$ pbuilder-dist wheezy update used to work (not sure how long ago, I don't use this very often). Now the default is just broken for Debian:
$ pbuilder-dist wheezy update
[sudo] password for kitterma:
W: /home/kitterma/.pbuilderrc does not exist
I: Logging to /home/kitterma/pbuilder/wheezy_result/last_operation.log
I: Upgrading for distribution wheezy
I: Building the build Environment
I: extracting base tarball [/home/kitterma/pbuilder/wheezy-base.tgz]
I: creating local configuration
I: copying local configuration
I: Installing apt-lines
I: mounting /proc filesystem
I: mounting /dev/pts filesystem
I: Mounting /var/cache/pbuilder/ccache
I: policy-rc.d already exists
I: Refreshing the base.tgz
I: upgrading packages
Get:1 http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates InRelease [87.8 kB]
Ign http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-updates InRelease
Get:2 http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-proposed-updates InRelease [135 kB]
Get:3 http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates/main i386 Packages [14 B]
Get:4 http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates/contrib i386 Packages [14 B]
Get:5 http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates/non-free i386 Packages [14 B]
Ign http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates/contrib TranslationIndex
Ign http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates/main TranslationIndex
Ign http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates/non-free TranslationIndex
Ign http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates/contrib Translation-en
Ign http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates/main Translation-en
Ign http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates/non-free Translation-en
Get:6 http://ftp.debian.org wheezy InRelease [187 kB]
Ign http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-updates Release.gpg
Get:7 http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-proposed-updates/main i386 Packages [14 B]
Get:8 http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-proposed-updates/contrib i386 Packages [14 B]
Get:9 http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-proposed-updates/non-free i386 Packages [14 B]
Ign http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-proposed-updates/contrib TranslationIndex
Get:10 http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-proposed-updates/main TranslationIndex [75 B]
Ign http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-proposed-updates/non-free TranslationIndex
Ign http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-updates Release
Get:11 http://ftp.debian.org wheezy/main i386 Packages/DiffIndex [7876 B]
Get:12 http://ftp.debian.org wheezy/contrib i386 Packages/DiffIndex [5611 B]
Get:13 http://ftp.debian.org wheezy/non-free i386 Packages/DiffIndex [7129 B]
Ign http://ftp.debian.org wheezy/contrib TranslationIndex
Get:14 http://ftp.debian.org wheezy/main TranslationIndex [2223 B]
Ign http://ftp.debian.org wheezy/non-free TranslationIndex
Get:15 http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-proposed-updates/contrib Translation-en [14 B]
Get:16 http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-proposed-updates/main Translation-en [14 B]
Get:17 http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-proposed-updates/non-free Translation-en [14 B]
Ign http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-updates/contrib TranslationIndex
Ign http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-updates/main TranslationIndex
Ign http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-updates/non-free TranslationIndex
Get:18 http://ftp.debian.org wheezy/main i386 Packages [5789 kB]
Get:19 http://ftp.debian.org wheezy/contrib i386 Packages [44.4 kB]
Get:20 http://ftp.debian.org wheezy/non-free i386 Packages [72.8 kB]
Get:21 http://ftp.debian.org wheezy/contrib Translation-en [36.1 kB]
Get:22 http://ftp.debian.org wheezy/main Translation-en [3823 kB]
Get:23 http://ftp.debian.org wheezy/non-free Translation-en [63.3 kB]
Err http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-updates/main i386 Packages
404 Not Found [IP: 130.89.148.12 80]
Err http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-updates/contrib i386 Packages
404 Not Found [IP: 130.89.148.12 80]
Err http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-updates/non-free i386 Packages
404 Not Found [IP: 130.89.148.12 80]
Ign http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-updates/contrib Translation-en
Ign http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-updates/main Translation-en
Ign http://ftp.debian.org wheezy-updates/non-free Translation-en
Fetched 10.3 MB in 27s (377 kB/s)
W: Failed to fetch http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/wheezy-updates/main/binary-i386/Packages 404 Not Found [IP: 130.89.148.12 80]
W: Failed to fetch http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/wheezy-updates/contrib/binary-i386/Packages 404 Not Found [IP: 130.89.148.12 80]
W: Failed to fetch http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/wheezy-updates/non-free/binary-i386/Packages 404 Not Found [IP: 130.89.148.12 80]
E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.
I: unmounting /var/cache/pbuilder/ccache filesystem
I: unmounting dev/pts filesystem
I: unmounting proc filesystem
I: cleaning the build env
I: removing directory /var/cache/pbuilder/build//5812 and its subdirectories
$ pbuilder-dist wheezy update should include a reasonable set up repositories for a Debian development release.
This bug was fixed in the package ubuntu-dev-tools - 0.142
---------------
ubuntu-dev-tools (0.142) unstable; urgency=low
[ Stefano Rivera ] dist-simple, packaging- environment, submittodebian, ubuntu-iso: depends, submittodebian, syncpackage:
* mk-sbuild: Support kmod, when checking for overlayfs availability.
* pbuilder-dist: improve bash_completion for *.dsc files. Thanks Maarten
Bezemer. (Closes: #670924, LP: #770529)
* check-mir, check-symbols, grep-merges, pbuilder-
setup-
Do enough argument parsing to handle --help (LP: #988009)
* dgetlp: Require a UTF-8 locale, or it'll crash when displaying errors
(LP: #979117)
* pbuilder-dist: Don't try to enable -updates for Debian testing
(LP: #993006)
* pbuilder-dist, pull-debian-source, pull-lp-source, requestsync,
reverse-
Handle outdated distro-info data. Fall back to sane defaults where
possible. (Closes: #673957)
* backportpackage: Avoid uploading orig tarballs if they are already present
in the destination PPA (LP: #691897)
* Allow mk-sbuild to be run by root if a configuration file exists
(LP: #888736)
* backportpackage: Allow unsigned backports (LP: #992739)
* update-maintainer: Add a function to restore the original maintainer.
- Update sponsor-patch to use the new API resulting from this change
(LP: #1002999)
* submittodebian: Revert Ubuntu Maintainer mangling, and re-build the source
package before diffing. (LP: #902233)
[ Evan Broder ] 04.1-style version numbers
* backportpackage: Add -c, --close flag to include a changelog closer.
* backportpackage: Switch to ~ubuntu12.
instead of ~precise1, to make our version numbers more future-proof.
* backportpackage: Pass -v to debuild with last published version
number. This matches the way backports have traditionally been
generated by archive admins.
-- Stefano Rivera <email address hidden> Mon, 28 May 2012 23:35:52 +0100