Synaptic suddenly won't start on Chimeara

bill.p · 2023-07-04 17:45:10

I've recently set up Devuan Chimeara on a new laptop. After some problems with Wifi, it was working well, including Synaptic. When I wanted to use it
today, it issues the usual request for my password, then fails to start. Running it from a root window brings up the following:
-------------------------------------
No protocol specified
Unable to init server: Could not connect: Connection refused
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
-------------------------------------
as far as I understand I'm still running with xorg, not Wayland. Certainly running ps shows xorg and not wayland.

Any ideas?

GlennW · 2023-07-04 19:06:38

Hi, I was getting the same error for a few days on Daedalus.

I think it lasted a week, but eventually began to work again.

I have no solution.

bill.p · 2023-07-05 12:40:08

I have discovered 'Packages' which does allow me to locate and install packages. I liked Synaptic as it allows you to search for suitable packages in a reasonable manner. Shame that it is not working, and if debian/devuan are moving over to Wayland then it seems it is doomed....

alexkemp · 2023-07-05 17:21:00

Synaptic 0.90.2

Tried just now, no problems (no update neither, because I update daily using a self-written script).

$ uname -a
Linux ng3 6.1.0-0.deb11.7-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.1.20-2~bpo11+1 (2023-04-23) x86_64 GNU/Linux
$ cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME="Devuan GNU/Linux 4 (chimaera)"
NAME="Devuan GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="4"
VERSION="4 (chimaera)"
VERSION_CODENAME="chimaera"
ID=devuan
ID_LIKE=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.devuan.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://devuan.org/os/community"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.devuan.org/"

$ apt search gtk | fgrep -i installed

# …
gir1.2-ayatanaappindicator3-0.1/stable,now 0.5.5-2+deb11u2 amd64 [installed,automatic]
gir1.2-gtk-3.0/stable,now 3.24.24-4+deb11u3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
gir1.2-gtksource-3.0/stable,now 3.24.11-2 amd64 [installed,automatic]
gir1.2-gtksource-4/stable,now 4.8.0-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
gir1.2-javascriptcoregtk-4.0/stable-security,stable-proposed-updates,now 2.40.2-1~deb11u1 amd64 [installed]
gir1.2-keybinder-3.0/stable,now 0.3.2-1.1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
gir1.2-pango-1.0/stable,now 1.46.2-3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
gir1.2-soup-2.4/stable,now 2.72.0-2 amd64 [installed,automatic]
gir1.2-webkit2-4.0/stable-security,stable-proposed-updates,now 2.40.2-1~deb11u1 amd64 [installed]
gksu/now 2.0.2-9+b1 amd64 [installed,local]
gpick/stable,now 0.2.6-1 amd64 [installed]
  spell-checking library for GTK+ applications - installed tests
gstreamer1.0-gtk3/stable-security,stable-proposed-updates,now 1.18.4-2+deb11u2 amd64 [installed,automatic]
gtk-update-icon-cache/stable,now 3.24.24-4+deb11u3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
gtk2-engines/stable,now 1:2.20.2-5 amd64 [installed,automatic]
gtk3-engines-xfce/now 3.2.0-4 amd64 [installed,local]
gtk3-nooverlayscrollbar/stable,now 7.0.1-5 all [installed,automatic]
# …

GlennW · 2023-07-05 22:01:15

At first I thought it may be caused by the gtk package(s) but it maybe a permission test.

Marjorie · 2023-07-05 22:59:03

From the user Desktop (I use Cinnamon) Synaptic is authorised to open a root graphics session (gtk) through pkexec (which is what pops up the authorisation requester) and behind that is polkit.
Might be worth having a look in /var/log/auth.log to see if it's throwing errors.

On my PC a recent synaptic session was logged in /var/log/auth.log like this:

Jul  3 17:33:18 grendel polkitd(authority=local): Operator of unix-session:1 successfully authenticated as unix-user:marjorie to gain ONE-SHOT authorization for action com.ubuntu.pkexec.synaptic for unix-process:13922:214554138 [/bin/sh /usr/bin/synaptic-pkexec] (owned by unix-user:marjorie)
Jul  3 17:33:18 grendel pkexec: pam_unix(polkit-1:session): session opened for user root(uid=0) by (uid=1000)
Jul  3 17:33:18 grendel pkexec[13925]: marjorie: Executing command [USER=root] [TTY=unknown] [CWD=/home/marjorie] [COMMAND=/usr/sbin/synaptic]

My software stack is:
Host: grendel
Kernel: 6.1.0-0.deb11.7-amd64 x86_64
compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1
Desktop: Cinnamon 4.8.6
tk: GTK 3.24.24
wm: muffin 4.8.1
dm: LightDM 1.26.0
Distro: Devuan GNU/Linux 4 (chimaera)

Last edited by Marjorie (2023-07-06 21:12:05)

chris2be8 · 2023-07-06 16:02:01

I found that if you try to run apt ... once you have started synaptic you get an error message about not being able to get a lock. That would probably cut both ways so trying to start synaptic while an apt job or similar is running would probably fail. And if the lock didn't get cleared when someting ended you might well get this effect.

But I can't remember details and I'm doing something to recover lost data from a faulty disk that I dare not risk interrupting so I can't experiment now. Try apt update and see if it works (that updates the system, but it should be safe). If that fails it might give out an informative message.

rolfie · 2023-07-06 17:05:38

@bill.p: Which configuration are you running? Haven't seen these kind of issues on my wife's PC running Chimaera, LightDM/Mate, openrc, up to date.
That problem isn't the lock, you get a clear message in that situation, no GTK related text.

swanson · 2023-07-06 19:12:17

Did you try

pkexec synaptic

?

golinux · 2023-07-06 20:03:28

I have a similar launcher in my Xfce panel:

synaptic-pkexec

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#1 2023-07-04 17:45:10

Synaptic suddenly won't start on Chimeara

#2 2023-07-04 19:06:38

Re: Synaptic suddenly won't start on Chimeara

#3 2023-07-05 12:40:08

Re: Synaptic suddenly won't start on Chimeara

#4 2023-07-05 17:21:00

Re: Synaptic suddenly won't start on Chimeara

#5 2023-07-05 22:01:15

Re: Synaptic suddenly won't start on Chimeara

#6 2023-07-05 22:59:03

Re: Synaptic suddenly won't start on Chimeara

#7 2023-07-06 16:02:01

Re: Synaptic suddenly won't start on Chimeara

#8 2023-07-06 17:05:38

Re: Synaptic suddenly won't start on Chimeara

#9 2023-07-06 19:12:17

Re: Synaptic suddenly won't start on Chimeara

#10 2023-07-06 20:03:28

Re: Synaptic suddenly won't start on Chimeara

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