It would be awesome if synaptic respected the XDG Spec to reduce clutter in $HOME.

$ ll ~/.synaptic
.rw-rw-r-- alichtman alichtman   0 B Sat May 27 2023 05:40:06 AM  options
.rw-rw-r-- alichtman alichtman 322 B Sat May 27 2023 05:40:06 AM  synaptic.conf

I think the patch would need to be made right here: https://github.com/mvo5/synaptic/blob/a6ac0c3be9b587b90632bef2997fbe31d16b2355/common/rconfiguration.cc#L140-L146C25

If ~/.synaptic exists, use that.
Else, create $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/synaptic if needed and use that as the config dir.

@mvo5, would you accept a PR for this issue?

I have seen two bad news at

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1011688
https://tracker.debian.org/news/1339850/synaptic-removed-from-testing/

So you have to fix Synaptic sources to prevent its removal from Debian testing and then Ubuntu.

Below is the way to reproduce:

mkdir /tmp/synaptic
cat <<EOF > /tmp/synaptic/build-synaptic.sh
set -x
set -e
echo "deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian testing main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list

apt-get update -qq > /dev/null
apt-get dist-upgrade -y -q > /dev/null
apt-get install -y -q wget xz-utils dpkg-dev debhelper-compat libapt-pkg-dev gettext libgtk-3-dev libvte-2.91-dev intltool xmlto libsm-dev sharutils lsb-release libept-dev > /dev/null

cd /root
wget http://deb.debian.org/debian/pool/main/s/synaptic/synaptic_0.90.2.tar.xz
tar -xf synaptic_0.90.2.tar.xz
cd synaptic-0.90.2
dpkg-buildpackage -uc -us
EOF

docker run -it --rm -v /tmp/synaptic:/root debian:testing bash /root/build-synaptic.sh

to get the following error:

make[4]: Entering directory '/root/synaptic-0.90.2/common'
g++ -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I..  -I/usr/include/apt-pkg  -DSYNAPTICLOCALEDIR=\""/usr/share/locale"\" -DSYNAPTICSTATEDIR=\""/var/lib/synaptic"\" -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2  -g -O2 -ffile-prefix-map=/root/synaptic-0.90.2=. -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -c -o pkg_acqfile.o pkg_acqfile.cc
g++ -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I..  -I/usr/include/apt-pkg  -DSYNAPTICLOCALEDIR=\""/usr/share/locale"\" -DSYNAPTICSTATEDIR=\""/var/lib/synaptic"\" -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2  -g -O2 -ffile-prefix-map=/root/synaptic-0.90.2=. -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -c -o rconfiguration.o rconfiguration.cc
g++ -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I..  -I/usr/include/apt-pkg  -DSYNAPTICLOCALEDIR=\""/usr/share/locale"\" -DSYNAPTICSTATEDIR=\""/var/lib/synaptic"\" -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2  -g -O2 -ffile-prefix-map=/root/synaptic-0.90.2=. -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -c -o rinstallprogress.o rinstallprogress.cc
g++ -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I..  -I/usr/include/apt-pkg  -DSYNAPTICLOCALEDIR=\""/usr/share/locale"\" -DSYNAPTICSTATEDIR=\""/var/lib/synaptic"\" -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2  -g -O2 -ffile-prefix-map=/root/synaptic-0.90.2=. -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -c -o rpackage.o rpackage.cc
rconfiguration.cc: In function 'bool RWriteConfigFile(Configuration&)':
rconfiguration.cc:89:8: error: 'getuid' was not declared in this scope; did you mean 'getpwuid'?
   89 |    if (getuid() == 0) {
      |        ^~~~~~
      |        getpwuid
rconfiguration.cc: In function 'bool checkConfigDir(std::string&)':
rconfiguration.cc:138:19: error: 'getuid' was not declared in this scope; did you mean 'getpwuid'?
  138 |    pwd = getpwuid(getuid());
      |                   ^~~~~~
      |                   getpwuid
rconfiguration.cc: In function 'bool RInitConfiguration(std::string)':
rconfiguration.cc:244:7: error: 'getuid' was not declared in this scope; did you mean 'getpwuid'?
  244 |    if(getuid() == 0) {
      |       ^~~~~~
      |       getpwuid
make[4]: *** [Makefile:478: rconfiguration.o] Error 1
make[4]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
rpackage.cc: In member function 'bool RPackage::isShallowDependency(RPackage*)':
rpackage.cc:1148:1: warning: no return statement in function returning non-void [-Wreturn-type]
 1148 | }
      | ^
make[4]: Leaving directory '/root/synaptic-0.90.2/common'
make[3]: *** [Makefile:426: all-recursive] Error 1
make[3]: Leaving directory '/root/synaptic-0.90.2'
make[2]: *** [Makefile:367: all] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory '/root/synaptic-0.90.2'
dh_auto_build: error: make -j4 returned exit code 2
make[1]: *** [debian/rules:39: override_dh_auto_build] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/root/synaptic-0.90.2'
make: *** [debian/rules:16: build] Error 2
dpkg-buildpackage: error: debian/rules build subprocess returned exit status 2

