I never had to edit the list myself, because I had no problems like you mention.
But I use the ignore.list that comes with the satan key bundle, it always worked ok for me.
Here is a copy of the text in this file, as you can see it have some basic info in the text as well. Everything written in lines beginning with # is comments. If there are centain packages that you cant get, you could try removing some of the entries.
But first I will recommend that you try to download the satandream keybundle (from satandream[dot]com if you cant find it in this forum), and copy all the files to var/keys.
Anyway, here is a sample ignore.list:
# Satan Key Bundle 25.07.08
#
# Viasat Baltic 5°E:
V: { 02 31 00}
;
# Canalsat/TPS/ABSat/Cyfra/MTV/XXX 19°E/13°E:
V: { 00 81 00 }
V: { 00 81 10 }
V: { 00 83 00 }
V: { 02 00 00 }
V: { 02 00 10 }
V: { 02 26 00 }
V: { 02 26 10 }
V: { 02 08 00 }
V: { 02 08 10 }
V: { 02 08 20 }
V: { 02 00 00 }
V: { 01 50 00 }
V: { 02 09 00 }
#V: { 02 09 10 }
V: { 03 0B 00 }
V: { 02 3A 00 }
V: { 02 3B 00 }
#V: { 02 51 00 }
V: { 02 51 10 }
V: { 02 2A 00 }
V: { 03 01 00 }
V: { 02 4B 00 }
V: { 02 4F 00 }
V: { 02 38 00 }
V: { 02 11 10 }
V: { 02 1C 00 }
V: { 02 44 00 }
V: { 03 01 00 }
V: { 03 20 00 }
V: { 03 28 20 }
;
# Max Tv 16°E:
V: { 02 4F 00 }
;#--------------------------------------#
#------- ignore seca providers: --------#
#---------------------------------------#
# Premiere Star/CanalDigitaal 19°E:
S: { 00 6C }
S: { 00 86 }
;
# ABSat 13°E:
S: { 00 3D }
;
# Orbit:
S: { 00 36 }
;
# Canal+ Fra/ABSat/CanalSat/MTV:
#S: { 00 81 }
S: { 00 88 }
S: { A8 21 }
S: { 00 85 }
S: { 00 84 }
S: { 00 05 }
S: { 00 68 }
S: { 00 7A }
S: { 33 17 }
S: { 33 11 }
S: { 33 15 }
S: { A8 25 }
#S: { 00 65 }
#---------------------------------------#
#------------ignore caids: -------------#
#---------------------------------------#
# Max TV 16°E:
X: { 09 1F }
X: { 0D 06 }
;
# Premiere/Premiere Star 19°E:
X: { 18 30 }
X: { 18 33 }
X: { 0D 22 }
X: { 18 31 }
X: { 09 C4 }
;
#MTV/Cyfra 19°E/13°E:
X: { 18 15 }
X: { 18 03 }
X: { 0B 01 }
X: { 0B 02 }
X: { 0D 02 }
;
# SexView/XXX:
X: { 06 10 }
X: { 4A D4 }
X: { 4A A1 }
X: { 4A 60 }
X: { 4A 70 }
X: { 4A BF }
X: { 4A D1 }
X: { 4A D0 }
X: { 06 22 }
X: { 06 30 }
;
# Premiere/KDH:
X: { 17 02 }
X: { 17 22 }
;
# Digi TV 1°W:
X: { 18 02 }
;
# MediaTech
X: { 09 29 }
#----------------------------------------#