praise! plus how to run synaptic (and others) from the menu

chexmix · posted: 2017-05-11 22:49

Hi all -

Last night I took a break from some final work on a class project and installed antiX 16 on my ca-2009 System76 netbook ... which had gotten abominably slow.

Huzzah! I love what I've found. It's light, bright, well assembled, and even includes by default many of the same lightweight apps I would have chosen if I had the brains to create a distro (CherryTree, geany, SpaceFM, etc).

But I do have a question ... I've done a bit of Googling but haven't found much of anything newer than, say 2012. I'm probably Googling badly.

The question: how do I get synaptic to work correctly from the menu entry? When I click on the icon, an"Enter the root password" dialog is spawned, as expected, but when I hit 'OK' after entering said root password, almost nothing happens. There _is_ a brief screen blip/flicker, but all is silent after that.

The same thing happens with the app metapackage-installer and -- I have to assume -- other apps that need root.

Is this by design? I don't mind typing 'synaptic' or -- even better -- apt-get commands at the CL, but it seems odd to have menu entries that don't work.

This is obviously a great project and I'm glad to have downloaded and installed it. This old netbook hums now.

Thanks,

Glenn

Shay · posted: 2017-05-11 23:47

The4 way I access synaptic
Select Control Center,
In left pane select system
Then select Manage Packages.
Enter password.

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$ su
Password: 
root@antix16:/home/jim# synaptic

That works also.

skidoo · posted: 2017-05-12 00:33

With the exception of one item which is launched via the ControlCenter (can't recall which, offhand),
any time an auth prompts you for a password, you are expected to supply YOUR password.
Even if the prompt explicitly states"root password" (I've seldom seen that), yes, use YOUR password.

FWIW, the mechanism is"sudo", and all user accounts are members of sudo group.
When launching a GUI app from a terminal prompt, rather than"sudo commandname" we should use"gksu commandname"
(graphical su) to ensure correct GTK theme is applied and other user-specific environmental variables are preserved.

chexmix · posted: 2017-05-12 00:37

Thanks for the reply

If I do CC -> System -> Manage Packages

and then enter root password, I get the same desktop 'blink' (followed by nothing) I get when choosing Synaptic from the main menu.

And yeah, I can enter su - and root pw and then 'synaptic' on the command line and it works, but why are there these GUI choices that ask me for my root password and then don't do anything? I feel like I must have missed a configuration step (?)

Glenn

chexmix · posted: 2017-05-12 00:39

skidoo wrote:With the exception of one item which is launched via the ControlCenter (can't recall which, offhand),
any time an auth prompts you for a password, you are expected to supply YOUR password.

AAAAHH!!!! __{{emoticon}}__

Thank you.

skidoo · posted: 2017-05-12 00:42

If I...
and then enter root password

How I typically launch synaptic:
Alt+F2, type synaptic, tick 'run as root'
At the authentication prompt: mypassword

rokytnji · posted: 2017-05-12 12:14

installed antiX 16 on my ca-2009 System76 netbook

Howdy and Welcome. Can you post a inxi report. As far as poor google searching is concerned.

Click the red text in my signature.

chexmix · posted: 2017-05-15 11:34

Thanks for the search tips! Here is the output of inxi -F:

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System:    Host: kapteyn Kernel: 4.4.10-antix.1-amd64-smp x86_64 (64 bit)
           Desktop: IceWM 1.3.12+mod+20170325.1
           Distro: antiX-16.1_x64-full Berta Cáceres 16 January 2017
Machine:   Device: laptop System: System76 product: Starling Netbok v: star5
           Mobo: System76 model: Starling Netbok v: star5
           BIOS: Phoenix v: 6.00 date: 06/02/2011
Battery    BAT0: charge: 36.3 Wh 100.0% condition: 36.3/44.0 Wh (82%)
           
CPU:       Dual core Intel Atom N570 (-HT-MCP-) cache: 512 KB 
           clock speeds: max: 1667 MHz 1: 1333 MHz 2: 1667 MHz
           3: 1000 MHz 4: 1000 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Atom Processor D4xx/D5xx/N4xx/N5xx Integrated Graphics Controller
           Display Server: X.Org 1.19.2 driver: intel
           Resolution: 1024x600@60.00hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Pineview M
           GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 13.0.6
Audio:     Card Intel NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel
           Sound: ALSA v: k4.4.10-antix.1-amd64-smp
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8191SEvB Wireless LAN Controller
           driver: rtl8192se
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: e0:91:53:3c:3b:19
           Card-2: JMicron JMC260 PCI Express Fast Ethernet Controller
           driver: jme
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: 00:90:f5:b7:b3:8d
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 500.1GB (7.9% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: Hitachi_HTS54505 size: 500.1GB
           ID-1: / size: 455G used: 33G (8%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 4.60GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda2
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 61.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 176 Uptime: 10:06 Memory: 658.8/1993.2MB
           Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.3.8

rokytnji · posted: 2017-05-15 21:54

Since we don't have a thanks button. Thanks for the readout.