Ubuntu – Can’t run synaptic package manager on Ubuntu 18.04.1

18.04synaptic

I installed synaptic through terminal, but I didn't find it when I search for it, so I uninstalled it. I tried to install it through package manager, I thought it would install more properly. Then I run it while searching and clicking by app launcher. I get prompt for sudo password then nothing happen… I tried to open synaptic through terminal, it worked but I got this error message:

Gtk-Message: 18:14:50.057: GtkDialog mapped without a transient parent. 
This is discouraged.

And a pop-up saying:

Starting "Synaptic Package Manager" without administrative privileges

  You will not be able to apply any changes, but you can still export
  the marked changes or create a download script for them.

I am using Ubuntu 18.04.1 and I'm new to Linux. Can anyone explain to me what happened and help me fix it, thanks.

Best Answer

This is a "feature" of Wayland, which prevents GUI software needing root from running via sudo. You can get around it by running

xhost +si:localuser:root

after logging in. If you often need to use sudo applications you could put this command in a script in your startup applications.

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Ubuntu – Synaptic opens with “starting without Administrative privileges

Since the common user does not have permission to install programs (Since installing programs is an administrative activity) you need to start synaptic as an administrator. To do this you can:

Start synaptic through the menu: System -> Administration -> Synaptic

Press ALT+F2 and type: gksu synaptic (gksu is to start a program in gui as administrator)

If you run it like one would normally would, just typing synaptic, synaptic will run with the privileges that the running user has. Since the privileges of the normal user are not administrative level, synaptic throughs that security message. At that level, you can only see the programs you can install and information related to them, but you can not install from the lack of administrative privileges.

NOTE - If you edit the main menu and go to the synaptic option of the menu, you will see it also starts with gksu. That is why in the menu it works like it should.

Ubuntu – Unable to install any package

If you delete the whole /var/lib/apt/lists hierarchic, you must create the partial directory under it:

sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/apt/lists/partial

Also, check that all the permissions are set:

sudo chmod -R 644 /var/lib/apt/lists
sudo chown -R root:root /var/lib/apt/lists

Then do apt-get update again.

Best Answer

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