It would be great if Synaptic had (optional) support for Flatpak and Snap packages.

I got mixed versions of packages in linux because I added "debian backports" (as far as i can remember it was "debian backports") repo before but then removed later. Anyhow the packages were already installed by those versions from "debian backports". For example: a random package version like "1:3.0.18-dmo9" stays on top and considered "higher or latest" version than "3.0.19" from "kali-rolling" repo, that's why I want to [force] reinstall ALL (or at least the ones which has issues like that ) packages to "kali-rolling" versions, and it's creating big issues like removing a lot of softwares and other packages. Are there any easy and safe ways (maybe using apt pinning) to do this in synaptic manager or aptitude or etc?

Here you can see that "1:3.0.18-dmo9" is considered latest and forcing version to "3.0.19" from (kali-rolling repo) is considered as DOWNGRADING

Here i selectively forced verions for vlc packages:

No broken packages but look at this:

Some strings are not available for translation. See #22 for more information.

README says All development is done at "https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/synaptic" ... but it appears this repo is the current source?

Building 0.90 release with apt >= 1.9.11 fails, because apt-pkg/md5.h removed with Debian/apt@e801680#diff-f732901b0b601fffd4358fefb725bbb3

Consider this:

If we could move the label above the filter widget inside it, the toolbar icons would line up much better with the filter widget.

This approach seems to be quite common in other applications:

I'd also be happy to create a new homepage using github pages if interested. Either way, it should link to something that is actively maintained.

Here is the GTK migration guide:
https://docs.gtk.org/gtk4/migrating-3to4.html

Commit ac2c123 was the first step!

I was trying to port code using deprecated GtkImageMenuItem, and found these on GTK+ 3 reference manual

You should consider using icons in menu items only sparingly, and for "objects" (or "nouns") elements only, like bookmarks, files, and links; "actions" (or "verbs") should not have icons.

Should I follow the document and remove most icons in menu item?

Hi there,

Thanks for all the effort you've put into this UI over the years.

Synaptic version: 0.84.6
Linux Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Cinnamon (Ubuntu 20.04 LTS base)

I've found a bug related to having multiple versions of a package available in different repos. For simplicity's sake, let's define these names:

Package Z: The package in question, let's say there's version 1 and 2 available.
Repo A: The repo with version 1 of Z.
Repo B: The repo with version 2 of Z.

Problem Description:

Please bear with me because I haven't found a more concise/coherent way to describe this problem. I've checked my setup a few times now to make sure I'm not making a silly error.

If I have Z-1 installed, and use the Origin selection to view Repo A/focal, I can see a variety of packages that are installed, but Z does not show up, even though Z-1 is in this repo. If I view Repo A/now, Z still doesn't show up, even though I have the version from this repo - this is very confusing.

If at this point I look at Repo B/focal, Z shows up, even though the version I have installed is from Repo A. Side note: Package X shows up 4 times (identically) in the list here, perhaps related to #58? Repo B/now doesn't list Z, which makes sense, because Z is installed from Repo A.

At this point, I'm wondering what version of Z I have installed, as Synaptic doesn't think either version is installed when viewing from the Origin filter. If I just search for Z under All, it shows up, and shows that I have Z-1 from Repo A, and also shows Z-2 is available from Repo B, and that Z is hence upgradable to version 2.

To summarise, I was very confused and had to use the commandline to check with apt show and apt policy and look at the repos on launchpad.net to double check what was going on.

