "Officially supported (main) and Source code. Unchecked are both the "DFSG-compatible Software with Non-Free Dependencies (contrib)" and the "Non-DFSG-compatible Software (non-free)".

So, please explain what the following two are and why they can't simply be checked at this point:
DFSG-compatible Software with Non-Free Dependencies (contrib)-
Non-DFSG-compatible Software (non-free)

Third, you wrote to add the Debian-Multimedia repository. But the web page you have doesn't show the repository for the United States. Would you please let me know.

Thank you for your time and help.

[Hans]

Originally Posted by ensens

What is the volatile repository?

Here is some information about it.