Can't Boot Synaptic Package Manager in XFCE But MATE Does

[jimwg]

Greetings:

I don't know how related this is to my problem but after recently setting up Compiz and installing Wallch 4.0, I can't boot up Synaptic Package Manager in XFCE mode, but it does boot in MATE mode. Is there any way to repair this or must I uninstall Wallch even though I had it off in trying to boot Synaptic several times? It might have nothing to do with it either, but I updated Wallch from their Launchpad site via Terminal.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Jim in NYC

[yerc]

hi jim,

i would try running synaptic from terminal and watch for the messages that come up.
hopefully they'll provide a clue.

[jimwg]

hi jim,

i would try running synaptic from terminal and watch for the messages that come up.
hopefully they'll provide a clue.

Is there a way to do this? I get no such program error when I input Synapic Package Manager. Thanks.

No techie,
Jim in NYC

[cwsnyder]

Just type synaptic at the command prompt. It should be in your command search path, or Mate couldn't find it.

[jimwg]

Just type synaptic at the command prompt. It should be in your command search path, or Mate couldn't find it.

Okay, your suggestion works -- partially I guess. Synaptic does pop up but after a terminal screen asking me to do a password first instead of a desktop window like before. MATE is completely unaffected. It's getting Synaptic to run normally in XFCE that's my trouble. I wonder if it had anything to do with cut-pasting the Wallch download locations directly into a terminal as they suggested on Wallch Launchpad. Is there a way to re-install Synapatic to fix/replace whatever's broken?

As an aside, I just noticed that Compiz denies you of a top button bar in your apps and windows and also affects the panel toolbar like keeping Workspace Switcher from opening workspace panels. Happens in both XFCE and MATE. For me at least. If this is normal Compiz behavior I can't see how it can be that useful by hampering features so. I don't see this issue under search here so I guess it'll Google it later.

Thanks for your assist!

Jim in NYC

[cwsnyder]

In Mate, don't you have to enter your password before you can do any changes? If not, it is your Synaptic package in Mate which is broken. Synaptic makes changes in the system area which should not be possible to your regular user, but should only be done by root or those to whom root has decided to cede privileges. There is a method to run Synaptic as a regular user without sudo, described in this blog: http://helpdeskgeek.com/linux-tips/allo ... in-ubuntu/