Actual repositories and package names:

In case this is useful:

Package X is virt-manager, and the versions are 1:3.0.0-0ppa0 and 3.2.0-3backport20.04-202111051420~ubuntu20.04.1.

Repo A is https://launchpad.net/~jacob/+archive/ubuntu/virtualisation

Repo B is https://launchpad.net/~canonical-server/+archive/ubuntu/server-backports/

I apologise if this is incoherent. Let me know and I will try to find a clearer way to explain the problem.

If there's anything I can do to help, let me know.

This repo doesn't have enough stars.

Close this issue if it's inappropriate, but honestly, I am shocked by the lack of stars this repo has. Synaptic Package Manager has probably been used at least once by everybody who has tried Linux. It's very possibly the best apt GUI there ever was. I'm surprised this repo doesn't have millions of stars. I can see in the commits that the developers are working hard on this program, and yet it only gets 90 stars. Clearly, this software is highly underrated.

I've contributed a star, but we will need more contributors to fix this issue. And thank you for all the hard work.

It’s more a questions than bugs i will open several issue if there are real bug.

On debian testing synaptic can’t work without systemd. I also not use gnome.
synaptic-pkexec not work.

and with the last update of su (env things) we need 'su -' instead of 'su' synaptic won't start :
(synaptic:5480): Gtk-WARNING **: 17:45:27.759: cannot open display

(using synaptic 0.84.6 on Debian Buster)

When one have a duplicate in its source.list / source.list.d/*, then synaptic is issuing a window pop up message like this one:

It is scarring for the user since it's written "Error" while it should only be a warning since it doesn't prevent Synaptic from running normally, it just slows it down because it pings different addresses. Suggestion is that it should be a "Warning" pop up windows instead of a "Error" one.

Going further, it'd be awesome to have a tick-box option somewhere to avoid synaptic to show this window if I choose so.

I can't sort packages by the date of which they were installed. I know there's a history log but you can't just mark a package and purge it instantly from the history log, you have to open up the history log every time per each package in order to uninstall a group of recently installed packages.

I'm trying to find the way how to create a synaptic.css with some changes for scrollbar position for terminal progress window only. That is the specific name of that window, to be able to edit my theme for terminal progress window only, in a .css theme file? The rest are loocking well. Sorry for this kind of question here, but nobody else can know that.
P.S. Done. window > box > box > box > box > scrollbar.vertical No chance to find any thing about current vte-terminal .css styling.

I have mozilla packaged Firefox running in wayland.
Synaptic packages pages usually have a a link to the package 'homepage'.
This are URLs but they are broken with Firefox, in that if Firefox is already running

The error is a dialog:
Firefox is already running, but is not responding. To use Firefox, you must first close the existing Firefox process, restart your device, or use a different profile.

If firefox is not running, it works.

I am reporting it here because I don't have this problem with other apps.
Even in a terminal with firefox running, this will open a new tab

firefox google.com

I conclude there is something about the way Synaptic is launching firefox which is not working.
I am using Ubuntu 22.10 and the wayland gnome session.

Synaptic: 0.91.2

askubuntu question: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1458880/firefox-mozilla-binary-wayland-can-not-open-system-links-firefox-is-already-ru

0.84.6ubuntu5

That's how I discovered the problem.

First, run synaptic with a custom option in the command line:

# sed -ne '/description/I p' ~/.synaptic/synaptic.conf
# synaptic -o Synaptic::descriptionParser=2 # stripws parser
# sed -ne '/description/I p' ~/.synaptic/synaptic.conf 
  descriptionParser "2";
# 

Well, the option has been saved in the file, which might be unexpected, but at least explainable under a certain logic.

So, if we run synaptic again without such option, we see the "stripws" formatting of descriptions.

Now, the problem is that even specifying the option with another value now does not affect synaptic:

# synaptic -o Synaptic::descriptionParser=1 # deb parser

and we see still the "stripws" formatting.

(Ultimately, clean up from the experiment:

~# sed -ne '/description/I p' ~/.synaptic/synaptic.conf 
  descriptionParser "2";
# sed -i -e '/description/I d' ~/.synaptic/synaptic.conf 

What should happen:

Synaptic should as previously show a single item for each package when viewing package list from a particular 'origin'.

