I have just installed Kubuntu on my granddaughter's laptop.  It installed 
easily and KDE worked in what I regard as a "normal manner".
Until, that is, I wanted to install some programs.
Adept is a non-starter.  Everything that is not already installed is greyed 
out.  (There was one which was not installed and not greyed out, but I have 
installed it so there are now none.)  Obviously I must be doing something 
wrong, but it is difficult to see what.  And anyway, the programs I wanted to 
install - opera and either firefox or iceweasel, whichever name Kubuntu 
favours - are not there in amongst the greyed out packages.
So I tried aptitude.  No joy.  I edited the sources.list.  Still no joy.  I 
went on line, found another suggestion for an edit.  Tried it.  Still no joy.
I realise that if I spent days on Google, I would probably find the answer, 
and I apologise for this.  But I have spent hours, if I can't get Kubuntu 
satisfactorily installed I need time to try something else - and I am running 
out of time.  The problematic, and essential, things are wireless, 
OpenOffice.org (still incomplete), Opera and fully functioning Japanese.  
Wireless Just Worked (yay \o/) and I am now stuck on Opera (and Firefox would 
be nice).  The Japanese is likely to take me days.
So please, all you Ubuntu gurus, have you any suggestions?  The current 
sources.list is below, followed by my aptitude attempts after I had edited 
the sources.list to where it is.
TIA
Lisi
# deb cdrom:[Kubuntu 8.04.1 _Hardy Heron_ - Release i386
(20080701.2)]/ hardy main restricted
# See 
http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to
# newer versions of the distribution.
deb 
http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted
deb-src 
http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted
## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the
## distribution.
deb 
http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates main restricted
deb-src 
http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates main restricted
## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## universe WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu security
## team.
deb 
http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy universe
deb-src 
http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy universe
deb 
http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates universe
deb-src 
http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates universe
## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu
## security team.
deb 
http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy multiverse
deb-src 
http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy multiverse
deb 
http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates multiverse
deb-src 
http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates multiverse
## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from the 'backports'
## repository.
## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as
## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes
## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.
## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review
## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
# deb 
http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-backports main
restricted universe multiverse
# deb-src 
http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-backports main
restricted universe multiverse
## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's
## 'partner' repository. This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is
## offered by Canonical and the respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu
## users.
 deb 
http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu hardy partner
 deb-src 
http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu hardy partner
deb 
http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security main restricted
deb-src 
http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security main restricted
deb 
http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security universe
deb-src 
http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security universe
deb 
http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security multiverse
deb-src 
http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security multiverse
deb 
http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu hardy-commercial main
chihiro@Bedales:~$ sudo -i
root@Bedales:~# aptitude search opera
root@Bedales:~# aptitude search firefox
root@Bedales:~# aptitude search iceweasel
root@Bedales:~#