LittlePenguin,

Usually repositories are just a server with packages for downloads. So any repository could have the pidgin package available. There is no way to actually check within the CL what repository is the original for a given package. Google will most probably give you the answer to that though.

If you want to check whether the package is good and is not a edited version or a compromised version. You could check the integrity by installing debsums and checking the MD5 checksums. But debsums is optional so not all packages would adhere to having a md5 checksum.

I understand that, Im asking this cuz when I just installed Squeeze and I ran aptitude install synaptic, or even vim, I got errors telling that my repository couldnt find them.

Thats when I had to figure what was wrong, and I "vied" the source of the repositories to find out that I only had two lines, and not a single line with non-free or contribute modifiers.

Thats why Im writing this, cuz Squeeze didnt install those 2 lines, so I spent 2 hours trying to understand why when I run aptitude install vim I got nothing but errors telling me that the package doesn't exist

That's all.

(And, come on, admit it, it would be nice to have a "repository browser")

Part of your problem may have been that you did not update your local "table of contents" by running "aptitude update" first.

Synaptic is a nice repository browser - at least in the sense of browsing/searching your repositories.

What did the "two lines" say?

Were you connected to the internet during the install?