What does happen:

For many packages up to 4 identical entries are shown for each package. See attached screencap.

Duplicate list items are quite literally identical and are true duplicates as they relate to the identical package in all respects, including full version. In fact, so much so, that selecting one of a duplicate for an operation such as install/upgrade/remove etc selects and then operates on all the duplicate entries as well.

Same problem has been noted on a real machine and in VM running variants of Xenial - Xubuntu/Kubuntu etc, with or with any ppas present on system.

Quoted from https://pad.lv/1533554 , it is a bug with about 5 years history.

The default Synaptic icon has low resolution and looks blurry in GNOME Shell Overview.

I added a local repository

deb file:///path-to-repo ./

and Synaptic sees the added packages and can install/update them, but when I click the "Origin" button, I see everything sources (Ubuntu repositories, PPA, OBS, MediaArea and so on) except this repository.

Xubuntu 22.04, Synaptic 0.91.3.

see termux/x11-packages#290 (comment)

Hi again.

Here's another complex bug report, hopefully at least as coherent as the last. Again, thank you for your hard work, this GUI is invaluable.

Synaptic version: 0.84.6
Linux Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Cinnamon (Ubuntu 20.04 LTS base)

For simplicity's sake, let's define these names:

Package Y: The main package, version 1 and 2 are available, and Y-1 depends on Z-1, Y-2 depends on Z-2.
Package Z: The dependency, version 1 and 2 are available.

Problem Description:

When forcing version 1 of Y, synaptic reports the package is broken because Z-2 (the dependency) is going to be automatically installed (would be nice to avoid altogether by installing the correct version of Z). If I then force version 1 of Z, I am confusingly informed that Y is changed, and will now be installed, even though I already requested this. Everything then looks fine, but when I try to apply the changes, Synaptic refuses the operation, and says packages would be broken.

Forcing Z-1 (the dependency) and then Y-1 causes no issues and the operation works just fine.

I suspect what is happening is that when I force Z-1, and am told that Y is to be installed, even though I already chose to install Y, is that Y-2 is then being selected by synaptic (for some reason). Then, even though Y-2 depends on Z-2, my guess is Synaptic isn't checking the packages aren't broken at that point, so it says I'm good to go, even though the request is invalid.

Actual repositories and package names:

In case this is useful:

Package Y is virt-manager, and the versions are 1:3.0.0-0ppa0 and 3.2.0-3backport20.04-202111051420~ubuntu20.04.1.

Package Z (the dependency) is virtinst and the versions are 1:3.0.0-0ppa0 and 3.2.0-3backport20.04-202111051420~ubuntu20.04.1 (the same as for virt-manager).

I hope that made sense. As before, if you need me to clarify, I will happily do so. Let me know if I can help in any other way.

To reproduce the issue:

• Open synaptic
• Block a package (this creates an entry in /var/lib/synaptic/preferences)
• Unblock the package (this leaves an empty line in /var/lib/synaptic/preferences)
• Refresh the cache ... everything works fine
• Close synaptic
• Run synaptic's refresh in update mode with:

sudo /usr/bin/synaptic --update-at-startup

and you get the following error:

Analysis:

The error comes from RAPTOptions::restore(), it is detected both in update mode and in normal mode. The difference between the two is that in update mode, the cache isn't opened prior to performing the refresh.

Proposed solution:

Initialize the cache also in update mode.

https://gitlab.com/linuxmint/pins/mint/synaptic/-/commit/7477fb52b03b95695110216fe61b30aa00524ae9

Hello,

Recently, I have tried to install an application via Synaptic Package Manager running in PCLinuxOS which uses Trinity Desktop Environment out of the box.

I have overlooked the network connection which was suddenly shutdown by the system after the previous update and as I proceed
to installation of another package, the application immediately closed without prior notice. I have lately noticed that the network was
down and after reconnecting and reopening Synaptic, I was able to install my desired package again without problems.

I was able to reproduce the issue by disconnecting from the network and then installing any packages from Synaptic which I ran
at the command line to help trace the root cause. As the system had no internet again, Synaptic have closed again without prior notice and on the command line, I got "Segmentation Fault" which means the application has crashed for some reason if there's no internet and that's the only message printed on the terminal screen. Nothing else followed.

