synaptic

[fwm]

I recently installed Debian 12 .
The synaptic package manager won't launch.
What is the fix?
Thanks

[bbbhltz]

Hi,

Can you give a little bit more info? You used the installer and chose a DE I'm guessing? Did you choose Gnome or another?

Have you tried launching it from the terminal?

The only time I've encountered this issue was when I managed to remove a policykit package.

But, easy things to try first: restart, update/upgrade, purge synaptic and reinstall.

(Also, can you change the title of the first post to something like "Synaptic won't launch"?)

[wizard10000]

I'm afraid synaptic doesn't work as it should under Wayland. It'll work fine in an X11 session, though.

[fwm]

I am using XFCE , I also have GNOME installed.

The following is code information:

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fred@debian:~$ loginctl show-session $(loginctl show-user $(whoami) -p Display --value) -p Type --value 
x11
fred@debian:~$ dpkg --status synaptic 
Package: synaptic
Status: install ok installed

fred@debian:~$ synaptic-pkexec 
==== AUTHENTICATING FOR com.ubuntu.pkexec.synaptic ====
Authentication is required to run the Synaptic Package Manager
Authenticating as: root
Password: 
polkit-agent-helper-1: error response to PolicyKit daemon: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1.Error.Failed: No session for cookie
==== AUTHENTICATION FAILED ====
Error executing command as another user: Not authorized

This incident has been reported.
fred@debian:~$ su -
Password: 
root@debian:~# synaptic-pkexec 
Failed to initialize GTK.

Probably you're running Synaptic on Wayland with root permission.
Please restart your session without Wayland, or run Synaptic without root permission
root@debian:~# 

[bbbhltz]

Are there any root-owned files in your home

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# find ~/ -user root

If there are, you need to change that

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sudo chown -Rc $USER:$USER $HOME

Reboot and reinstall Synaptic and don't launch it with sudo

[peer]

I am running debian 12 kde-plasma on wayland and synaptic just works. I do not know if there are extras installed(needed) to make it work.

[Dude Guyman]

I'm running v12.6 with Xfce, no problem.

Created a root password?
Put user in sudoers group?

Add user to sudoers (correct the "YourUserName" part):

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su -
usermod -aG sudo YourUserName

[fwm]

"Are there any root-owned files in your home" No- based on the code below

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fred@debian:~$ # find ~/ -user root
fred@debian:~$

[fwm]

"Created a root password?"
Yes the root password works

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fred@debian:~$ su -
Password: 
root@debian:~#

Synaptic worked without a problem in debian 11.9 bullseye

[CwF]

Synaptic worked without a problem in debian 11.9 bullseye

Since it was working in 11, assuming you were using 'synaptic-pkexec', something in polkit changed in the upgrade to 12. I did post a year or two back about the restructure of polkit and the loss of use after. Do you know what rules and methods were in use to allow the user through polkit? Since the password fails in your post above, polkit's setup is the issue. No setup and incorrect setup yield that result. It could be that the former rules were pkla based - which broke without the additional package 'polkit-pkla'. The newer js based format had been functional prior.

As I remember, listchanges did mention it.

Also on older installs there may have been no default rule to include sudo members in polkit actions. I believe that is now included by default.

You need to re-configure polkit. There are a few discussion to find that may help...
https://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php ... it#p795066

My ways may or may not line up with your requirements. You can alter the method in many ways to suite. Using the method I used in that link, you could use the sudo group instead if desired.

[fwm]

Thanks for all the input - problem "solved"

Briefly- the problem was that synaptic would not open under the Xfce
platform.
I went around the problem by entering the Gnome classic on Xorg platform
- clicking on the wheel - upper right hand bar- shows platform options.
- synaptic launches from this platform.
Once I downloaded packages, I restarted the computer and logged
into the Xfce platform.

I know it sounds like a lot of work - but I really prefer the Xfce platform
for its simplicity and ease of use.

[Bulkley]

. . . but I really prefer the Xfce platform
for its simplicity and ease of use.

Yes, Xfce is a nice desktop.

As to Synaptic, I haven't used it for many years. When I did have it I just used it as a package browser. There is another package browser that is very handy, Gnome Package Search.

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# apt install package search

I think you can actually use Package Search to install packages but I prefer to use line commands in a terminal.