SOLVED Synaptic not working

[ebvt]

Trying to update one of my laptops, using the panel icon, I get to the first synaptic page but it stays continuously greyed out with the "two spinning circles" cursor not stopping ever.  I then try to call synaptic from a konsole and I get the following error message:

(synaptic: 3919): libglade WARNING * * : could not look up stock id 'Preferences'
(synaptic: 3919): Gtk-CRITICAL * *: IA_gtk_widget_hide: assertion 'GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed

I've seen several other posts about a similar problem but not  this error message. So I did not take any actions yet. It is a fully updated (until two weeks ago) KDE4 system. Never had any problems with updating before. Now it does not respond to the package manager icon at all. Any suggestions?

Thanks

ebvt

[kjpetrie]

I think those messages are normal when starting Synaptic from the console.

[OMSkates]

Here is the output when I start synaptic from any terminal on any of the 4 PCLOS installs that I admin: 

Code: [Select]

(synaptic:4257): Gtk-CRITICAL **: IA__gtk_widget_hide: assertion `GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed
Its normal Synaptic then runs fine.

[ebvt]

omskates and kjpetrie, for my 2 other KDE4 comps your statements are absolutely correct, but not for the one in question. I just had another try, but this time it switched to the synaptic GUI,but that stayed greyed out as in the case when I try with the panel icon - nothing moves and nothing can be accessed with the cursor. I finally click  the top right X with the response "synaptic is not responding, do you want to terminate?". After I terminate, I can see that the konsole transaction never finished, i.e. no prompt at the end of the messages. So I am still stuck: neither icon nor konsole works

ebvt

I am at my wit's end about this behavior of synaptic. I tried the texstar guideline of "how to repair a corrupted rpm database" but it hangs on rebuilddb command, and I gave it 30 min to do its thing. Also, apt-get clean && apt-get autoclean make it hang up. Otherwise no change in behavior when I try to start from the konsole as per various posts or from the panel icon.
Equipment: Compaq laptop Athlon 3000+; NVIDIA GeForce 4400 Go;500MB Mem; 60GB HD         Any other suggestions, please?

ebvt

[ebvt]

Any other takers on this puzzle? Please see my edit in my previous post.

Thanks

ebvt

[Neal ManBear]

This is normal:

(synaptic:4257): Gtk-CRITICAL **: IA__gtk_widget_hide: assertion `GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed

This is not normally seen, as far as my experience goes --

(synaptic: 3919): libglade WARNING * * : could not look up stock id 'Preferences'

Have you made any modifications since installation? Installed any new themes?

[ebvt]

No, this is my wife's computer which she uses strictly for emailing and some web searches and short of updating I never mess with it for obvious reasons. After trying to update that last time I was just going to install the latest kernel, but none of this happened.

Thanks
ebvt

[Neal ManBear]

No, this is my wife's computer which she uses strictly for emailing and some web searches and short of updating I never mess with it for obvious reasons. After trying to update that last time I was just going to install the latest kernel, but none of this happened.

Thanks
ebvt

This is a 2010 install? Had you run aptupgrade on it? Which kernel do you have installed on it?

[Old-Polack]

ebvt:

In a terminal, as root, enter the following;

[root@localhost ~]# ls -l /var/lib/rpm                 <Enter>

Post your results.

[ebvt]

[peg@localhost ~]$ uname -a
Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.33.5-pclos1.bfs #1 SMP PREEMPT Sun May 30 02:37:14 CDT 2010 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
[peg@localhost ~]$ su
Password:
[root@localhost peg]# ls -l /var/lib/rpm
total 42168
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root     4096 Jul 12 11:12 alternatives/
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  5353472 Jul 11 09:31 Basenames
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    12288 Jul 11 09:30 Conflictname
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root        0 Sep 21  2010 __db.000
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    24576 Jul 30 13:48 __db.001
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   139264 Jul 30 13:48 __db.002
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   663552 Jul 30 13:48 __db.003
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  1409024 Jul 11 09:31 Dirnames
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  5320704 Jul 11 09:31 Filedigests
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root     4096 Jul 11 09:19 filetriggers/
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    32768 Jul 11 09:31 Group
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    49152 Jul 11 09:31 Installtid
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    86016 Jul 11 09:31 Name
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 28168192 Jul 11 09:31 Packages
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   667648 Jul 11 09:31 Providename
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   159744 Jul 11 09:31 Provideversion
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   577536 Jul 11 09:31 Requirename
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   290816 Jul 11 09:31 Requireversion
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   172032 Jul 11 09:31 Sha1header
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    86016 Jul 11 09:31 Sigmd5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    12288 Jul 11 09:28 Triggername
[root@localhost peg]#
It's a2010 installation, aptupgrade had NOT been run.

ebvt

[Old-Polack]

[peg@localhost ~]$ uname -a
Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.33.5-pclos1.bfs #1 SMP PREEMPT Sun May 30 02:37:14 CDT 2010 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
[peg@localhost ~]$ su
Password:
[root@localhost peg]# ls -l /var/lib/rpm
total 42168
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root     4096 Jul 12 11:12 alternatives/
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  5353472 Jul 11 09:31 Basenames
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    12288 Jul 11 09:30 Conflictname
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root        0 Sep 21  2010 __db.000
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    24576 Jul 30 13:48 __db.001
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   139264 Jul 30 13:48 __db.002
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   663552 Jul 30 13:48 __db.003
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  1409024 Jul 11 09:31 Dirnames
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  5320704 Jul 11 09:31 Filedigests
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root     4096 Jul 11 09:19 filetriggers/
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    32768 Jul 11 09:31 Group
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    49152 Jul 11 09:31 Installtid
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    86016 Jul 11 09:31 Name
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 28168192 Jul 11 09:31 Packages
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   667648 Jul 11 09:31 Providename
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   159744 Jul 11 09:31 Provideversion
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   577536 Jul 11 09:31 Requirename
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   290816 Jul 11 09:31 Requireversion
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   172032 Jul 11 09:31 Sha1header
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    86016 Jul 11 09:31 Sigmd5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    12288 Jul 11 09:28 Triggername
[root@localhost peg]#
It's a2010 installation, aptupgrade had NOT been run.

ebvt

OK, you have not yet upgraded apt and synaptic, so try this, in a terminal as root;

[root@localhost ~]# rm -f /var/lib/rpm/__db.*                         <Enter>

[root@localhost ~]#rpm -vv --rebuilddb                            <Enter>

The first command removes the corrupted database and the second then should be able to rebuild it properly.

Note: __db.* starts with two underscores, not one.

[Neal ManBear]

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,94949.0.html

If you fail to install and run aptupgrade, your Synaptic Packager Manager will eventually fail to run as the new file list created by the updated apt-get is not backward compatible with the old apt-get file list.

[ebvt]

OP, that double underscore certainly did the trick  - there was a lot of dbbuilding going on. One extra bloody underline kept me from doing the right thing. Everything is now totally up to date.

Neal I will download and install aptupgrade as soon as our company leaves.

Thank you so much

ebvt