Comment 11 for bug 113424

Ray, 16,777,216 is the default size -- the Linux forums where you got this value may be referencing an older version of apt or, perhaps, the upstream one. At least for Gutsy, this is the default (actually, it is set as 16*1024*1024, which is just a different way).

RIght now I am running apt with complete gutsy-only (i.e., no additional repositories), and the default is enough.

Can you please try it with 32M -- 33,554,432? This should be way more than needed.

I hope :-)

Also -- it may be that the lists got corrupted again, so you might need to rebuild them from scratch.