But based from what I've heard from others, clicking the "Reload" button doesn't have issues at all even if there's no internet connection as the application notifies via pop-up message that it cannot download the package and it continues to run upon dismissing the said pop-up.

In summary, these were the test cases tried:

1. No internet connection and then proceed to install package, Synaptic crashed due to segmentation fault.
2. No internet connection and then click reload button prior to installation, Synaptic didn't crashed as it continued to run with pop-up message that it cannot download the package.

Case 2 is okay as expected but case 1 is not supposed to happen as both requires internet connection.

Case 1 is reproducible on my laptop by simply disconnecting from the network and then proceed to installation of any packages via Synaptic. Even in this case, the application is supposed to exhibit the same behavior like in case 2.

If there's anything else you need, just let me know. I'll look forward to hearing from you soon.
Thank you.

I was trying to build the latest version tarball 0.83 within Ubuntu Precise 14.04. I got this error message:
In file included from pkg_acqfile.cc:24:0:
pkg_acqfile.h:23:18: error: ‘HashStringList’ has not been declared
HashStringList const &hsl,
^
pkg_acqfile.cc:50:32: error: ‘HashStringList’ has not been declared
HashStringList const &hsl,
^
make[4]: *** [pkg_acqfile.o] Error 1
Looking at file pkg_acqfile.h I understand that for the latest version of APT (>= 5) you perform a
#define pkgAcqFileSane pkgAcqFile
and everything works.
However when APT version is 4 something it looks like it's not working at all.
Do you have any insight on how to solve this situation ?
Your comment inside pkg_acqfile.h seems to indicate the problem is still pending ?

Hi there,

Apologies if this has been fixed in a later version - I can't tell because I can't find a current changelog, and there is no useful information associated with the tags.

If I tell synaptic to completely remove a package, and that package is a dependency of another package(s), I think the other packages should be marked for complete removal as well, as then one doesn't end up with loads of residual package config on the system.

Thoughts?

synaptic-0_84.es.po.gz

On windows 11, WSL2, tried to remove old clang versions and got:

synaptic was run as sudo.

Hi @mvo5 ,
I was looking through the sources and found this file.

Would that be useful if I'm translating it into French?
Ie: would that be incorporated to the Debian package and available for users with one of the FR locale?

If so, I'm fine to make a whole translation before the Buster freeze. I'd like to do so with a github PR.

Let me know.

Just received synaptic 0.91 from the Ubuntu 22.10 archives. The package list now looks like this:

I am not on a touchscreen or a phone. It’s insulting to only be able to gaze at six list items at any time by default. The icons on the left have been enlarged disproportionately to the rest of the UI, for seemingly no reason.

It would be nice with clickable hyperlinks in the package changelogs.

Example "* Fix build with gcc6. (Closes: #811857)" then that should be a link to the bug on Launchpad.
Or "Fix resolved failing to follow CNAMES for DNS stub replies (LP: #1647031)" then that could be a bug.

Email addresses of maintainers could also be clickable.

Hi there. Synaptic is by far the best package manager.
However. For the past decade, we've seen a huge increase in Snap, Flatpak and AppImages.
Because they're universal, distros will be relying on these more and more than they do APT.
My point is, I think it's time for Synaptic to expand its capabilities and add support for these package formats.
If anything, as optional addons. Because I do get why some people want nothing to do with these new formats.

This is in a virtualbox with an ubuntu 17 (most recent) client. A fresh install of unbuntu, installing synaptic from Software Center.

IF running synaptic from terminal....
terminal reports:
No protocol specified
Unable to init server: Could not connect: Connection refused

(synaptic:2866) Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: :0

When program crashed , I sent the error report. I don't have guest additions installed yet, so I can't copy and paste the error report.

As a user,
when opening "Settings --> Preferences",
I would like to be able to select which browser I use when I click "Visit Homepage" on a package's description pane.

Im a noob

I Was trying to guess a repository address / name.

Returned dialog window with "

E: Malformed entry 2 in list file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list (Suite)
E: The list of sources could not be read.
E: _cache->open() failed, please report.

"
Software manager also appears to hang on an error upon launch now.

Hi!

