search box in synaptic

[richard-g8jvm]

Hi
I know this has been answered before, but I haven't found it in a search

The search box thats on the second toolbar down from the top in synaptic, which utility/file/lib has to be loaded for that to appear.
The one which just searches on file name

thanks

[karlchen]

Hello, richard-g8jvm.

Is what you are missing actually the little edit box labelled "quick filter"?
This quick filter will only be displayed, provided the software package apt-xapian-index has been installed. By default, this will not be the case on Linux Mint 18 and higher (same as on Ubuntu 16.04 and higher).
In case it is really this quick filter which you want to use in Synaptic, you will have to install apt-xapian-index first.

• Close synaptic.
  Open a terminal window.
  Execute the 2 commands in the given order:

  Code: Select all

  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get install apt-xapian-index

• Launch Synaptic again.
  It is imaginable that apt-xapian-index has not finished rebuilding its index, when you open Synaptic. In this case the little edit box will be labelled "rebuilding index ..." Wait till the label reads "Quick filter". Then the quick filter can be used.

HTH,
Karl

[richard-g8jvm]

Many thanks Karl

[andyf]

Thanks, karlchen, I was going to open a new thread about this until I found this one.

Curiously, though, I've been using Mint for many years and I'm currently on Sonya 18.2 but I don't think I've ever explicitly installed apt-xapian-index before yet the quick filter has always been there.

However, this answers my last remaining question about Tara - upgrading next weekend!

[smurphos]

They took it out as a default package in 19 as it has apparently been implicated in causing performance issues. I've not noticed any since adding it back in,,,

[karlchen]

About apt-xapian-index being installed by default or not:
Actually, the software package apt-xapian-index was last installed by default on Mint 17.x (Ubuntu 14.04) and was absent by default starting with Mint 18.x (Ubuntu 16.04). Hence it also defaults to being absent on Mint 19 (Ubuntu 18.04).

About the load which update-apt-xapian-index causes:
Telling from my own observation:
update-apt-xapian-index can easily hog a complete CPU core, while it is updating the index files, which are needed in order to perform the quick filtering in Synaptic.
On my QuadCore this high CPU load on one core can be seen as well. But as the machine is powerful enough, the whole operation is completed within less than a minute. And as there are 3 more cores to do the work, update-apt-xapian-index does not really slow the machine down in a noticeable way.
On my understuffed Atom dual cores with hyperthreading, this is a bit different. Here update-apt-xapian-index will take several minutes to complete its work; and it will be noticeable that the machine is less responsive while update-apt-xapian-index hogs a CPU core.

[hemimaniac]

Hello, richard-g8jvm.

Is what you are missing actually the little edit box labelled "quick filter"?
This quick filter will only be displayed, provided the software package apt-xapian-index has been installed. By default, this will not be the case on Linux Mint 18 and higher (same as on Ubuntu 16.04 and higher).
In case it is really this quick filter which you want to use in Synaptic, you will have to install apt-xapian-index first.

• Close synaptic.
  Open a terminal window.
  Execute the 2 commands in the given order:

  Code: Select all

  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get install apt-xapian-index

• Launch Synaptic again.
  It is imaginable that apt-xapian-index has not finished rebuilding its index, when you open Synaptic. In this case the little edit box will be labelled "rebuilding index ..." Wait till the label reads "Quick filter". Then the quick filter can be used.

HTH,
Karl

Thankyou karlchen, the quick search missing was like loosing and old friend, worked perfect but I just had to run

Code: Select all

sudo update-apt-xapian-index -vf

to make it appear.

Thanks again