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My synaptic package manager is not launching from the application menu but i can launch it from terminal with gksudo synaptic. I have tried several times but I can't launch it from the application menu.

The Launch command is synaptic-pkexec (this is accessed from the application menu editor).

Raja G
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  • There is not enough information in your question. Can you post the contents from synaptic launcher. It is located in /usr/share/applications.

    It is either synaptic-pkexec.desktop or synaptic.desktop (Not using Ubuntu now, so I cannot check)

    – Aleksandar Sep 09 '12 at 09:29
  • @Aleksandar Thanks for responding , i am not getting what you are saying .could you explain more ? – Raja G Sep 09 '12 at 09:31
  • Go to "Main menu" and see what the synaptic launcher command is. – To Do Sep 09 '12 at 09:33
  • @August, do what ToDo said. – Aleksandar Sep 09 '12 at 09:48
  • Yes, goto Main Menu and see what has changed in Synaptic Menu. – Naveen Sep 09 '12 at 12:28
  • Goto terminal and enter this command : alacarte The menu editor will come up. Locate Synaptic and click Properties Tell us what you have there... (It should be gksu synaptic as default) – Naveen Sep 10 '12 at 09:12
  • @ToDo Ok got it , please see the question now . – Raja G Sep 10 '12 at 15:00
  • @Naveen please see the question now – Raja G Sep 10 '12 at 15:00
  • You might try deleting the menu entry from alacarte. Log out and in again. Then see if Synaptic shows in Launcher just the same. There might be a duplicate that interfering somewhere. Then try adding it again if you do not find it. – To Do Sep 10 '12 at 16:00
  • Mine shows synaptic-pkexec in alacarte and it's working. – To Do Sep 10 '12 at 16:01
  • I too have the same problem. I recently have switched to ubuntu 13.10 and have completely unistalled windows. Now my problem is be it with synaptic, wine, vlc player, cairo dock, docky, they all gets downloaded and installed but when I try to launch them nothing opens up. Please help me with this as I'm unable to use my laptop except for browsing. Also please tell me the easiest way to install utorrent. Thank you Himanshu – hsharma7 Apr 19 '14 at 18:31

2 Answers2

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You can fix it by following:

  1. Open terminal (ctrl+alt+T) and execute:

    gksudo gedit /usr/share/applications/synaptic.desktop
    

    If gksudo is not installed, you can just install it. It's provided by the gksu Install gksu package.

    (Or you can run sudo -H gedit instead. But avoid sudo gedit).

  2. Change line Exec=synaptic-pkexec to Exec=gksudo synaptic.

  3. Save file and close text editor.

kubahaha
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  • It will allow you to easily launch synaptic, but wont remove bug. If you want to remove bug run pkexec --user root nautilus(in gnome). It should ask you for password and run file manager (nautilus) as root - write here, if it wont work. – kubahaha Sep 10 '12 at 16:52
  • hi +1 , but actually i did an aswer by mixing both of you guys i mean Naveen , To Do and yours . I have opened terminal and typed as alacarte and found synaptic , in its properties i have replaced that command with gksudo synaptic and that did the trick . Thank you both of you . – Raja G Sep 10 '12 at 18:46
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    @kubahaha I have exactly the same problem, synaptic-pkexec does not start. It asks for authentication and does nothing later. pkexec -- user root nautilus produces the same behaviour. The error is: `No protocol specified

    ** (nautilus:3040): WARNING **: Could not open X display

    (nautilus:3040): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display:` What could be wrong?

    – deshmukh Sep 04 '13 at 09:57
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    Use a policy kit http://askubuntu.com/a/450559/159431 – iyrin Apr 19 '15 at 18:53
  • it open to me a new document to edit. totally empty. I cannot do step 2. any tip ? – McLan Oct 27 '15 at 11:45
  • Are you sure you have synaptic installed properly? What is output of dpkg -L synaptic | grep /usr/share/applications/ – kubahaha Oct 31 '15 at 14:27
  • OMG. This is totally shocking, I mean I NEVER would expect such a thing from a Linux Stack Exchange answer... but instead of working, it pops up an incomprehensibly error message, that when I google for results, leads to Stack Exchange "answers" that instead of working only pop up more uncomprehensible errors that I have to google for, which leads to more non-working Stack Exchange answers! What are they odds???? (gedit:12034): Gtk-WARNING **: 03:40:27.778: cannot open display:

    Seriously, though, I miss the days when you could get answers on this site.

    – John Smith Nov 11 '23 at 11:46
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I encountered the same problem, while I was trying to set up a new IBus input method for my newly installed Lubuntu 12.04.

I resolved the problem by purging and re-installing the IBus package:

sudo apt-get remove --purge ibus
sudo apt-get install ibus

My Synaptic Package Manager now launches again, its application shortcut 'synaptic-pkexec' remains unchanged.

Katarina
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