I'm learning some new things for me with static analysator and it reacted to synaptic cc files at lines /gtk/rgslideshow.cc:17 and /gtk/rgtaskswin.cc:132.

Possibly rgslideshow is missing a closedir

And rgtaskswin is missing a pclose

# apply distro specific patches if we have them
if [ -e debian/patches/00list.Ubuntu ]; then \
  cp debian/patches/00list.Ubuntu debian/patches/00list;\
  dpatch apply-all;\
fi;
applying patch 01_ubuntu_changelog to ./ ... failed.

As I see patch for common/rpackage.cc is too old, I tried to delete it and keep patch for common/rpackagestatus.cc, but I got the same error.

synaptic-0.84.3.es.po.gz

It is not possible to start synaptic from the menu icon, but it can be started from the command line. Does anyone know what the problem is? My ubuntu system version is
22.10, synaptic version is 0.91.2

As of June 1st, using the following APT LINE in Ubuntu Software Center

Failed to Download Repository Information
Details
W:Failed to fetch http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/precise/Release Unable to find expected entry 'security/source/Sources' in Release file (Wrong sources.list entry or malformed file)
, W:Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/precise/universe/binary-amd64/Packages 404 Not Found [IP: 91.189.88.152 80]
, W:Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/precise/universe/binary-i386/Packages 404 Not Found [IP: 91.189.88.152 80]
, E:Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

Somebody has been cleaning house in general a few weeks ago necessitating the use of:

APT LINE
deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main restricted universe multiverse

Sudo apt-get install synaptic yields the same result after changing the APT line.

It last worked on June 1, 2021. Thanks.

Hi
My screenshot shows blury/pixelated icon in alt+tab menu from KDE Plasma.
Set task switcher of KDE Plasma to "large icons"
open system settings > window management > task switcher
select "large icons" in the first drop down, apply your new setting
I use synaptic 0.83 on neon dev unstable distro.

When the software filter 'section' is selected. (section/status/origin/custom filters/search results/architecture)
Scrolled down to lower category. (games/graphics/any category where the window is scrolled)
When a software package is selected for install/removal the category window is scrolled back to the top of the list.
The category is still highlighted so the pkg list is not changed.
The category list must be scrolled down from the top of the list, so that the next category can be selected. Continue on to Local, Multiverse, Universe.

This glitch (feature) has been in the app for quite a while. Debian 8, Ubuntu 10.04 are the first times I noticed this behavior. It is in KDE and Gnome desktops. I dislike the mint mod, but can see the reason behind disabling update button. I love Synaptic and prefer it over the slow 'software discovery' app.

As we see, I do have apt-pkg headers installed, but configure's checking halts because the filee in question "cannot be compiled".
checking apt-pkg/configuration.h usability... no
checking apt-pkg/configuration.h presence... yes
configure: WARNING: apt-pkg/configuration.h: present but cannot be compiled
configure: WARNING: apt-pkg/configuration.h: check for missing prerequisite headers?
configure: WARNING: apt-pkg/configuration.h: see the Autoconf documentation
configure: WARNING: apt-pkg/configuration.h: section "Present But Cannot Be Compiled"
configure: WARNING: apt-pkg/configuration.h: proceeding with the compiler's result
checking for apt-pkg/configuration.h... no
configure: error: You need the apt-pkg headers installed to compile synaptic.

This is not an issue. Just a suggestion that I would like to see in Synaptic. I noticed recently that SparkyLinux Aptus has a button in the UI for AutoRemove Old Packages, which simply executes the command sudo apt autoremove. A very handy feature, which I would like to see added to the menu in Synaptic, where the Fix Broken Packages option is shown. I use the command frequently in the terminal, mainly because of the frequent kernel updates in Siduction, to unistall all but the last 2 kernels. I like using Synaptic to manually update the system. Excellent software on any Debian-based distro.

Yesterday, I've installed a Debian Buster for testing purpose. Synaptic version is 0.84.5 .

I've installed then the apt-xapian-index (version 0.49) which I expected would bring the "quick search" box like it did on Stretch. Unfortunately, it doesn't. Even after a reboot.

Two questions: has anything changed? can you reproduce this?

Nix is a awesome package manager who works on many linux distributions ! Bring a GUI like synaptic would be a nice experience.

It is strange,my PC is ubuntu 18.04 LTS.