Synaptic not launching on Ubuntu 17.10

Question

I just installed Ubuntu 17.10. Everything seems to be working quite okay, except that I'm unable to use Synaptic. I installed it with (apparently) no problems, but when I click its icon, nothing happens.

Trying from the terminal this is the error I get:

No protocol specified
Unable to init server: Could not connect: Connection refused
(synaptic:3572): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display:

Any idea what this means?

Thanks in advance for the support.

Other root applications are broken on Wayland too (see bug 1713313 and bug 1713311 ). — N0rbert, Oct 22 '17 at 10:36

score 20 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 27 '17 at 18:53

20

You can use Synaptic (or any other application that needs to run as root) under Wayland by first entering this command in the terminal:

xhost +si:localuser:root

edited Oct 27 '17 at 18:53

Emanuel Ângelo

3

answered Oct 11 '17 at 09:19

Foxtrot

201

That does not execute for me. I get this. xhost: unknown address family "si+" xhost: bad hostname "si+:localuser:root" – Cris Holdorph Oct 27 '17 at 02:58
@CrisHoldorph recheck your command. its +si . Paste the whole command line and return parameters if you need more help – Ganesh Krishnan Dec 21 '17 at 00:02

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 11 '17 at 07:31

8

You probably logged in using the default Wayland session. Wayland does not allow gui applications to run in superuser mode like Synaptic. If you really want to use this tool you have to login using the Xorg session.

answered Oct 11 '17 at 07:31

Panos Asproulis

96

I am already logged in using the Xorg session – Rarda Oct 11 '17 at 07:39
1

It is not about superuser access to desktop and other BS. You can't run graphical program from any other user not just root. Wayland developers simply didn't thought about multi user desktop environment and found an excuse that they care about security and root access. – ZAB Jan 07 '18 at 14:26

Synaptic not launching on Ubuntu 17.10

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